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Mrs. Peel

Got a spare 20mm cannon? You're needed...

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Our own Battleship New Jersey in Camden, NJ is looking for some specific 20 mm cannon parts to complete their display.

Hey, I figured you never know what some of you folks might have squirreled away... ;) 

http://www.guns.com/2017/09/07/battleship-new-jersey-museum-scouring-the-globe-to-complete-their-20mm-cannon/ 

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I took Boy Scouts (including my Eagle Scout) to the USS Massachusetts years ago.  She's a museum at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Mass.  She's got several 20mm Oerlikon cannons both fore & aft.  The museum at Annapolis has them too.  Museums share stuff & swap stuff all the time.  The article is more of a "Puff Piece" aka AD than it is a factual story...

Oerlikon is this video clip.  

 

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Time was when you could buy a 20 mm Lahti Anti-Tank rifle. NJ's own Val Forgett of Navy Arms used to sell them as surplus - until the GCA of 1968. I worked with a guy that was a former ATF agent and Navy Arms had to track down every one they sold. The rifle was also featured in the Clint Eastwood movie "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot".

Adios,

Pizza Bob

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8 hours ago, Smokin .50 said:

I took Boy Scouts (including my Eagle Scout) to the USS Massachusetts years ago.  She's a museum at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Mass.  She's got several 20mm Oerlikon cannons both fore & aft.  The museum at Annapolis has them too.  Museums share stuff & swap stuff all the time.  The article is more of a "Puff Piece" aka AD than it is a factual story...

Oerlikon is this video clip.  

 

I took a trip there with my Boy Scout troop too when I was in HS.  Stayed there overnight.  Was awesome!  And yes, I remember getting to see and touch and play around with the 20mm Oerlikon on deck!

 

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39 minutes ago, Krdshrk said:

I took a trip there with my Boy Scout troop too when I was in HS.  Stayed there overnight.  Was awesome!  And yes, I remember getting to see and touch and play around with the 20mm Oerlikon on deck!

 

We slept on BB-59 as well.  Racks were 4 or 5 high.  Scouts & parents both LOVED it!  Toured the #3 Turret & got to play with the fire control station "computer" & see the entire workings of the turret including periscope & the loading cradle.  Most folks don't realize that the South Dakota Class 16" rifles were .45 caliber, slightly smaller than the .50 caliber rifles found on the larger Iowa Class.  The huge framed photo on board the museum showing 2 salvos of her 16" shells IN THE AIR as the 3rd salvo leaves the muzzle is to me a fine example of early 20th century technology & capability as well as great photography by a seaman with a singe-shot 4" x 5" Speed Graphic! 

Other interesting exhibits included the Sub, the Tin Can (Joseph P. Kennedy, named after JFK's brother killed in a sort of "friendly fire incident" while testing new technology by piloting a drone loaded with high explosives to blow-up German V-2 rocket launching sites), PT Boat & Higgins Boat.  The Joey P was also the only ship to board a Russian vessel during the  "quarantine" known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.  We toured them all.  I'd like to go back some day & do it all over again :)  

OOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!   OOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

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