Our first visit to Pearl Harbour was to tour the symbol of America's entry into WWII, the battleship Arizona. Yesterday we went for a second visit to tour the site of the formal end to WWII, the battleship Missouri.
I asked one of the volunteer guides about the wooden main deck of the Missouri. He replied that there were two reasons for the teak deck. Teak provided a good non-skid surface. Also, in the days before air conditioning an all-steel deck would have made conditions below extremely hot. However, the teak was laid on a layer of 3-inch steel. Farther down was a second layer of 9-inch steel. The idea was to avoid what happened to the Arizona: if an armor-piercing bomb found its target it would detonate before reaching the 9-inch layer.
She had 9 16-inch naval guns (6 forward, 3 aft) that could hurl 2,700 lb armor-piercing shells over 20 miles.
You can see a history of her at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Missouri_(BB-63)
The top photo shows the Arizona memorial half-way to the modern bridge connecting Oahu to Ford Island at the left.
The third photo is of the "surrender deck" where the document of unconditional surrender was signed by various representatives of the allies and Japan.
The circular plaque in the penultimate photo shows the actual spot of the surrender.
2 comments:
The Missouri is extremely interested. Thanks for sharing photos.
You seem very pleased to have a companion to show around Robert!!! Your Pearl Harbor photos are fascinating.
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