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Posted on 03/12/2004 3:36:30 AM PST by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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 1944 -1944 USS Mount Hood, a 13910-ton ammunition ship, was built at Wilmington, North Carolina, and converted for Naval service at Norfolk, Virginia. Commissioned in July 1944, she transited the Panama Canal in August and was assigned to the South Pacific area to provide ammunition to the fighting forces. On the morning of 10 November 1944, while she was moored at the Manus Naval Base, Admiralty Islands, Mount Hood's cargo of explosives detonated in a massive blast. The ship was utterly destroyed by the accident, which killed all those on board her. Damage and casualties were also inflicted on ships anchored as far as 2000 yards away. Personnel casualties on Mount Hood and on other vessels totalled 45 known dead, 327 missing and 371 injured.  Off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, 16 July 1944. She is painted in camouflage Measure 32, Design 18F. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.  Underway in Hampton Roads, Virginia, 6 August 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.  Explosion, 10 November 1944  The photograph was taken by a sailor from Spencer, West Virginia, who gave it to the donor. Donation of Admiral Felix B. Stump, 1963. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.  Photographed by a photographer of the 57th Construction Battalion, who had set up his camera to take pictures of the Battalion's camp. Note smoke trails left by fragments ejected by the explosion, and splashes at their impact points. Collection of Commander Lester B. Marx, Commanding Officer of the 57th C.B. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.  Note smoke trails left by fragments ejected by the explosion. Copied from the War Diary, Manus Naval Base, for November 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.  USS Mount Hood (AE-11) Explosion as seen from the Naval Supply Depot on Manus. Copied from the War Diary, Naval Base, Manus, for November 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.  Smoke cloud expanding, just after she exploded. Photographed by a photographer of the 57th Construction Battalion, who had set up his camera to take pictures of the Battalion's camp. Collection of Commander Lester B. Marx. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.  Salvage and rescue work underway on USS Mindanao (ARG-3) shortly after Mount Hood blew up about 350 yards away. Note heavy damage to Mindanao's hull and superstructure, including large holes from fragment impacts. View looks forward from alongside her port quarter. USS Mindanao had 180 crewmen killed and injured by this explosion. She was under repair until 21 December 1944. Small craft alongside or nearby include (from left) YPB-6 (probable identification), two LCVPs and YPB-7. Copied from the War Diary, Manus Naval Base, for November 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.  Four motor minesweepers (YMS) alongside the starboard side of USS Mindanao (ARG-3) shortly after Mount Hood blew up about 350 yards away from Mindanao's port side. These wooden minesweepers were protected from most of the direct force of the blast by Mindanao's hull, but received some damage. USS YMS-340 is second from the left. Note that her open bridge bulwarks have been blown down. Also note differing types of retracting accoustic "hammer box" mountings on the bows of these ships. Copied from the War Diary, Manus Naval Base, for November 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.  Damage to Quonset huts atop the barge YF-681 from concussion from the explosion that destroyed USS Mount Hood. The barge is alongside USS Argonne (AG-31), which was also damaged by the blast. Copied from the War Diary, Manus Naval Base, for November 1944. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.      |
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Air Power |
The Allied forces facing Japan in the Pacific War had a number of highly effective fast twin-engined light and medium bombers to choose from. Japan, however, lacked an equivalent aircraft until 1944, the year the Army's Ki-67 Hiryu first saw combat and the Navy received its first examples of the P1Y1 Ginga (Milky Way). Designed by the Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal and built primarily by Nakajima (with some examples made by Kawanishi), the sparkling performance of the prototype led the Navy to order it into production almost immediately. But the serviceability and reliability of the Ginga right off the production line was very low; thus, it wasn't formally accepted by the Navy until October 1944, and it saw no combat until the Okinawan campaign in 1945.
The Yokosuka Arsenal in 1940 began development of the Ginga to fulfill the requirements of a specification calling for a fast twin-engined bomber capable of making dive and torpedo bombing attacks. The specification was clearly influenced by the Junkers Ju 88 which was just entering combat in Europe, but the aircraft created by Tadanao Mitsuzi and Masao Yamana was no mere copy of the Ju 88. It was a cleanly designed twin-engined airplane with mid-mounted wings on a narrow fuselage of circular cross-section. The proposed engines were twin Nakajima Homare eighteen-cylinder air-cooled radials, which were then in the design stage. With a pair of Homares, the new aircraft was expected to reach a top speed of 345 mph at altitude, and as range was considered all-important for a Japanese land-based bomber, eight protected and six unprotected fuel tanks with a total capacity of 1,218 gallons were to be installed in the wings. Provision was also made for two underwing 48-gallon drop tanks, and oil tanks in each engine nacelle. But armor was restricted to a single 20mm plate behind the pilot's head. The proposed defensive armament was to be just two guns, one in the nose and the other in a flexible dorsal mount; by European/American standards, this was wholly inadequate, and the plane was expected to rely on its speed and maneuverability to escape interceptors. As for the offensive payload, one 1,764-lb. torpedo was to be carried semi-internally under the fuselage, or else two 1,102-lb. bombs were to be carried in the ventral bomb bay.
While the design of the Y-20, as the Imperial Navy designated the prototype, was proceeding, actual production of the new aircraft was assigned to Nakajima. When production of the G3M3 bomber (Nell) terminated as scheduled in February 1943 with the last five examples being rolled out of the Koizumi plant, the G3M3 assembly lines were swiftly dismantled to allow the Y-20 to be built in quantity. The first prototype, powered by a brace of Nakajima Homare 11 engines rated at 1,820 horsepower and driving three-bladed constant-speed propellers, was completed in August 1943. It made its first flight shortly afterward. Both the company's and the Navy's test pilots were enthusiastic about the new plane's high turn of speed and ease of handling in the air, but the ground crews-even the expert mechanics from Nakajima-complained bitterly about the Y-20's troublesome hydraulics and unreliable engines. Even with the favorable conditions obtained during the flight-testing program, the Y-20 was cursed with horrendous maintenance difficulties, and although ordered into production before all six prototypes were built and flown, its formal service acceptance was delayed for thirteen months. Thus, 453 examples were built in all that time, yet they sat idly by while the war situation deteriorated alarmingly for Japan.
During that thirteen-month period, a number of changes and simplifications were made on the assembly lines. The former curved windscreen was replaced by a flatter one incorporating a bulletproof panel, flat-headed rivets were used in the fuselage's construction instead of flush rivets, and the former collector-ring exhaust stacks were replaced by individual stacks to give thrust augmentation. Later production examples also differed from the prototype by having the slightly more powerful Homare 12 (1,825 hp) replacing the Homare 11 (the three-bladed propellers were retained throughout the craft's service life), and by fitting a fixed tailwheel in place of the former retractable one. The prototype Y-20 had a single 7.7mm machine gun in the nose and a 20mm cannon in the dorsal position, but production aircraft had a 20mm gun in the nose, and later, single or twin 13mm machine guns replaced the slow-firing 20mm cannon in the dorsal mount. Very late production aircraft, towards the end of the war, had air-to-surface search radar, and it was also planned to use the P1Y as a mother craft for the Ohka flying bomb, as will be related below.
Finally in October 1944, the Navy gave its blessing to the Y-20, and it became formally known as the P1Y1 Navy Bomber Ginga Model 11
Specifications:
Design Bureau: Dai-Ichi Kaigun Koku Gijitsusho
Manufacturer: Nakajima
Type: twin-engined medium bomber
Crew: three
Engine: two Nakajima NK9C Homare 11 eighteen-cylinder air-cooled radial engines, each rated at 1,820 hp
Allied Code Name: Frances
Performance :
cruising speed: 230 mph
Max speed: 340 mph at 19,355 feet
Max range: 3,338 miles
Service Ceiling: 30,840 feet
Dimensions:
wingspan: 65 feet, 7 inches
length: 49 feet, 2.5 inches
height: 14 feet, 1 inch
Weights: empty 16,017 lbs / loaded 23,149 lbs / maximum 29,762 lbs
Armaments:
one flexible 20-mm Type 99 cannon mounted in the nose;
one flexible rearward-firing 20-mm Type 99 cannon mounted in rear cockpit;
one 1,764 lb torpedo or up to 2,205 lbs of bombs 
Note marking on the plane. (must have been a capture)
LOL. I'm sorry, I just had to butt in on this post and to laugh at your comment. You are soooo patient yet so antsy. Someday I'll find the words to describe what seems to be a conflict of these two things I admire about you. ;-)
This is the USS MOUNT HOOD that came to Portland every year for the Rose Festival
USS MOUNT HOOD was the fourth ship in the KILAUEA class of ammunition ships and the second ship of the fleet to bear the name of the extinct volcano in the Cascade Mountain Range of Oregon. The "Good Hood" as it was called by the ships it served, was deployed to the Western Pacific for the first time on 27 April 1972, and has completed three war-time and thirteen peace-time cruises since that time. MOUNT HOOD was homeported in Concord, CA, and as of December 1999, she is held in reserve at Bremerton, Washington, and is designated a Naval Fleet Auxiliary.
I wish! :-)
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