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The Newcomb
had five 5 inch 38 caliber guns that were in-line down the middle of the
ship. This was the main battery of the ship. Each gun could fire independently
or could be controlled through main battery director. The rate of fire was
about 15 rounds a minute but experienced crews could squeeze out 24-30 rounds
but could not sustain that rate. These guns could be used for bombardment
of ship and shore, or anti aircraft. The effective range for this gun was
about 8 miles. Ammunition was passed up from the magazine into the upper
ammunition handling room where it would be placed on a hoist and sent into
the turret. It was taken off the hoist and placed on the slide where it
was then rammed into the breech, the breech would close, and using foot
pedals, the gunner would fire. When action was hot, a gunner may never release
the firing pedal standing wide open so that the gun fired the second it
was loaded! Photo courtesy of destroyers.org |
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The Newcomb
had 10 40mm machine guns. The Navy's standard AA gun. These were twin
mounts and are the most recognizable images of the war in the Pacific.
The two barrels took turns hammering away to an almost pom-pom rhythm.
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The Newcomb
had several 20mm machine guns that would be used for close range AA but
were also fired at the shore in support of landings. |
These
three weapons worked together to provide a lethal white-hot curtain of
lead against aircraft attacking the Newcomb or any other ship the Newcomb
was screening. Newcomb's crew members commented that if an attacking kamikaze
were far off in the distance you could hear the boom....boom....boom of
the five inch guns. As the plane grew closer the pom..pom..pom of the
40mm guns would start up. By the time you heard the chattering 20's running
wide open, you'd better have grabbed onto something and prepared for impact. |
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| Depth Charges |
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One
of the most exciting and skillful weapons of the Newcomb were her Depth
Charges. Depth Charges are bombs designed to cascade down on top of, next
to, below, or just near a submerged submarine then explode. The force
of the explosion creates an air pocket that pounds against the hull of
the sub and causes the hull to flex and bow. Mixed with the pressure of
the ocean, the hull fails. Sometimes the failure isn't enough to implode
the sub, but damages it so much that it must surface. K-Guns shot Charges
off the sides of the ship so as to disperse the field of ordinance. |
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After each
stack, the 586 had a table of 5 torpedo tubes. The table could rotate
360 degrees and would "spit" the torpedoes out into the water
using air where the torpedoes then propelled themselves at the target.
These were fired from atop the tubes. The shield in this photo would have
been on the rear tubes only as to protect the operating crew from the
muzzle blast of Gun #3. |
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