Thanks Rich and CSX Al!
Another clue to the 5"-gun-as-anti-aircraft-system question is their high-angle ability.
The 5" guns can point almost straight up (85°) which would only be to shoot at aircraft. Any more vertical and they risk the shells falling right back on their heads, although the 40mm Bofors could elevate to 90 degrees. They were often referred to as 5"/38 high-angle guns. The 38 is the caliber. In artillery sense "caliber" is the multiplier of the bore diameter to get the length of the barrel. The 16" gun turrets on all US WW2 battleships were very similar, however the Iowa's were 16"/50 caliber, whereas the South Dakota class' (for example) were 16"/45. Like in good hunting rifles, the longer the bore the greater the muzzle velocity and the higher the accuracy. So if you multiply 16 X 50 = 66'. That's 16.5" in our favorite scale 1:48. These are really big guns!
And with that I promise to get back to talking about just trains. However, most of us mechanically-inclined hobbyists, we tend to be interested in anything that floats, rolls or flies.
