WAR AT SEA: Scratch One T-34

Hitting a tank with a 16-in. shell from a battleship's main battery is something like potting a mouse with an elephant gun. It isn't often done—but when it is, there isn't much left of the mouse.

One night last week the 45,000-ton U.S. battleship Wisconsin (which relieved the New Jersey last month) lay off Korea's east coast, firing her secondary batteries of 5-in. guns in support of U.N. ground troops ashore. Finally came a call for heavier fire. The No. 2 turret crew swung into action and five 16-in. shells, weighing a ton apiece, whistled into the target area, 8,000 yards away.

Result: direct hits on two Communist gun emplacements, one T-34 tank. Said an observer: "With what's left of that baby [the tank], they can't even make carpet tacks."