Naval Guns Museum in Viña del Mar, Chile

[tocaff]

Thanks.

[Feltan]

Great pics -- thanks.

It is a good reminder. I often catch myself looking at a ship's weapons in WITPAE, and commenting to myself "oh, it only has some crappy 40mm AA guns." When you look at pictures like this, it is a reminder that those "crappy" weapon systems are substantial pieces of hardware that represented the pinnacle of technology at the time they were deployed.

Regards,
Feltan

[Maglio]

Thanks for the comments

One of the Brooklyns was in service up to the late 80s
The Sumner up to the early 80s
And the ATAs and ATF up to the mid 90s.

I manned and fired as a cadet and young ensing the Oerlykon 20/80 mm, Boffors 40/56 mm, 5/25, 3/50 and 5/38 inches (not displayed in the museum) guns either on board or on shore installations in the early 90s it was noisy and fun, altough misiles were more fancy by then.

[castor troy]

Maglio, thanks for posting these pics. Two things I've learnt today, never expected Chile having had a BB nor having a Tsunami Warning System

[Symon]

Great stuff Maglio.

Where are you in Chile? I go there often. I have a retirement place East of Puerto Varas on Lago Llanquihue.

JWE

[Maglio]

ORIGINAL: castor troy

Maglio, thanks for posting these pics. Two things I've learnt today, never expected Chile having had a BB nor having a Tsunami Warning System

Well, we had our own armaments race with Argentina and Brasil in the early 1900s, Brasil got 2, argentina 2 and we purchased 2 but WW1 sarted before ours were delivered.

The first one was nearly completition and was requisioned by the UK and fought on WW1 as HMS Canada and was returned to chile after the war and named Almirante Latorre it was in service up to the mid 1950s and was modernised in the Uk in the late 1930s.

The second one was completed as HMS Eagle, and I thing you know the rest of her history. As a compensation for the late delivery and the second BB, the UK gave us 4 DDs and 4 O Type SS that were in service untill the arrival of the surplus USN ships in the late 1940s and early 1950s.


BTW sorry by the awfull spelling, as you are aware I´m not native in engish.

[Maglio]

ORIGINAL: Symon

Great stuff Maglio.

Where are you in Chile? I go there often. I have a retirement place East of Puerto Varas on Lago Llanquihue.

JWE

I live in Viña del Mar actually, the shore road were the museum is located is our standard week end walk with the familly.

[Maglio]

ORIGINAL: castor troy

Maglio, thanks for posting these pics. Two things I've learnt today, never expected Chile having had a BB nor having a Tsunami Warning System

Regarding the tsunami warning system, well I must say that our last big one was in 2010, more than 400 people died plus arround 150 more due to the earthquaque.

If you know anything about my country you must know that we got the bigest measured aerthquaque in modern times 9,2 in 1960 in the city of Valdivia and since we have a pretty strict construction code, It is surprising to me how few people died and how the infrasetructure of the country resisted the quaque of 2010, as tragic as the event was.

[kaleun]

Great pictures. Thanks for posting.

[rustysi]

Nice pics Maglio thanks for the post.

BTW sorry by the awfull spelling, as you are aware I´m not native in engish.

No need to apologize for your spelling, its probably better than mine and English IS my native language.

[John 3rd]

Very COOL pictures and glad you have the kids out seeing this sort of thing.

[Cribtop]

Just went and read up on the War of the Pacific. Very interesting stuff and a bit of history I was not aware of. Interesting naval engagements with ironclads and wooden ships as well.

[Maglio]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Very COOL pictures and glad you have the kids out seeing this sort of thing.

Part of the parenting and teaching, they need to know our history in order to not repeat it, as the phrase goes.

[Maglio]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Just went and read up on the War of the Pacific. Very interesting stuff and a bit of history I was not aware of. Interesting naval engagements with ironclads and wooden ships as well.

Yup, quite a lot of first there, however the most interesting, of course afther the combat of Iquique, is the debarkment of Pisagua on Nov 1879: Carrefull planing, Intelligence gathering, waiting for sea supremacy, shore bombardment, coastal defences neutralization, beach reconaisance, joint army, navy and marines (Yes we got those by then) landing, beachmaster organization, logistics for several phases, and several others.

[Jellicoe]

Canada/Latorre was a lovely ship with that classic british dreadnought look. Shame you weren't able to hold onto any of her 14inch pieces to go with those other great pictures.

I believe that in early 42 Chile was approached by the US for the hire/purchase of Latorre and some destroyers. Would be nice to see them appear in a Babes or Reluctant Admiral mod!

[Maglio]

ORIGINAL: Jellicoe

Canada/Latorre was a lovely ship with that classic british dreadnought look. Shame you weren't able to hold onto any of her 14inch pieces to go with those other great pictures.

I believe that in early 42 Chile was approached by the US for the hire/purchase of Latorre and some destroyers. Would be nice to see them appear in a Babes or Reluctant Admiral mod!

You are right!!! [:D] , but since our own relations with the government of General Perón in Argentina weren´t quite good by then we did not agree.

Chile broke diplomatic relations with the axis nations on January 19th, 1943 and by June we comenced to receive Land Lease Equipment, mainly some PBYs, OS2U, trainers and M-3 Stuart and 105mm Guns. After long deliberations our congress finally agreed to the declaration of war on April 12th, 1945.

Our participation during the war was mainly patrollyng our own LOOOOOOOONG shore line and islands (Easter Island is part of Chile).

However, some people volunteerd, including some female pilots, and enlisted on the RAF and as officers in the USN and USAAF.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: Maglio

Slightly off topic, these are my kids on one of the 6 in secondary mounts of our beloved BB Almirante Latorre that served in the Home Fleet at Jutland as HMS Canada.

Do you have a license to have cute kids? That's a very serious infraction if you don't.

[Maglio]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

ORIGINAL: Maglio

Slightly off topic, these are my kids on one of the 6 in secondary mounts of our beloved BB Almirante Latorre that served in the Home Fleet at Jutland as HMS Canada.

Do you have a license to have cute kids? That's a very serious infraction if you don't.

Thanks, of course they got if from their mother[:D]
[:D][:D]

[kbfchicago]

Thanks for sharing both the pictures and the history. Play many games, have many hobbies, but this is the only forum. Love this forum and its members...learn something every day!

[oldman45]

Thanks for sharing those pictures!

Your spelling is better than my two teenagers....