British Battleship/Battle cruiser turret guns

[Khaki]

About 45 years ago I visited the IWM in London and I recall the main entrance having two barrels from two separate heavies, It occurred to me that in the past we have had some great posts with excellent photo's of artillery/captured or otherwise scattered throughout the UK in parks etc, are there any RN  15 to16 inch guns displayed apart from those two at the IWM also what about turrets? about twenty years ago I toured through the USS Missouri including climbing into the  B turret from underneath the turret itself. Very educational, any thoughts I had about working in aside a turret were quickly dispelled. I must get down to the USS Texas, I believe that apart from WW2 modifications it is the only WW! Dreadnought capital ship remaining afloat.

[Open Bolt]

I see that the USS Texas is closed to visitors with an uncertain future (as you doubtless know it was not a true dreadnought of course).

[Open Bolt]

Britain's best known is HMS Belfast, a mere (in this context) light cruiser from the second war.

[stripeyman]

There is an article in Warship World, September/October 2019 entitled  TRYING TIMES FOR USS TEXAS. It is deteriorating due to the salt water and so it has been proposed that it should be beached land locked.

[MikB]

The guns make no more sense on their own than would a chuck from a machine tool. To load them, set them accurately on target, fire, clear and repeat in harsh marine and battle conditions takes many hundreds of tons of armoured, complex and precision-machined mounting assembly, without which the guns themselves are valueless. That's why I always thought the IWM's display of bare barrels was pretty sad and pointless. The cutaway model turret they used to have on the ground floor - dunno if it's still there - was more instructive.

 

'The Big Gun' by Peter Hodges, ISBN 0-85177-144-0 gives well-illustrated useful explanations of the loading/training/elevation machineries used. I've yet to find anything as concise for the director/ranging/transmitting station data processes - the Dreadnought Project website is an excellent online resource with an initially bewildering level of detail.

 

It's a great pity that none of our heavy ships with illustrious battle honours were preserved - many of us could probably give a list of candidate names - but what's done is done.

Edited 20 November , 2019 by MikB

[Open Bolt]

1 hour ago, MikB said:

the Dreadnought Project website is an excellent online resource

That is very impressive http://dreadnoughtproject.org/

[SiegeGunner]

Perhaps the biggest gun from WW1 preserved in the UK is this monster, a BL-18" railway howitzer (on a trial mounting), which now resides at Fort Nelson, the Royal Armouries museum of artillery at Portsmouth ... https://royalarmouries.org/stories/behind-the-scenes/the-mighty-18-inch-railway-howitzer/

[trajan]

On 20/11/2019 at 15:07, SiegeGunner said:

Perhaps the biggest gun from WW1 preserved in the UK is this monster, a BL-18" railway howitzer (on a trial mounting), which now resides at Fort Nelson, the Royal Armouries museum of artillery at Portsmouth ... https://royalarmouries.org/stories/behind-the-scenes/the-mighty-18-inch-railway-howitzer/

 

Hi Mick,

 

Is that the only railway gun that has survived since earlier times?

 

Julian

[Chasemuseum]

The Australian War Memorial has the barrel of the "Amiens Gun" a 28cm SK L/40 on display

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiens_Gun

 

The entire gun was brought to Australia as a war trophy. During WW2 the barrel was taken out of the mount and the carriage was taken to a facility just north of Adelaide South Australia to proof naval gun barrels.  At the end of the war, an Ordnance Corp officer Ted Millet was able to get it moved to the army base at Bandiana, just south of Albury, about 4 hours drive from Canberra.  It sat there until the mid 1960s when the Army insisted that AWM arrange for its return to AWM in Canberra or allow it to be scrapped.  It was scrapped.

 

Cheers

Ross 

[trajan]

How said about the scrapping... Must be kicking themselves now...

[SiegeGunner]

On 22/11/2019 at 11:55, trajan said:

 

Hi Mick,

 

Is that the only railway gun that has survived since earlier times?

 

Julian

 

Not sure, Julian ... but I think it is certainly the biggest in the UK.  Unless, of course, someone else knows better ... and assuming that sections of the infamous Supergun don't count.  All best.  Mick

[Chasemuseum]

I have trouble counting the Iraqi super-gun, as the parts were never all brought together in one place and assembled - as such it was more a theoretical ambition. The Great War remain the apogee of the great railway gun development with numerous armies developing numerous weapons and deploying them effectively as tactical weapons. The BL-18inch was a crib for WW1, as the construction was completed well after the war.

[healdav]

On 23/11/2019 at 23:54, Chasemuseum said:

I have trouble counting the Iraqi super-gun, as the parts were never all brought together in one place and assembled - as such it was more a theoretical ambition. The Great War remain the apogee of the great railway gun development with numerous armies developing numerous weapons and deploying them effectively as tactical weapons. The BL-18inch was a crib for WW1, as the construction was completed well after the war.

Unknown to most people, a super gun was actually built, and used, by the Germans.

It was built near a small village called Lampaden on the Luxembourg-German border, and was used to bombard Luxembourg city for a few days (killing some people). Then it was abandoned or taken away. Nothing now remains of it at all, but there is a model in the Luxembourg Military Museum (a brilliant museum).

At the time, everyone thought it was a railway gun. Patton famously sent a note to Bradley as the explosions were frightening his dog (his staff wished it would kill the .... animal) asking him to have it bombed.

Unlike the planned Iraqi guns it was not built on a moveable framework,, but up the side of a hill which happened to be the right angle and the right distance from Luxembourg city.