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The BL 14-inch Mk VII naval gun was a breech loading (BL) gun designed for the battleships of the
The choice of mounting was a mechanically complex quadruple turret (each battleship had two quadruple turrets (Mark III) and one twin turret (Mark II)). Although the class of battleships was initially designed with three quadruple turrets, it proved impossible to include this amount of firepower and the desired level of protection without exceeding the 35,000 ton displacement treaty limit, furthermore the weight of the superimposed quadruple "B" turret brought the stability of the vessel into question, hence the "B" turret was changed to a smaller twin mount so the weight savings could be freed up for increased armour protection. The turret and ammunition-handling facilities incorporated many anti-flash measures and interlocks, improving safety but adding to complexity. Revolving weight of mountings: quadruple Mk III 1,582 tons, twin Mk II 915 tons.
In service, the quad turrets proved to be less reliable than was hoped for. Wartime haste in building, insufficient clearance between the rotating and fixed structure of the turret, insufficient full calibre firing exercises and extensive arrangements to prevent flash from reaching the magazinesGarzke & Dulin, p. 228 led to problems during prolonged actions. In order to bring ammunition into the turret at any degree of train, the design included a transfer ring between the magazine and turret; this did not have sufficient clearance to allow for the ship bending and flexing. These defects were addressed, and improved clearances, improved mechanical linkages, and better training led to greater reliability in the quadruple turrets but they remained controversial.
On entering operational service the turrets gained an initial reputation for unreliability, with individual guns and entire turrets jamming in action. However, it has been argued that these jams were typically caused by errors in drill, either due to lack of gun crew training, as was the case when the newly commissioned engaged the in the 
During the battle against ''Bismarck'' a close-range hit from a 14-inch shell fired by ''King George V'' penetrated the -thick armour of the barbette of ''Bismarck's'' 'B' turret, causing an internal explosion which blew the rear face of the turret away. Underwater survey also shows that the vertical armour of the conning tower of ''Bismarck'' was penetrated by 14-inch shells. In the Battle of North Cape, ''Duke of York'' fired 52 broadsides; of these 31 straddled the ''Scharnhorst'', a fast and actively manoeuvring target, and a further 16 fell within 200 yards – an excellent performance, even when radar-control is taken into account. The effects of the 14-inch shellfire on ''Scharnhorst'' quickly degraded her fighting abilities: ''Duke of York''s first salvo put 'A' turret out of action; 'B' turret soon followed; a subsequent hit penetrated the German ship's armour, detonating in one of the boiler rooms and reducing the vessel's speed. This reduction in speed meant that the ''Scharnhorst'' could not escape pursuit, and was responsible for her eventual destruction.
By being instrumental in the destruction of two modern enemy battleships, the 14-inch Mark VII gun was, arguably, one of the most successful battleship main armaments of World War II.Other battleship main armaments largely or wholly responsible for destroying battleships in WWII: the German 38 cm SK C/34 naval gun (15-inch) sank 1 battleship, HMS ''Hood''; a combination of the American
In World War II two guns, nicknamed Winnie and Pooh, were mounted as
Nav weapons.com
File:British 14in Naval Gun 1930s Model.png,
Image:British 14in Naval Gun Breech Detail.png,
*Kaplan, P. (2014) ''World War Two at Sea: The Last Battleships'', Pen and Sword Books, Barnsley. *
Page from Nav weapons.com
*http://navweaps.com/index_nathan/Penetration_index.php
Video : "Winnie" firing, Dover, 1941
Movie clip of RN 14" gun loading and firing procedure (NOTE : external sequences are of different guns)
{{WWIIBritishCommNavalWeapons Naval guns of the United Kingdom World War II naval weapons of the United Kingdom 356 mm artillery Coastal artillery Military equipment introduced in the 1940s
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...
in the late 1930s. This gun armed the battleships during the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
Background
The choice of calibre was limited by theSecond London Naval Treaty
The Second London Naval Treaty was an international treaty signed as a result of the Second London Naval Disarmament Conference held in London, the United Kingdom. The conference started on 9 December 1935 and the treaty was signed by the pa ...
, an extension of the Washington Naval Treaty
The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington ...
which set limits on the size, armament, and number of battleships constructed by the major powers. After disappointing experiences with the combination of high velocity but relatively light shell in the BL 16 inch /45 naval gun of the s, the British reverted to the combination of lower velocities and (relatively) heavier shells in this weapon.
Design
Gun
Thebuilt-up gun A built-up gun is artillery with a specially reinforced barrel. An inner tube of metal stretches within its elastic limit under the pressure of confined powder gases to transmit stress to outer cylinders that are under tension.Fairfield (1921) p. ...
was of an all-steel construction, using a radial expansion design; this was an advance on earlier British heavy guns, which employed a wire-wound technology. The resulting gun was lighter, less prone to droop, more accurate and had a significantly longer barrel life. The estimated barrel life was 340 effective full charges. Length of bore: 630 inches (45 calibres long). Weight of gun (without breech or counterbalance: 77 tons 14 cwt 84 lbs. Weight of gun with counterbalance: 89 tons 2 cwt 84 lbs. Weight of breech mechanism: 1 ton 17 cwt. Rifling: polygroove, 72 grooves plain section, uniform right-hand twist of 1 turn in 30 calibres. The standard propellant charge: of cordite.
The new 14-inch Armour Piercing (AP) 1,590-pound shell had, relative to its size, superior ballistic performance and armour-penetration compared to previous British shells, due to improvements in design and material which had taken place since World War I. The shell also carried a proportionally large bursting charge of .
Mounting
The choice of mounting was a mechanically complex quadruple turret (each battleship had two quadruple turrets (Mark III) and one twin turret (Mark II)). Although the class of battleships was initially designed with three quadruple turrets, it proved impossible to include this amount of firepower and the desired level of protection without exceeding the 35,000 ton displacement treaty limit, furthermore the weight of the superimposed quadruple "B" turret brought the stability of the vessel into question, hence the "B" turret was changed to a smaller twin mount so the weight savings could be freed up for increased armour protection. The turret and ammunition-handling facilities incorporated many anti-flash measures and interlocks, improving safety but adding to complexity. Revolving weight of mountings: quadruple Mk III 1,582 tons, twin Mk II 915 tons.
In service, the quad turrets proved to be less reliable than was hoped for. Wartime haste in building, insufficient clearance between the rotating and fixed structure of the turret, insufficient full calibre firing exercises and extensive arrangements to prevent flash from reaching the magazinesGarzke & Dulin, p. 228 led to problems during prolonged actions. In order to bring ammunition into the turret at any degree of train, the design included a transfer ring between the magazine and turret; this did not have sufficient clearance to allow for the ship bending and flexing. These defects were addressed, and improved clearances, improved mechanical linkages, and better training led to greater reliability in the quadruple turrets but they remained controversial.
Performance
On entering operational service the turrets gained an initial reputation for unreliability, with individual guns and entire turrets jamming in action. However, it has been argued that these jams were typically caused by errors in drill, either due to lack of gun crew training, as was the case when the newly commissioned engaged the in the Battle of the Denmark Strait
The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a naval engagement in the Second World War, which took place on 24 May 1941 between ships of the Royal Navy and the ''Kriegsmarine''. The British battleship and the battlecruiser fought the German battles ...
(1941), or due to crew fatigue resulting from the prolonged nature of the engagement, as was the case when engaged ''Bismarck'' in 1941 and engaged in the Battle of North Cape (1943).
During the battle against ''Bismarck'' a close-range hit from a 14-inch shell fired by ''King George V'' penetrated the -thick armour of the barbette of ''Bismarck's'' 'B' turret, causing an internal explosion which blew the rear face of the turret away. Underwater survey also shows that the vertical armour of the conning tower of ''Bismarck'' was penetrated by 14-inch shells. In the Battle of North Cape, ''Duke of York'' fired 52 broadsides; of these 31 straddled the ''Scharnhorst'', a fast and actively manoeuvring target, and a further 16 fell within 200 yards – an excellent performance, even when radar-control is taken into account. The effects of the 14-inch shellfire on ''Scharnhorst'' quickly degraded her fighting abilities: ''Duke of York''s first salvo put 'A' turret out of action; 'B' turret soon followed; a subsequent hit penetrated the German ship's armour, detonating in one of the boiler rooms and reducing the vessel's speed. This reduction in speed meant that the ''Scharnhorst'' could not escape pursuit, and was responsible for her eventual destruction.
By being instrumental in the destruction of two modern enemy battleships, the 14-inch Mark VII gun was, arguably, one of the most successful battleship main armaments of World War II.Other battleship main armaments largely or wholly responsible for destroying battleships in WWII: the German 38 cm SK C/34 naval gun (15-inch) sank 1 battleship, HMS ''Hood''; a combination of the American 16"/45 caliber gun
The 16"/45 caliber gun (spoken "sixteen-inch-forty-five-caliber") was used for the main batteries of the last class of Standard-type battleships for the United States Navy, the . These guns promised twice the muzzle energy over the Mark 7 12-inch ...
and the 14"/50 caliber gun
The 14"/50 caliber gun was a naval gun mounted on and s. These ships also featured the first "three-gun" turrets, meaning that each gun in each turret could be "individually sleeved" to elevate separately (however, they could be linked so they ...
sank 1 battleship, ''Yamashiro''; and the American 16"/45 caliber Mark 6 gun
The 16"/45 caliber Mark 6 gun is a naval gun designed in 1936 by the United States Navy for their Treaty battleships. It was introduced in 1941 aboard their s, replacing the originally intended 14"/50 caliber Mark B guns and was also used for th ...
destroyed 1 battleship, ''Kirishima''; the British BL 15-inch Mk I naval gun
The BL 15-inch Mark I succeeded the BL 13.5-inch Mk V naval gun. It was the first British 15-inch (381 mm) gun design and the most widely used and longest lasting of any British designs, and arguably the most successful heavy gun ever devel ...
sank 1 battleship, Bretagne; the British BL 16 inch Mk I naval gun (combined with the BL 14-inch Mk VII naval gun) destroyed 1 battleship, the ''Bismarck''. It is notable that the only modern battleships destroyed by battleship gunfire were the ''Bismarck'' and ''Scharnhorst'', all the other battleships to suffer this fate were designs dating back to World War I, with various degrees of modernisation.
Coastal guns
In World War II two guns, nicknamed Winnie and Pooh, were mounted as coastal artillery
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications.
From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form o ...
near Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
to engage German batteries across the Channel in occupied France.
Armour penetration
*Penetration at a muzzle velocity of 2483 ft/s, guns with new linings or with no significant wear: *Belt ** @ 0 m (0yd) ** @ ** @ ** @ *Decks ** @ ** @ ** @ ** @ ** @ Reproduced froNav weapons.com
Surviving example
See also
*List of naval guns
List of Naval Guns by country of origin in decreasing caliber size
List of naval guns by caliber size, all countries
Naval anti-aircraft guns
See also
*List of artillery
* List of the largest cannon by caliber
*Glossary of British ordnan ...
Notes
References
* * * *Garzke, William H. Jr., Dulin, Robert O. Jr. and Webb, Thomas G. (1994) ''Bismarck's Final Battle'', Warship International No. 2. Available as a web version at NavWeaps.co*Kaplan, P. (2014) ''World War Two at Sea: The Last Battleships'', Pen and Sword Books, Barnsley. *
Page from Nav weapons.com
*http://navweaps.com/index_nathan/Penetration_index.php
External links
Video : "Winnie" firing, Dover, 1941
Movie clip of RN 14" gun loading and firing procedure (NOTE : external sequences are of different guns)
{{WWIIBritishCommNavalWeapons Naval guns of the United Kingdom World War II naval weapons of the United Kingdom 356 mm artillery Coastal artillery Military equipment introduced in the 1940s