Never saw this clip before...yikes!!

[JohnDillworth]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMs4IJQVRYM

[Schanilec]

I've seen the clip before. I had always thought it to be the USS Mount Hood (AE-11) exploding at Seeadler harbor in the Admiralities.
I think the explosion is way to big for a destroyer, unless there was something highly explosive onboard.

[Schanilec]

Oops! Just did a little checking. She was a transport not a destroyer. That explains everything I've been wondering about. Ah, my over 20 year mystery is solved on that explosion. Thank you John.

[Terminus]

Ammunition ships do make for spectacular explosions. Wouldn't catch me in the same postal code as one.

[jeffk3510]

Ya, she was carrying ammo.

Agreed with Terminus....

Wow.

[tigercub]

never seen that one amazing!

Tigercub

[dr.hal]

Well that certainly underscores the big bang theory.... wow. It's hard to watch something like that and know that you are watching folks died, much like the Twin Towers....

Reminds me of that ammo ship that exploded in Halifax Harbor in 1917... Killed about 2000. And funny, the ship was the Mont Blanc! Maybe we shouldn't name ships after mountains????

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: dr.hal
Maybe we shouldn't name ships after mountains????

Volcanoes, no less! Unfortunately, they live up to their names on occasion...[:(]

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Ammunition ships do make for spectacular explosions. Wouldn't catch me in the same postal code as one.

T, you have a way with words.

[mike scholl 1]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Ammunition ships do make for spectacular explosions. Wouldn't catch me in the same postal code as one.

Problem is that without them your side is left with nothing but stones and clubs. But you have to respect the men who served aboard these "floating bombs".[&o]

[MikeS4269]

I spent four months working on one. I remember pulling into Pearl and having to draw concentric circles of "you will destroy this much if you go up" by percentages on the charts and being legally required to do so wherever we went. They tended to park us pretty far from anywhere if they could do so. Not sure it was worth the hazard pay you got, but I was young, and at the time, felt indestructible.

This video clip does bring it home just how dangerous those ships can be if properly stimulated.

[witpqs]

"stimulated" - now there's a clinical term! [:D]

[rustysi]

Wasn't there one or more that went up in a remote section of Pearl during the war, or was it just a fire and they were nervous. I seem to remember that they were allocated to an invasion force and were awaiting departure. Also, there was one that went up in the San Francisco Bay somewhere (was it Alameda), I forget more and more.

[MikeS4269]

It was the Port Chicago Naval Magazine just outside of San Francisco. It was made into a national monument.

http://www.nps.gov/poch/index.htm

MikeS

[tigercub]

Port Chicago yes that's the one I was thinking of total devastation of the port!


Tigercub

[Terminus]

It also became a racial incident.

[Terminus]

ORIGINAL: mike scholl 1

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Ammunition ships do make for spectacular explosions. Wouldn't catch me in the same postal code as one.

Problem is that without them your side is left with nothing but stones and clubs. But you have to respect the men who served aboard these "floating bombs".[&o]

The whole sailing around in boats and making war thing is unnatural anyway. I was a rifleman; flying and sailing to war isn't right.

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: Terminus


The whole sailing around in boats and making war thing is unnatural anyway. I was a rifleman; flying and sailing to war isn't right.

Ha! I was a sailor on a CV. It's the only way to wage war! [:'(]

[Schanilec]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Wasn't there one or more that went up in a remote section of Pearl during the war, or was it just a fire and they were nervous. I seem to remember that they were allocated to an invasion force and were awaiting departure. Also, there was one that went up in the San Francisco Bay somewhere (was it Alameda), I forget more and more.

I can't recall exactly, But I think it was an LST that went up at Pearl in one of the side bays taking out a couple of other LST's in the blast.

[Bobdina1]

It happened at West Loch and 163 personal died . http://www.uslst.org/archive_second_pearl_harbor.htm . They were the supply and ammo ships for the Marianas campaign .