worst External damage ever.

[Rockin Robbins]

I'm really curious to know how they knew the hole was from an 8" as opposed to a 5" shell.... It seems to be just guesswork to me. Of course the hole can be expected to be larger than the shell itself, but how MUCH larger? How firm is that ID of an 8" shell anyway?

Now, from the wording of the Polaris article, the identification of the surviving boat must have been made after the war upon consulting Japanese records. I would trust that more than the identification of the hole as being from a 50 caliber 8" gun. How in hades can they look at a hole and say the gun was 50 caliber? I've seen some black magic around here lately but nothing quite like that!

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

How in hades can they look at a hole and say the gun was 50 caliber? I've seen some black magic around here lately but nothing quite like that!

I was watching a cop show once, and as they looked at a corpse one of the fictional cops says "That was no .38. That was a .357 magnum. Look at that hole!"

My first thought was "Yep. That hole sure looks faster to me."

On the other hand, a quick look at Navweaps confirms that all Japanese 8" guns of WW2 were /50 caliber.