Pearl Harbor?

Question

I was told when pearl was attacked a few ships had just returned from manoevers and they were still loaded with practice rounds and had to fire them off before they could reload with live ammo has anyone else heard of this? perhaps someone that was there?

Answer 1

That is true-the ships had returned and were not unloaded so the sailors and civilians could have the weekend off. Really not common to keep large quantities of live ammunition on ships in harbor because if an accident happens it causes lots of death and destruction. Minimal amounts are kept on board and when going out then the ammo is transferred on from shore ammo supplies or through ship to ship replenishment. Nothing unusual about that. Same is true of aircraft, some ammo and weapons are available and may be loaded on ready/alert aircraft but most of the munitions are in storage bunkers to minimize the chances of an accident.

Answer 2

even if they had "practice rounds" in them it would only take about 8 to 10 seconds for them to empty out the clips and 8 seconds to reload.. most of the ships with anti aircraft weaponry were in port and on a Sunday morning many were on weekend leave so when they minimal men to man the battle stations. Remember they really did have a Black Mess cook that had no training what so ever with anti aircraft weapons and he was able to take out a jap or two. He tragically died at the age of 44 serving on board an aircraft carrier. I am pretty sure the "practice round" urban legend is false, when we conducted target practice we used live rounds. Lets just wait and see what other answers you receive as I am just going by memory and what I know.. I am by no means an expert on this subject

Answer 3

It was in fact a quiet Sunday morning when the attack went in, most of the crews were either sleeping or attending mass on the deck of some of the bigger ships, many were on weekend pass from the various locations.

As its not a standard drill to leave any type of practise ammo in any guns after an exercise I would say this is another Urban myth.

A well trained gun crew would be able to remove practise ammo in seconds, but as it was a surprise attack on a country at peace that's what did the real damage.

Why would you fire off something that would do no damage to an enemy???

Answer 4

There was a scheduled fleet maneuver for the next week. The battleships' fuel tanks were topped off for this and it would explain the practice rounds.

Answer 5

I wasn't there, but with the stacking system of rounds on naval guns it sounds feasible this is true. In order to get live rounds to the breach, the quickest way to get dummy rounds out of the way is by firing them off.

Answer 6

All Roosevelt fault, he wanted this war, by defaulting the Japanese Government