QF 6 inch /40 naval gun
| QF 6 inch 40 calibre naval gun Type 41 6-inch (152 mm)/40-caliber | |
|---|---|
| 300px Typical naval deck mounting. This shows an early long cartridge case for gunpowder propellant (upended at bottom left); later UK cases for cordite propellant were much shorter. A shell stands next to the cartridge. | |
| Type | Naval gun Coast defence gun |
| Place of origin | United Kingdom license-produced in Japan |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1892-1945 |
| Used by | Royal Navy Imperial Japanese Navy  Chile23x15px Italy 23x15px Argentina |
| Wars | Russo-Japanese War World War I |
| Production history | |
| Manufacturer | Elswick Ordnance Company Woolwich Arsenal |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 6.6 tons |
| Barrel length | 240 inches (6.096 m) bore |
| | |
| Shell | 100 pounds (45 kg) QF, separate cartridge and shell |
| Calibre | 6 inches (152.4 mm) |
| Elevation | -5 / +20 degrees |
| Traverse | +150 / -150 degrees |
| Rate of fire | 5-7 rounds per minute |
| Muzzle velocity | 2,154 feet per second (657 m/s)[1] 820 feet per second (250 m/s) for anti-submarine shells |
| Effective range | 10,000 yards (9,140 m) at 20°elevation; 15,000 yards (13,700 m) at 28°elevation |
The QF 6 inch 40 calibre naval gun was used by many United Kingdom-built warships around the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th century.
In UK service it was known as the QF 6 inch MK I, II, III guns. As the Type 41 6-inch (152 mm)/40-caliber naval gun it was used for pre-dreadnought battleships and armoured cruisers of the early Imperial Japanese Navy built in UK shipyards.
Contents
Design
These guns were developed to exploit the new Quick-Firing technology, which involved loading the propellant charge in a brass case with primer in its base. The brass case also sealed the breech, allowing a lighter mechanism. This was presumed to allow a faster rate of fire than the older "Breech Loading" system, where the propellant was loaded in cloth bags and then a separate friction or percussion tube fitted into the breech for firing. The QF principle had proved successful with the much smaller QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss and Nordenfelt QF 3 and 6 pounders from 1885 onwards.
The Mk I was an Elswick gun of built up construction. Mk II was built by Woolwich Arsenal and in 1891 became the first Royal Navy gun using the Armstrong wire-wound construction. The breech mechanisms were developed from the existing 6-inch (150 mm) BL mechanisms, but as it no longer had to provide obturation (sealing of the breech), the front was made coned rather than straight which allowed it to be swung round to the side before it was fully withdrawn, rather than having to be fully withdrawn before swinging to the side as with the BL gun.[2]. Mk III was built by Elswick and was similar to Mk I. All 3 Marks had the same dimensions and performance.
UK service
As the QF 6 inch Mk I, Mk II and Mk III, the gun was used as secondary armament of pre-dreadnoughts of the 1890s and cruisers to 1905. On the armoured cruisers of the Diadem, Powerful and Edgar classes they made up most of the armament, though the latter class carried two 9.2-inch (230 mm) guns as well. The pre-dreadnought battleships of the Royal Sovereign (including the turreted Hood), Centurion, Majestic and Canopus classes carried up to 12 guns.
The QF 6 inch fell out of favour, and the Royal Navy returned to BL guns in 1901 with the adoption of the BL 6 inch Mk VII.
Second Boer War land service
During the Second Boer War one gun was brought ashore from HMS Terrible in Natal in February 1900 at the request of General Buller[3], presumably[citation needed] in response to the failure at Colenso. It was mounted on an improvised field carriage by Captain Percy Scott and transported by rail to Chieveley, just south of Colenso. There it was manned by Royal Navy gunners to provide useful fire support for the British Army during the relief of Ladysmith. It is reported on 17 February to have fired from "Gun Hill" (a small kopje 2 two miles (3 km) north of Chieveley[4]) and knocked out a Boer gun at 16,500 yards (15,100 m), followed by a Boer searchlight, as Buller approached Ladysmith from the South East and pushed the Boers back towards the Tugela river.[5] On 26 February Lieutenant Burne reports firing from the same position on a Boer gun at 15,000 yards (14,000 m) at 28° elevation and falling 200 yards (180 m) short.[6] The 7 ton weight (compared to the 2 1/2 tons of the Boer 155 mm "Long Tom") meant that it was effectively immobile on the battlefield and could not be moved forward to shorten the range.
Two guns were also mounted on armoured trains, crewed by Royal Garrison Artillery men.[7]
Coast defence gun
From 1894 a number of guns were adapted for coast defence use, with the original 3-motion breeches replaced by modern single-motion breeches to increase the rate of fire, which designated them as "B" guns[2].
Nineteen guns were still active in the defence of the UK as at April 1918 : Jersey (2), Guernsey (2), Alderney (2), Shoeburyness (2), Blyth (2), Clyde Garrison (1), Mersey (2), Berehaven Garrison (Bantry Bay, Ireland) (6).[8]
World War I anti-aircraft gun
At least one gun is known to have been mounted by the Royal Navy on an improvised anti-aircraft mounting on a railway truck, defending the London docks during the First World War.[9]
Conversion to 8 inch (203 mm) howitzer
In World War I Britain urgently needed heavy artillery on the Western Front, and various obsolete 6-inch naval guns were converted to 8-inch howitzers. Sixty-three QF 6-inch Mk II guns were shortened, bored out to 8 inches (203 mm) and converted to BL type to produce the BL 8-inch howitzer Mk V.[10] Four entered service in December 1915 and 59 followed in 1916.[11]
The Type 41 naval gun was designed by Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, England as a slightly modified version of the Elswick Ordnance Company QF pattern 6-inch (150 mm) guns used on contemporary Royal Navy battleships. It was the standard secondary armament on early Japan battleships and the main battery on several classes of armoured cruisers.
The gun was officially designated as “Type 41” from the 41st year of the reign of Emperor Meiji on 25 December 1908. It was further re-designated in centimeters on 5 October 1917 as part of the standardization process for the Imperial Japanese Navy converting to the metric system.
The Type 41 6-inch (150 mm) gun fired a 100-pound (45.4 kg) shell with either an armour piercing, high explosive or general purpose warhead. An anti-submarine shell of 113-pound (51.3 kg) was developed and in service from 1943.
Surviving examples
- On board Japanese battleship Mikasa, Yokosuka, Japan
- A coast defence gun at Fort Desoto, Florida, USA.
See also
- 12px Media related to QF 6 inch /40 naval gun at Wikimedia Commons
- List of naval guns
Notes
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- Text Book of Gunnery, 1902. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE
- Tony Bridgland, "Field Gun Jack Versus the Boers: The Royal Navy in South Africa 1899-1900". Leo Cooper, 1998. ISBN 0 85052 580 2
- Brown, D. K. (2003). Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860-1905. Book Sales. ISBN 978-1-84067-529-2.
- Brown, D. K. (2003). The Grand Fleet: Warship Design and Development 1906-1922. Caxton Editions. p. 208. ISBN 978-1-84067-531-3.
- Lieutenant C. R. N. Burne R.N., With the Naval Brigade in Natal (1899-1900). London: Edward Arnold, 1902
- Dale Clarke, British Artillery 1914-1919. Heavy Artillery. Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2005 ISBN 1 84176 788 3
- General Sir Martin Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery : Forgotten Fronts and the Home Base 1914-18. London:The Royal Artillery Institution, 1988
- Gardiner, Robert (Ed.) and Lambert, Andrew (Ed.). Steam, Steel and Shellfire: The steam warship 1815-1905 - Conway's History of the Ship. Book Sales. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-78581-413-9.
- Major Darrell Hall, "THE NAVAL GUNS IN NATAL 1899-1902" The South African Military History Society Military History Journal - Vol 4 No 3, June 1978
- Hodges, Peter (1981). The Big Gun: Battleship Main Armament 1860-1945. United States Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870219170.
- I.V. Hogg & L.F. Thurston, British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914-1918. London: Ian Allan, 1972.
- Parkes, Oscar (1990). British Battleships. first published Seeley Service & Co, 1957, published United States Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-075-4.
- Admiral Percy Scott, "Fifty Years in the Royal Navy" published 1919
External links
- Range tables for Pattern W as used by Japan from Russo-Japanese War Research Society website
- Range tables for Pattern Z as used by Japan from Russo-Japanese War Research Society website
- DiGiulian, Tony. "Japanese 15.2 cm/40 (6") Type 41". NavWeaps.com.
Template:VictorianEraBritishNavalWeapons
Template:GreatWarBritishNavalWeapons- ↑ 2154 ft/second in British service firing 100 lb (45 kg) projectile, using 13 lb 4 oz (6.0 kg) Cordite size 30 propellant, at 60 °F (16 °C). 1,882 ft/s (574 m/s) using 27 lb 12 oz (12.6 kg) gunpowder propellant. From Text Book of Gunnery, 1902.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hogg & Thurston 1972, Page 140.
- ↑ Hall, D.D. (1978-06-03). "THE NAVAL GUNS IN NATAL 1899-1902". Military History Journal. The South African Military History Society. 4 (3). ISSN 0026-4016. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
- ↑ Burne 1902, Chapter II
- ↑ Bridgland 1998, Page 126-128
- ↑ Burne 1902 Chapter V
- ↑ Major D Hall, The South African Military History Society. Military History Journal - Vol 2 No 2 December 1971. "Guns in South Africa 1899-1902 Part III and IV"
- ↑ Farndale 1988, page 398 - 404
- ↑ Hogg & Thurston 1972, Page 206.
- ↑ Mk V howitzer used QF Mk II barrels converted to BL (total of 63). Details from Clarke 2005, page 34, and Tony DiGiulian's website Britain 6"/40 (15.2 cm) QF Marks I, II and III
- ↑ National Archives MUN5/373/9227
