16-inch/50 Caliber Gun Mark VII - Mod No. 270L

Barrel #270L was the left gun of Turret 1 on USS Iowa from 1942 until 1954, firing in combat during World War II and the Korean War. The 16-inch Mark VII gun was 50 calibers long at 68 feet, weighed 237,110 pounds, and fired projectiles weighing from 1,900 to 2,700 pounds at different muzzle velocities depending on the shell and powder charge; with armor-piercing shells, its muzzle velocity was 2,500 feet per second and its range reached up to 24 miles. Built as a built-up gun of multiple components at the U.S. Naval Gun Factory in the Washington Navy Yard, it was the first Mark VII gun constructed there and was installed on USS Iowa at the New York Naval Shipyard in October 1942. After eleven years and two wars, its rifling had worn down, so it was removed, relined, and stored. In the 1980's it was moved to St. Juliens Creek Annex in Chesapeake, Virginia, to serve as a replacement barrel for worn 16-inch guns aboard the battleship, but after the battleships were decommissioned the barrels there were distributed to memorials, and in May 2023 Barrel #270L was moved to Fort Story. Iowa-class battleships carried three turrets with three guns each, able to fire a total weight of up to 24,300 pounds, with each gun using 660 pounds of propellant to fire a 16-inch shell; such projectiles could penetrate 30 feet of concrete and create a crater 50 feet wide and 20 feet deep. USS Iowa (BB-61), the lead ship of four 45,000-ton battleships, was ordered in July 1939, built at the New York Naval Shipyard beginning in June 1940, launched on August 27, 1942, and commissioned on February 22, 1943. It first served in the Atlantic against the threat posed by the German battleship Tirpitz in Norwegian waters and carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to and from Casablanca en route to the Tehran Conference in November and December 1943. Later transferred to the Pacific, it took part in the Marshall and Marianas Islands and Okinawa campaigns and was present at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, as Third Fleet flagship. After decommissioning in March 1949 and recommissioning for the Korean War, it served as Seventh Fleet flagship from April to October 1952 and conducted fire missions against North Korean supply lines and troop concentrations. Decommissioned again in February 1958 after Atlantic Fleet service from Naval Station Norfolk, it was modernized in the 1980's for the Cold War defense buildup and recommissioned in April 1984 with Norfolk as its home port. On April 19, 1989, an explosion and fire in gun turret number two killed 47 crew members. It was decommissioned for the last time in 1990, partially disassembled and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1995, reinstated from 1999 to 2006 under federal requirements to retain two Iowa-class battleships, and in 2011 was donated to the nonprofit Pacific Battleship Center before moving to the Port of Los Angeles in 2012, where it opened as the Battleship USS Iowa Museum.

Virginia Beach, Virginia · United States