That must have been incredible!!! What were the firing ranges? Any pics of it you could put up, I bet every FReeper would love ‘em!
Firing range was from 20 miles out so there wasn’t anything to see other than the splashing near the target. Those guns were still quite loud across the water from 20 miles away.
The targets we towed at different distances from our ship depending on what was practicing. Planes fired about 300-500 yards off our fantail, ships about 2 miles.
Iowa’s bearing was off once so bad that they were landing 16” shells about 150 yards from our ship. I promise there was never a Captain run quicker to the bridge when that happened.