What blew up?

[bunyupp]

I’ve been watching “Victory at Sea” on YouTube. In episode 20 “Return of the Allies”, during a series of clips about Kamikaze attacks, there’s a massive explosion shown at the 14:27 minute mark that looks like a nuclear explosion! Was this an ammunition ship, or something else?
Thanks in advance.

[Ike_Witt]

Interesting. It does kind of look like the footage of the Bikini Atoll nuclear test, but the scale is much, much smaller. I would guess it was an ammo ship or an oiler.

[Atomic_Alex]

Wow, that’s a big explosion!

I too would be interested to know what was on the ship to make it go up like that.

[Slithy_Tove]

The white hot streamers are consistent with an explosion of white phosphorous.

[Gray_Ghost]

SS John Burke, a Liberty ship carrying munitions. Video of it. Thought it might have been USS Princeton, or USS Mt. Hood, but those were different gigantic explosions…

[Sauron]

There’s some dispute about which ships were sunk by kamikaze attacks, but at least one tanker (fuel oil) and three Liberty ships (used to carry ammo and other supplies) were victims. Either could have caused that explosion.

It’s worth noting that Liberty ships, when fully loaded, could carry enough explosives to equal a small nuclear bomb. I’d guess that was a Liberty ship.

Edit: Ninja’ed, and with a better answer, too. Dangit.

[GIGObuster]

From the Wikipedia article cited by Gray Ghost on the SS John Burke:

At about 0815 hrs, the first kamikaze appeared on the American ship’s radar, and orders were immediately given for the convoy to begin evasive maneuvering.[17] Through holes in the clouds, the Japanese pilots sighted the large American force as it steamed through calm seas South of Cebu and Bohol Islands. Finding the convoy without air cover, a group of six Japanese planes began their attack. One of the pilots, flying an Aichi D3A “Val”,[3] chose John Burke as his target. Diving through heavy anti-aircraft fire, the Japanese pilot had no intention of pulling out of his steep dive. At 1020, despite the damage to his aircraft, he crashed between Burke’s #2 and #3 cargo holds.[14]

A brief flash of fire was visible to most of the ships in the convoy, and for several seconds, only smoke could be seen bellowing from her hold. A few seconds later, a huge pillar of fire shot out of Burke’s cargo hold, followed by an immense cloud of white smoke.[17] Within seconds all eyes were drawn to Burke where an enormous fireball erupted as her entire cargo of munitions detonated, instantly destroying the ship and killing her crew of 40 Merchant Marine sailors and 28[18] or 29[19] armed guards. For several seconds, Burke was not visible under an enormous mushroom cloud of smoke, fire and explosions. Several ships nearby were damaged by the force of the blast and flying fragments.[17] The shock wave rocked the entire convoy, and several ships reported that they had been torpedoed. A US Army “FS” type ship just aft of Burke was severely damaged by the blast, sinking before it could be identified.[3] As the cloud of smoke cleared, nearby ships closed on Burke’s former position to search for survivors. It was soon clear that Burke, and all 68 men aboard her, were gone.

Think Texas City disaster or Halifax explosion levels, I think this incident is not as famous as it was one ship of many lost in the Pacific war.

[bunyupp]

Wow!! The full video of the explosion is truly amazing. Thank you for the link.

[Atomic_Alex]

@bunyupp

Wow!! The full video of the explosion is truly amazing. Thank you for the link.

It is rather impressive, at least you can say that for the men on board death would have been quick. :\

@GIGObuster

Think Texas City disaster or Halifax explosion levels, I think this incident is not as famous as it was one ship of many lost in the Pacific war.

I recall reading conspiracy theories about an early and secret US test of a nuclear device on a ship in a US port. I thought it was ludicrous then but that footage shows you really don’t need a nuclear weapon to cause such a massive explosion.