The BL 12-inch Mark VIII naval gunMark VIII = Mark 8. Britain used

Roman numerals Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...

to denote marks (models, abbreviated Mk) of ordnance until after World War II. Hence this was the 8th model of British 12-inch breech-loading naval guns, was one of the first large British rifled breech-loading

naval gun Naval artillery is artillery mounted on a warship, originally used only for naval warfare and then subsequently used for naval gunfire support, shore bombardment and anti-aircraft roles. The term generally refers to tube-launched projectile-firi ...

s designed for the higher pressures generated by the new

cordite Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace black powder as a military propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burni ...

propellant of the 1890s, and Britain's first large

wire-wound This article explains terms used for the British Armed Forces' ordnance (i.e.: weapons) and also ammunition. The terms may have slightly different meanings in the military of other countries. BD Between decks: applies to a naval gun mounting in ...

gun. It represented a major advance compared to previous British guns.

Naval service

The gun was installed on the ''Majestic''-class battleships from 1895 and on the ''Canopus''-class battleships from 1899. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

guns removed from the obsolete ''Majestic'' class were mounted in ''Lord Clive''-class monitors for shore bombardment.

Land service

From 1921 to 1926 two guns from the decommissioned battleship HMS ''Illustrious'' were in service in the

Tyne Turrets The Tyne Turrets were two 12-inch Mk VIII guns from the battleship HMS ''Illustrious'', installed in Roberts Battery at Hartley, near Seaton Sluice north of the Tyne, and Kitchener Battery in Marsden near Lizard Point south of the river. The ...

for coast defence, north and south of the mouth of the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...

in the northeast of England.

Problems in service

During bombardment service when mounted in the ''Lord Clive''-class monitors deposition of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

from the projectile

driving band Russian 122 mm shrapnel shell, which has been fired, showing rifling marks on the copper driving band around its base and the steel bourrelet nearer the front A driving band or rotating band is a band of soft metal near the base of an artillery ...

s needed frequent removal. However, problems with the inner liners were more serious. The continual drag of the driving bands caused the liner to be gradually stretched forward. The resulting protrusion at the muzzle could simply be cut off, but in addition the liner began to form a ridge in the

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...

near the shoulders of the outer ‘A’ tube, where the inner ‘A’ tube was keyed to the outer. The ridge accumulated copper from the driving bands, which could give sufficient retardation to the projectile to start the

fuze In military munitions, a fuze (sometimes fuse) is the part of the device that initiates function. In some applications, such as torpedoes, a fuze may be identified by function as the exploder. The relative complexity of even the earliest fuze d ...

, which resulted in a premature detonation either within the bore, or soon after leaving the muzzle. This happened several times during bombardment service, including an occasion when ''Lord Clive'' showered pieces of

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

over the French destroyer ''Aventurier''. The ‘steel choke’ restriction could be temporarily removed by rubbing down with an emery-covered block pulled back and forth in the bore, but the only permanent cure was to fit new guns with a modified design of liner, which had a different arrangement of internal shoulders.

Images

File:HMS Hannibal Y turret IWM Q 039023.jpg, Y turret (aft) guns of HMS ''Hannibal''. File:HMS Ocean (Canopus-class battleship) forward guns.jpg, Forward guns of HMS ''Ocean'' File:HMS Canopus bombarding Turkish forts March 1915.jpg, HMS ''Canopus'' bombarding Turkish forts,

Dardanelles The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...

March 1915. Photo by Ernest Brooks. File:HMS Illustrious (1896) firing guns.jpg, The battleship HMS ''Illustrious'' fires her Mark VIII guns during gunnery practice. File:HMS Illustrious (1896) 12-inch gun.jpg, The

starboard Port and starboard are nautical terms for watercraft and aircraft, referring respectively to the left and right sides of the vessel, when aboard and facing the bow (front). Vessels with bilateral symmetry have left and right halves which are ...

Mark VIII gun in one of the turrets aboard the

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

HMS ''Illustrious''. The guns

breech Breech may refer to: * Breech (firearms), the opening at the rear of a gun barrel where the cartridge is inserted in a breech-loading weapon * breech, the lower part of a pulley block * breech, the penetration of a boiler where exhaust gases leav ...

is open. File:HMS Caesar (1896) 12-inch gun.jpg, The starboard Mark VIII gun in one of the turrets aboard the British battleship HMS ''Caesar''. The guns breech is closed.

Notes

References

Bibliography

''Text Book of Gunnery''
, 1902. London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, by Harrison and Sons, St. Martin's Lane * I. V. Hogg & L. F. Thurston, ''British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914–1918''. London: Ian Allan, 1972. * Tony DiGiulian
British 12"/35 (30.5 cm) Mark VIII

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:BL 12-inch Mk 08 gun Naval guns of the United Kingdom 305 mm artillery Coastal artillery Victorian-era weapons of the United Kingdom World War I naval weapons of the United Kingdom