20mm Gun Mount - Battleship North Carolina - Wilmington, NC
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 34° 14.190 W 077° 57.219
18S E 227950 N 3792326
This plaque mounted on the gun bulkhead, but guns are stationed at many points about the ship.
Waymark Code: WMPKYT
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 09/16/2015
Views: 4
County of marker: New Hanover County
Location of marker: USS North Carolina Rd., North Carolina Museum, Wilmington
Marker erected by: National Park Service
Generously funded by Hank and Terry Falkowski
Marker text:
20mm Gun Mount
This is a Swiss Oerlikon 20mm anti-aircraft gun. It was used to defend the ship against close range air attacks. It replaced the older, less effective .50 caliber machine guns.
The Battleship was designed in the 1930s to fight ships. She did not have a lot of anti-aircraft guns.
World War II started in Europe in 1939. The countries at war developed better and faster aircraft. The nited States Navy soon realized that our ships would need to add more anti-aircraft guns to protect themselves. This is why NORTH CAROLINA had 40 of these guns installed by December 1941. She later increased this numer to 48 by December 1944.
A crew of four men operated each gun. The gunner was strapped against the shoulder rests. He used a Mark 14 gun sight to track the target and fire the gun. The spotter assisted the gunner by changing the range setting on the sight. The trunnion operator raised and lowered the trunnion (the gun mount). The loader handled the drum-shaped 60-round magazines.
The loader could get ammunition from the ready service lockers (steel boxes) located behind the gun. There were also three clipping rooms full full of 20mm magazines (ammunition) for these guns. Three clipping room captains and eight ammunition handlers supplied the gun crews with the 20mm magazines.
Effective range: 2,000 yards
Rate of fire 450 rounds per minute
weight of projectile 3 pounds
gun crew 4 men
Visit Instructions:
1.) Only log the places you physically visit.
2.) Please submit a photo(s) taken by you of your visit to the location (non-copyrighted photos only). GPS photos are also accepted with the location in the background, and old vacation photos are accepted. If you are not able to provide a photo, then please describe your visit or give a story about the visit
3.) Please provide any additional information about the equipment you may have that is not listed in the waymark's description.