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BL 6-inch Mk XII Naval Gun
The BL 6-inch Mark XII naval gun was a British 45 calibre naval gun which was mounted as primary armament on light cruisers and secondary armament on dreadnought battleships commissioned in the period 1914–1926, and remained in service on many warships until the end of World War II. Design This was a high-velocity naval gun consisting of inner "A" tube, "A" tube, wound with successive layers of steel wire, with a jacket over the wire. Naval service It superseded the 45-calibres Mk VII gun and the longer 50-calibres Mk XI gun which had proved unwieldy in light cruisers due to its length, and was Britain's most modern 6-inch naval gun when World War I began. It was superseded as secondary armament on new battleships in the 1920s by the 50-calibre 6-inch Mk XXII gun, and as main armament on new light cruisers in the 1930s by the 50-calibre 6-inch Mk XXIII gun. Guns were mounted in the following ships : * ''Birmingham''-class light cruisers laid down 1912, commiss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered , of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its constitutional, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, it was described as "the empire on which the sun never sets", as the Sun was always shining on at least one of its territories. During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BL 6-inch Mk VII Naval Gun
The BL 6-inch gun Mark VII (and the related Mk VIII) was a British naval gun dating from 1899, which was mounted on a heavy travelling carriage in 1915 for British Army service to become one of the main heavy field guns in the First World War, and also served as one of the main coast defence guns throughout the British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ... until the 1950s. Background The gun superseded the QF 6 inch /40 naval gun, QF six-inch gun of the 1890s, a period during which the Royal Navy had evaluated British ordnance terms#QF, QF technology (i.e. loading propellant charges in brass cartridge cases) for all classes of guns up to to increase rates of fire. British ordnance terms#BL, BL Mk VII returned to loading charges in silk bags after it was det ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Abercrombie (1915)
HMS ''Abercrombie'' was a First World War Royal Navy monitor. Background and construction On 3 November 1914, Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel offered Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, the use of four /45cal BL MK II twin gun turrets, originally destined for the Greek battleship . These turrets could not be delivered to the German builders, due to the British naval blockade. The Royal Navy immediately designed a class of monitors, designed for shore bombardment, to use the turrets. The ship was initially named ''Admiral Farragut'' in honour of the United States Admiral David Farragut, and reflecting the origin of the guns. She was laid down at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast on 12 December 1914. ''Farragut'' and ''General Grant'' were built together on the No 2 building berth, which had been constructed to build . The No 2 & 3 berths were beneath the Arrol Gantry, a large truss girder construction supporting modern electric cranes above the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Raglan
HMS ''Raglan'' was a First World War Royal Navy monitor, which was sunk during the Battle of Imbros in January 1918. Design On 3 November 1914, Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel offered Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, the use of eight /45 cal BL MK II guns in twin gun turrets, originally destined for the Greek battleship . These turrets could not be delivered to the German builders, due to the British blockade. The Royal Navy immediately designed a class of monitors, designed for shore bombardment, to use the turrets. Construction ''Raglan'' was laid down at the Harland and Wolff Ltd shipyard at Govan on 1 December 1914. The ship was named ''Robert E Lee'' in honour of the CSA General Robert E Lee, however as the United States was still neutral, the ship was hurriedly renamed HMS ''M3'' on 31 May 1915. She was then named HMS ''Lord Raglan'' on 20 June 1915 and again renamed HMS ''Raglan'' on 23 June 1915. Career ''Raglan'' sailed for the Dardanell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danae-class Cruiser
The ''Danae'' or D class consisted of eight light cruisers built for the Royal Navy at the end of World War I which also saw service in World War II. Design The ''Danae''s were based on the design of the preceding series, but were lengthened by to allow a sixth gun to be worked in between the bridge and the forefunnel. This gave an 'A', 'B', 'P', 'Q', 'X', 'Y' arrangement. Additionally, the twin torpedo tubes in the C class were replaced by triples, giving the ''Danae''s a total of twelve tubes, the heaviest torpedo armament for a cruiser at the time. Machinery and general layout was otherwise the same as the ''Ceres'' group of C-class cruisers. However, ''Danae'', ''Dauntless'' and ''Dragon'' were ordered before the ''Capetown'' group, and therefore did not incorporate the improved bow design of the latter; the C class were ''very'' wet forwards, and in the ''Capetown''s sheer was increased forwards into a knuckled "trawler bow". Such was the success of the knuckled bow t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Swift (1907)
HMS ''Swift'' was a unique destroyer leader designed and built for the Royal Navy prior to World War I, another product of Admiral "Jackie" Fisher's relentless quest for speed. The class was envisioned as a large ocean-going destroyer, capable of both the usual destroyer requirements and of high-speed scouting duties for a major fleet. Design Fisher put his specification to the Director of Naval Construction (DNC) in October 1904 (, 900 tons, ). The DNC replied that it was not strong enough. In 1905 a revised design for from on a 1,400 t hull was pushed through followed by one for 36 knots on 1,350 tons from . Given only four weeks to produce their tender, the major shipyards - Cammell Laird, Thornycrofts, Fairfields, John Brown and Armstrong Whitworth - put forward designs. There were problems meeting the requirements and the high cost of the designs (for example, Armstrong's design was priced at £284,000, compared to £139,881 for , a destroyer of the 1905 ). A final ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Revenge-class Battleship
The ''Revenge'' class, sometimes referred to as the ''Royal Sovereign'' class or the R class, consisted of five superdreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1910s. All of the ships were completed to see service during the First World War. There were originally to have been eight of the class, but two were later redesigned, becoming the s, while the other, which was to have been named HMS ''Resistance'', was cancelled outright. The design was based on that of the preceding , but with reductions in size and speed to make them more economical to build. Two of the ships, and , were completed in time to see action at the Battle of Jutland during the First World War, where they engaged German battlecruisers. The other three ships were completed after the battle, by which time the British and German fleets had adopted more cautious strategies, and as a result, the class saw no further substantial action. During the early 1920s, the ships were involved in the Greco-T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Elizabeth-class Battleship
The ''Queen Elizabeth''-class battleships were a group of five super-dreadnoughts built for the Royal Navy during the 1910s. These battleships were superior in firepower, protection and speed to their Royal Navy predecessors of the as well as preceding German classes such as the . The corresponding ships were generally considered competitive, although the ''Queen Elizabeth'' class were faster and outnumbered the German class 5:2. The ''Queen Elizabeth''s are generally considered the first fast battleships of their day. The ''Queen Elizabeth''s were the first battleships to be armed with guns, and were described in the 1919 edition of ''Jane's Fighting Ships'' as "the most successful type of capital ship yet designed." They saw much service in both world wars. ''Barham'' was lost to U-boat attack in 1941, but the others survived the wars and were scrapped in the late 1940s. Background and design The early design history of the ''Queen Elizabeth'' class is not well known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
M29-class Monitor
The ''M29'' class comprised five monitors of the Royal Navy, all built and launched during 1915. The ships of this class were ordered in March, 1915, as part of the Emergency War Programme of ship construction. The contract for construction was granted to Harland & Wolff, Belfast, who sub-contracted the construction of ''M32'' and ''M33'' to Workman, Clark and Company. The main armament of the ships, two 6-inch Mk XII guns, came from guns originally intended for the five s which became surplus when their aft casemate mountings turned out to be unworkable and were dispensed with. Ships of the class * HMS ''M29'' – launched on 22 May 1915 and later renamed ''Medusa'' and ''Talbot'', she was sold in 1946. * HMS ''M30'' – launched on 23 June 1915, and sunk on 14 May 1916. * HMS ''M31'' – launched on 24 June 1915, and broken up for scrap in 1948. * HMS ''M32'' – launched on 22 May 1915, and sold in January 1920. * HMS ''M33'' – launched on 22 May 1915, is one of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
C-class Cruiser
The C class was a group of twenty-eight light cruisers of the Royal Navy, and were built in a sequence of seven groups known as the ''Caroline'' class (six ships), the ''Calliope'' class (two ships), the ''Cambrian'' class (four ships), the ''Centaur'' class (two ships), the ''Caledon'' class (four ships), the ''Ceres'' class (five ships) and the ''Carlisle'' class (five ships). They were built for the rough conditions of the North Sea, and proved to be rugged and capable vessels, despite being somewhat small and cramped. The ''Caroline'' class The ''Caroline'' class were all ordered in July and August 1913, as the first six of eight "light armoured cruisers" under the 1913 programme. The ships were launched in 1914 or 1915 and commissioned in 1915. They had an armament of two single 6 in aft, eight 4 in and two 6-pounder guns. Their anti-aircraft (A/A) weaponry consisted of four 3-pounder. Their aft 6 in guns were superfiring; the class had three funnels ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arethusa-class Cruiser (1913)
The ''Arethusa''-class cruisers were a class of eight oil-fired light cruisers of the Royal Navy all ordered in September 1912, primarily for service in the North Sea. They had three funnels with the middle one somewhat larger in diameter than the others. All served in the First World War. They were found to be very cramped internally. Design and description The earlier scout cruisers were too slow to accomplish their intended duties of working with destroyer flotillas and defending the fleet against attacks by enemy destroyers. The primary emphasis of the ''Arethusa''-class cruisers was a design speed of , to allow them to lead destroyers in combat. In support of this goal, they were the first cruisers to use destroyer-type high-speed steam turbines and oil-fired boilers were chosen to save weight and increase their power to meet the specification. They retained the side protection introduced in the later ships of the previous , but reverted to a mixed main armament that was a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Town-class Cruiser (1910)
The Town class was a group of twenty-one light cruisers built for the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN) of the first half of the 20th Century. These vessels were long-range cruisers, suitable for patrolling the vast expanse covered by the British Empire. These ships, initially rated as second class cruisers, were built to a series of designs, known as the ''Bristol'' (five ships), ''Weymouth'' (four ships), ''Chatham'' (three RN ships, plus three RAN ships), ''Birmingham'' (three ships, plus one similar RAN ship) and ''Birkenhead'' (two ships) classes – all having the names of British towns except for the RAN ships, which were named after Australian cities. Design ''Bristol'' class The ''Bristol'' class were all ordered under the 1908–09 Programme and commissioned in late 1910.Lyon ''Warship'' Vol. 1 No. 3, p. 50. They were second class cruisers suitable for a variety of roles including both trade protection and fleet duties.Preston 1985, p. 51. They were l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
