Battleship crew

[Horace Bachelor]

On a 15 inch battleship (QE class for example), how many men did it take to man the turrets, magazines, shellrooms, engine room, boiler room etc whilst in action?

Also how many stokers would there have been on a coal fired dreadnought?

I've never seen these figures in print except for one reference somewhere that 100 men manned a turret. This seems a bit high. Presumably they weren't all in the gunhouse. It would have been a tad overcrowded.

Cheers,

Rich.

[Yorts]

Rich,

The Battleship USS Texas had a turret crew of seventy men to man each pair of 14" guns. She could fire 1.5 rpm. The USS New Jersey in the 1980s still required a turret crew of approximately eighty men, and USS Iowa a seventy-seven minimum, so the figure appears approximately consistant at around 70-80 men for a battleship turret.

hope this helps,

Alex.

[Horace Bachelor]

Alex

Thanks for your reply. I wonder if the numbers you quote include men involved in ammunition handling below decks. I still can't immagine there would be room in the actual turret for those numbers and also, what would they all be doing, bearing in mind all the loading was done mechanically.

Cheers,

Rich.

[Yorts]

Hi,

This number includes the entire turrets crew, not just those in the gun house (i.e. the part of the turret above the deck. In addition to the crews here manning each of the guns you have a crew in the ammunition ready room, two crews in the lower and upper projectile flats, a crew in the powder handling room and a crew in the ammunition handling room moving the rounds out of the magazine. I'm aware that each ship was different, but most had a similar design within reason.

Bear in mind that despite mechanisation, a lot of the procedures were still done by brute force. Multiple propellant bags were often used, as each one had to be capable of being lifted by a man for loading into the ram and handling in the ready room etc. Hoists were used, but you had to manouvre the ammunition by hand on some types of hoist to get it into the correct position to engage other parts of the mechanisim, e.g. the ram. Additional numbers were needed for command and control etc. plus a certain surplus in the event of a casualty. In German vessels some of the gun crew were employed simply in clearing out empty ammunition cannisters through holes in the turret onto the gun deck.

Also, numerous crew were used for speed. One man could do three or four activities in sequence, but of course its a lot faster if one man pulls lever A at the correct time, one man pushes button B. Rounds per minute could mean the difference between life and death.

Rgds,

Alex.

[Horace Bachelor]

Hi Alex,

Very informative. I was discussing this subject with a work colleague and he's lent me a book entitled The Big Gun (Peter Hodges, Conway 1981) which is an absolute mine of information.

Here's a list of the crew of a 15in Mk I mounting.

Captain of turret 1

Second captain of turret 1

Gunlayers 2

Turret trainer 1

Sight setters 3

Phoneman 1

Two gun crews 12

FCB (?) operators 2

Cordite handling room 11

Shell handling room 13

Shell room 16

Magazine 20

Total 83

Thanks for your help Alex.

Cheers

Rich.

[Yorts]

FCB - Fire Control Board? I believe this indicated to the bridge what the status of each gun was. This makes sense with one operator relaying the situation of each gun. A system of knobs set by the operator indicated the elevation of each gun on a dial on the bridge, various dials and knobs showing the loading status of the gun, bearing, elevation etc.

Rgds,

Alex.