BL 15 INCH /42 NAVAL GUN

The 'BL 15 inch Mark I' was the first British 15 inch (381 mm) gun design and the most widely used and longest lasting of any British designs. The barrel was 42 calibres long (i.e. 15 in x 42 = 630 in) and was referred to as "15 inch/42". The gun fired a 1920 lbs (871 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,575 fps (785 mps). Maximum range in shipboard mountings was 30,000 m (30 degrees elevation) but coastal artillery mounting with higher elevations could reach 40,000 m

Contents

Usage

Production

External links

Usage

These guns were used on several classes of battleships from 1915 until HMS ''Vanguard'', the last battleship to be built for the Royal Navy, completed in 1946.
Warships with the BL 15 inch Mark I gun:

★ ''Queen Elizabeth'' class battleships

★ ''Revenge'' class battleships

★ ''Renown'' class battlecruisers

★ HMS ''Hood'' - battlecruiser

★ ''Glorious'' class large light cruisers

★ ''Erebus'' class monitor

★ ''Marshall Ney'' class monitors

★ ''Roberts'' class monitors

★ HMS ''Vanguard'' - battleship

Production

184 guns were manufactured, these would be taken out from ships and refurbished and rotated back into ships over their lifetime.

★ Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick, Newcastle: 34

★ Armstrong Whitworth, Openshaw, Manchester: 12.

★ William Beardmore & Company, Parkhead, Glasgow: 37

★ Coventry Ordnance Works, Coventry: 19

★ Royal Arsenal, Woolwich: 33

★ Vickers Limited, Sheffield: 49
Two guns, one formerly from HMS ''Ramillies'' and one from HMS ''Revenge'', are mounted outside the Imperial War Museum in London.

External links

★ Images from the Vickers Photographic Archives

★ Information at Naval Weapons website

★ HMS Vanguard site

★ The IWM guns