The B12 (XII) Forum, home of the 'Front Porch, y'all' at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I was idly pondering naval gunnery when I chanced across that photo of the USS Anzio.  A BB wouldn't list as much, but it would be a factor, along with a hundred other things.  The "computers" they used to site the guns were fascinating to me.  The USS Washington is said to have had hits in the Kirishima out of 79 fired, at night, at about 10,000 yards.

[img width=500 height=395.994]https://i.imgur.com/wBjpk2T.png[/img]

I guess that being able to stand upright while your smallish ship is rolling to 25+ degrees is called having "sea legs." I'm not sure I see any railings to catch a sailor who had lost his footing.

I'll take your word on that, Fearless!

Re camouflage against submarine-observation:

Measure 13

Haze Gray (5-H) overall, with horizontal surfaces Deck Blue. This was the least used solid color measure during World War II. "Low visibility to surface observers in hazy or foggy weather especially when it is accompanied with periods of weak sunlight... Useful in submarine infested areas, where periscopic observers will see a vessel entirely against a sky background. High visibility under searchlight, and down-moon at close ranges. Very low visibility on moonless nights and at twilight" [18] This was found to provide reasonable protection in the widest range of conditions, and became a standard paint scheme after the war under assumed conditions of radar observation, with Deck Gray substituted for Deck Blue.[6]

looks more like a ferry

Ferrying aircraft from Point A to Point B was the first role the US Navy saw for escort carriers.
But that is a flight deck that those airplanes are parked upon.
I doubt that any of them flew off that deck when the ship reached its destination.

that's what I'm talkin bout, Willis

No, John Wayne invented escort carriers in The Wings of Eagles.

“carrier vessel escorts,” or CVEs

That's the first I've seen that explanation of what the letters in "CVE" mean.


I's my understanding that the "V" is the USN's symbol for "heavier than air aviation," hence the airplane squadron nomenclatures "VF" for fighters, "VA" for attack aircraft, "VB" for bombers, etc. Those designations do not depend on those squadrons operating from carriers.

And the Font of All Wisdom and Knowledge supports what I was thinking that I knew:

Contrary to popular belief, the "CV" hull classification symbol does not stand for "carrier vessel". "CV" derives from the cruiser designation, with one popular theory that the V comes from French voler, "to fly", but this has never been definitively proven.^[9][10] The V has long been used by the U.S. Navy for heavier-than-air craft and possibly comes from the French volplane.^[11][12] Aircraft carriers are designated in two sequences: the first sequence runs from CV-1 USS Langley to the very latest ships, and the second sequence, "CVE" for escort carriers, ran from CVE-1 Long Island to CVE-127 Okinawa before being discontinued.

So, it appears that Air & Space Magazine got it wrong. Not for the first time, and almost certainly not for the last time.