BL 9.2 inch Mk XI naval gun

BL 9.2 inch gun Mk XI

Agamemnon fires her 9.2-inch secondary guns at Ottoman Turkish forts at Sedd el Bahr on 4 March 1915
Type Naval gun
Place of origin United Kingdom
Service history
In service 1908 - 1920[1]
Used by United Kingdom
Wars World War I
Production history
Designer Vickers
Designed 1902[2]
Specifications
Weight 28 tons barrel & breech
Barrel length 38 ft 4 in (11.68 m) bore (50 cal)

Shell 380 pounds (172.4 kg) Lyddite, Armour-piercing, Shrapnel[3]
Calibre 9.2 inches (233.7 mm)
Muzzle velocity 2,875 ft/s (876 m/s)[4]

The BL 9.2 inch gun Mark XI[note 1] was a British 50 calibre high-velocity naval gun which was mounted as primary armament on armoured cruisers and secondary armament on pre-dreadnought battleships.

History

The gun with its increased length of 50 calibres was an attempt to extract a higher velocity, and hence more range and armour-piercing capability, from the 9.2 inch gun. Like other British 50-calibre guns of the period it was relatively unsuccessful, and was the last model of 9.2 inch gun Britain built.

Guns were mounted in the following ships :

After the scrapping of these ships, these guns and mountings were retained in storage. There was the intention, at one point, early during World War Two, to use them as armament for small monitors which would have been reduced versions of the Roberts-class monitors; this however never advanced beyond the planning stage.

See also

Notes

  1. Mark XI = Mark 11. Britain use Roman numerals to denote Marks (models) of ordnance until after World War II. Hence this was the eleventh model of BL 9.2 inch gun.

References

  1. 1908 - 1920 : Dates of commissioning and scrapping of the ships. The guns were not used again after removal.
  2. The National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew. SUPP 6/61
  3. 380 lb shells : Treatise on Ammunition, 1915
  4. 2875 ft/second : As quoted in "Range Tables for His Majesty's Fleet, 1910. February, 1911"; with 130 ½ lb cordite MD propellant : Treatise on Ammunition, 1915

Bibliography

The National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew. SUPP 6/61

External links

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