The BL 6-inch Mk XXII gunMK XXII = Mark 22. 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) of ordnance until after World War II. This was the twenty-second model of British BL 6-inch gun was a British high-velocity 6-inch 50-

calibre In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore match ...

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 ...

naval guns deployed on the ''Nelson''-class battleships from the 1920s to 1945.

Background

They were originally designed as secondary armament for the proposed

G3 class The G3 battlecruisers were a class of battlecruisers planned by the Royal Navy after the end of World War I in response to naval expansion programmes by the United States and Japan. The four ships of this class would have been larger, faster an ...

battlecruiser The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of attr ...

s. When the G3 class were cancelled after 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 Nav ...

the guns and mountings were later used as secondary armament on the two ''Nelson''-class battleships, serving throughout World War II. The Nelsons were the first British battleships since the of 1904 to carry their secondary armament in turrets rather than in broadside

casemates A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" mean ...

. The Mk VIII gun mountings could elevate from +60 degrees to -5 degrees, while the telescopic power rammers for the gun loaded at a +5-degree fixed angle.Campbell, ''Naval Weapons of WWII'', p.37. Although classified as a

dual-purpose gun A dual-purpose gun is a naval artillery mounting designed to engage both surface and air targets. Description Second World War-era capital ships had four classes of artillery: the heavy main battery, intended to engage opposing battleships and ...

and capable of high-angle fire, their training and elevation speeds were too slow for the

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

role and their main use was against surface targets.

Ammunition

The gun originally fired a shell, which had been the standard shell weight for six-inch guns since 1880. From 1942 the gun fired the same shell introduced for the later Mk XXIII gun.DiGiulian Figures in the table below are for the 100lb shell.

Shell trajectory

Notes

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* Tony DiGiulian
British 6"/50 (15.2 cm) BL Mark XXII
{{DEFAULTSORT:BL 06-inch Mk 22 gun Naval guns of the United Kingdom World War II naval weapons of the United Kingdom 152 mm artillery