page_title: North Carolina-class battleship
section_title: Smaller weaponry
hierarchical_section_title: North Carolina-class battleship / Specifications / Armament / Smaller weaponry
caption_attribution_description: Bofors 40&#160;mm anti-aircraft guns on a Mk 12 quadruple mount firing on board USS Hornet (CV-12), circa February 1945, probably during gunnery practice. The original picture caption identifies the photo as having been taken during Task Force 58's raid on Japan, 16 February 1945. However, helmetless members of the gun crew, and rolled up shirt sleeves, strongly indicate that the occasion was in warmer climes and not while in combat. View looks aft on the port side, with the carrier's port quarter 5"/38 guns just beyond the 40&#160;mm mount. Note ready-service ammunition and spent shell casings at right; men passing 4-round clips to loaders at left.[1][2]
context_page_description: The North Carolina class was a class of two fast battleships, North Carolina and Washington, built for the United States Navy in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Navy was originally uncertain whether the ships should be fast enough to counter the Japanese Kongō-class battlecruiser, which was believed by the United States to be capable of 26 kn, or should sacrifice speed for additional firepower and armor. The 1936 Second London Naval Treaty's requirement that all capital ships have a standard displacement of under 35,000 LT prevented the desired objectives from being fully realized within its limits, and the navy considered over fifty designs before one was chosen.
  Towards the end of this lengthy design period the General Board of the United States Navy declared its preference for a battleship with a speed of 30 knots, faster than any in US service or under construction, with a main battery of nine 14-inch /50 caliber Mark B guns. The board believed that such ships could fulfill a multitude of roles, as they would have enough protection to be put into a battle line while also having enough speed to escort aircraft carriers or engage in commerce raiding.
context_section_description: The remaining weaponry on board the two North Carolinas was composed of differing numbers of 1.1"/75 caliber guns, .50 caliber machine guns, Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannons. Although the ships were originally designed to carry only four quadruple 1.1 in and twelve .50 caliber, this was greatly increased and upgraded during the war.
  On both ships, two more quadruple sets of 1.1 in guns were added in place of two searchlights amidships. After she was torpedoed in 1942, North Carolina had these removed and ten quadruple sets of 40 mm guns added. Fourteen were present by June 1943, while a fifteenth mount was added on top of the third main turret that November. Washington retained its six 1.1 in quads until the middle of 1943, when ten quad 40 mm guns replaced them. By August, she had fifteen. The two ships carried these through to the close of the war.
  The .50 caliber machine guns did not have the range or power needed to combat modern aircraft and were scheduled for replacement by equal numbers of 20 mm guns, but nothing immediately came of the proposal. In fact, both North Carolina and Washington carried 20 mm and .50 caliber guns for most of 1942. In April, North Carolina had, respectively, forty and twelve, while Washington had twenty and twelve. Two months later, the number of 20 mm guns remained the same, but twelve .50 caliber guns had been added. By September, Washington had twenty more 20 mm guns added, for a total of forty, but five were removed—along with all of the .50 caliber guns—shortly thereafter when two quadruple sets of 1.1 in guns were added. In its refit after being torpedoed, North Carolina had an additional six 20 mm guns added and all of its .50 caliber weapons removed. Washington had sixty-four 20 mm weapons by April 1943, prior to one single mount being replaced by a quadruple mount, and North Carolina had fifty-three by March 1944. In April 1945, North Carolina was assigned to have fifty-six 20 mm, while Washington was assigned seventy-five. In August 1945, the ships both had eight twin 20 mm mounts; North Carolina also carried twenty single, while Washington carried one quad and sixty-three single.
caption: 40 mm Bofors guns aboard Hornet in 1945
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