[meteorite-list] Sikhote-Alin Impact Pits - Interesting Update

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2007 03:34:33 -0600
Message-ID: <0c7601c75f09$7bcec000$32ea8c46_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi, Jeff,

    This is a coastal defense gun, intended to be used
against approaching naval forces. The longest-range
coastal pieces were the two 12-inch guns of Batteries
Hearn and Smith, with a horizontal range of 29,000 yards.
Although capable of an all around traverse, these guns,
due to their flat trajectories, were not effective for use
against targets on Bataan, so that they could not be used
against the Japanese after they had occupied it!
    The gun in your photo is one of those two guns,
but I can't say whether it was Battery Hearn or Battery
Smith.
    The other 12-inch Batteries were mortars rather
than long-range guns. They brought the most destruction
on Japanese positions during the attempted landings on
the southwest coast of Bataan late in January to the
middle of February, 1942. These mortars were silenced
by enemy shelling in May, 1942.
    Battery Geary was a battery of six 13-ton, 12-inch
mortars. This battery, when pinpointed by the Japanese,
was subjected to heavy shelling. One direct hit by a
240 mm shell, which detonated the magazines of this
Battery in May 1942, proved to be the most crippling
shot during the entire siege of Corregidor. This shelling
tossed the mortars around, one to a distance of 150 yards,
another was blown through three feet of reinforced
concrete wall into the adjoining powder magazine of
Battery Crockett. Large chunks of steel were blown as
far as the Malinta Tunnel, while 27 of the battery crew
were killed instantly.


Sterling K. Webb
------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Kuyken" <info at meteorites.com.au>
To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 2:45 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Sikhote-Alin Impact Pits - Interesting Update


G'day all,

I received a very interesting email today from someone who had read through
my Sikhote-Alin Impact Pit page. They sent me a couple of photographs of a
large gun on Corregidor Island, Philippines which was damaged from a WW2
bomb. The resulting damage is unmistakably similar to the pits found on some
SA's. The pics are at the bottom of this page:

http://www.meteorites.com.au/features/impactpits.html

Comments welcome. Does anyone know what type/size of gun this is?

Cheers,

Jeff

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Received on Mon 05 Mar 2007 04:34:33 AM PST