Tour of Battleship Texas
FOX 26 Houston
[{'start': '4.637', 'end': '10.276', 'text': "The battleship Texas is being  restored in Galveston. And today  we got a tour. It's some pretty  cool stuff. Fox 26  photojournalist Darling Ferris  takes a closer look at this  historic ship that provided  support in the invasion of  Normandy. When we turn, we look  at these guns and these turrets  here. You have to imagine  exactly what was going on in  June 6th, the morning of the  crew had been up all night  getting the ship into position,  and once they made it to the  bombardment position at 5:50  a.m, it was ready and it was  time to get started. So from  5:50 a.m. To about 623, this  ship fired 255 rounds of these  things right here. These 14  inch, 45 caliber shells, we are  one of the last or the last  battleship that can tell the  story. And we want to make sure  we get it right and make sure we  really explore that history and  share it with everybody. Before  we have a lot of research that  went into this, a ton of  research. It's now available to  us, even online, that all went  into making these tours and  making sure we're giving the  most accurate and the accurate  information we can give to share  the story of this ship and as  well as its crew and all the men  that were on making sure that  that we liberated France in  1944, in order to get these guys  on the beach, they really needed  to be a giant floating artillery  platform. And that was Texas. So  we really need something that  could shoot downrange and  protect these guys by making the  Germans go into their bunkers  and hide and wait out the  bombardment force for  potentially get knocked out from  that. We have all these accounts  of these, these men and the  landing craft going ashore, and  they're saying they're hearing  these guns go off and they sound  like freight cars just passing  over their heads. And it  probably gave them a lot of  morale and confidence boost,  because they knew they had Texas  off the coast protecting them  along the way. All right. The  next stop is up there. All  right. So welcome to the ship's  pilot house. This is where the  ship was steered and commanded  from for a number of  engagements. So this is actually  the very space that commenced  firing was issued for the  invasion of Normandy around 144.  The ship receives its first hit  ever. The ship had never been  hit before in service, so 144  the shell comes in just  underneath us, hits the ship's  conning tower, which is an  armored citadel, and the  explosion goes right underneath  where I am standing, and just  shears all of the steel back.  There was a lot of broken feet.  Legs were sheared off. There was  a lot of a lot of a lot of  injuries from that explosion  that happened right in here.  It's a family activity to come  in and really learn about the  struggle these guys went through  in the life. They they, they  were experiencing here on the  ship. And we really want to make  sure that we are able to tell  the families about that and tell  these kids and future  generations of what happened on  the ship, why it's important.  And we really want everybody to  come"}]