I was inside a few of those double 5in mounts on the Massachusetts, pretty small confined places, smelled of salt and grease. Cannot imagine the horror of going into one after being struck.
Its a spam can, anyone inside would be just gone.
When I was little I had a model airplane building class. One of the old timers who taught it served in the Pacific on a PBY. He said one time they were coming back from a patrol an a couple Zero's found them and started chewing them up. The gunner next to him was green it was his first flight and instead of manning his .50 decided to hide behind a bulkhead. He yelled at the guy, "you *&^*(%* idiot its only 3/4 plywood you think its going to stop anything get on your ^%^&* gun!" He did and they made it.
