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A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a
submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret. The main deck gun was a dual-purpose weapon used to sink merchant shipping or shell shore targets, or defend the submarine on the surface from enemy aircraft and warships. Typically a crew of three operated the gun, while others were tasked with supplying ammunition. A small locker box held a few 'ready-use' rounds. With a well-drilled, experienced crew, the rate of fire of a deck gun could be 15 to 18 aimed shots per minute. Some submarines also had additional deck guns like auto-cannons and machine guns for anti-aircraft defense. While similar unenclosed guns are often found on surface warships as secondary or defensive armament (such as the US Navy's 5-inch (127 mm)/25 caliber gun which was removed from battleships to mount on submarines), the term "deck gun" normally refers only to such weapons when mounted on submarines.


History


World War I

The deck gun was introduced in all submarine forces prior to World War I. However, it came to the fore in the German navy, and proved its worth when U-boats needed to conserve torpedoes or attack enemy vessels straggling behind a convoy. Submarine captains often considered the deck gun as their main weapon, using much more expensive but not always accurate torpedoes only when necessary or advisable (as a deck gun necessarily revealed a submarine's position, whereas a torpedo could be used either under water or effectively at night). In addition, submarines carried many more gun rounds than torpedoes - ten or fewer during World War I, fired in spreads of multiple warheads to increase the likelihood of a successful hit. An example of this approach was Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, who used a deck gun or a dynamiting team on 171 of his 194 sinkings. The Royal Navy tried an innovative approach in World War I with its three M-class submarines, which mounted a single 12 inch (305 mm)/40 caliber naval gun intended to be fired while the submarine was at periscope depth with the muzzle of the gun above water, principally in a shore bombardment role. This design was found unworkable in trials because the submarine was required to surface to reload the gun, and problems arose when variable amounts of water entered the barrel prior to firing.


World War II

The French submarine was launched in 1929 with two 203mm/50 Modèle 1924 guns in a turret forward of the
conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer in charge can conn the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and gro ...
. These were the second largest guns carried by any submarine after the British during the Second World War. The
London Naval Treaty The London Naval Treaty, officially the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament, was an agreement between the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, and the United States that was signed on 22 April 1930. Seeking to address is ...
of 1930 restricted submarine guns to a maximum of 155 mm (6.1 inches). In the early part of World War II, German submarine commanders favored the deck gun for similar reasons as their World War I counterparts; the limited number of torpedoes that could be carried, the unreliability of torpedoes, and because their boats could only travel submerged at slow speed for short distances. The deck gun became less effective as convoys became larger and better equipped, and merchant ships were armed. Surfacing also became dangerous in the vicinity of a convoy because of improvements in radar and direction finding. (See Defensively equipped merchant ships (DEMS) and United States Navy Armed Guard). German U-boat deck guns were eventually removed on the order of the supreme commander of the U-boat Arm ( BdU) during World War II, and those deck guns that remained were no longer manned. For a few months in 1943, some U-boats operating in the
Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...
were equipped with enhanced anti-aircraft guns (at the trade-off of reduced torpedo loadouts), being known as "U-Flak" boats to be deployed as service escorts for regular U-boats. After the Royal Air Force modified their anti-submarine tactics which made it too dangerous for a submarine to stay on the surface to fight, the U-Flaks were converted back to standard U-boat armament configuration. Japanese
submarine cruiser A cruiser submarine was a very large submarine designed to remain at sea for extended periods in areas distant from base facilities. Their role was analogous to surface cruisers, cruising distant waters, commerce raiding, and scouting for the batt ...
s used
14 cm/40 11th Year Type naval gun The 14 cm/40 11th Year Type naval gun was the standard surface battery for Japanese submarine cruisers of World War II. Most carried single guns, but Junsen type submarines carried two. Japanese submarines ''I-7'' and ''I-8'' carried an unu ...
s to shell California, British Columbia and Oregon during World War II. Two notable deck guns from German U-boats used in World War II were the SK C/35 (not to be confused with 8.8 cm Flak) and the SK C/32. The 88 mm had ammunition that weighed about and was of the projectile and cartridge type. It had the same controls on both sides of the gun so that the two crewmen that were in charge of firing it could control the gun from either side. The 105 mm evolved from the 88 mm in the sense that it was more accurate and had more power due to the ammunition it fired. In the US Navy, deck guns were used through the end of World War II, with a few still equipped in the early 1950s. Many targets in the
Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
were
sampan A sampan is a relatively flat-bottomed Chinese and Malay wooden boat. Some sampans include a small shelter on board and may be used as a permanent habitation on inland waters. The design closely resembles Western hard chine boats like th ...
s or other small vessels that were not worth a torpedo. The unreliability of the Mark 14 torpedo through mid-1943 also promoted the use of the deck gun. Most US submarines started the war with a single 3-inch (76 mm)/50 caliber deck gun, adopted in the 1930s to discourage commanders from engaging heavily armed escorts. However, the aging S-boats were equipped with a 4-inch (102 mm)/50 caliber gun, which was often used to re-equip 3-inch-gunned submarines as the S-boats were transferred to training duties beginning in mid-1942. By 1944 most front-line submarines had been refitted with a 5-inch (127 mm)/25 caliber gun, and some were equipped with two 5-inch guns. The cruiser submarines , and were each fitted with two
6"/53 caliber gun The 6"/53 caliber gun (spoken "six-inch-fifty-three-caliber") formed the main battery of some United States Navy light cruisers and three US submarines built during the 1920s. Description United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fi ...
s Mark 18 (152 mm) as built in the 1920s, the largest deck gun to be fitted on any United States submarine. In the Royal Navy, the was the last British submarine to be fitted with a deck gun (a QF 4 inch Mk XXIII). HMS ''Andrew'' was decommissioned in 1974 and the deck gun is now in the
Royal Navy Submarine Museum The Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport is a maritime museum tracing the international history of submarine development from the age of Alexander the Great to the present day, and particularly the history of the Royal Navy Submarine Service ...
. The last submarines in service in any navy to mount a deck gun were two of the four s of the
Peruvian Navy The Peruvian Navy ( es, link=no, Marina de Guerra del Perú, abbreviated MGP) is the branch of the Peruvian Armed Forces tasked with surveillance, patrol and defense on lakes, rivers and the Pacific Ocean up to from the Peruvian littoral. Addit ...
in 1999.


See also

* Naval artillery * List of naval guns


References


Bibliography

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External links

* * * * (World War I film of a U-boat patrol by Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, the highest scoring submarine ace of all time, in '' U-35''. The film depicts the finishing off of ships whose crews have been allowed to abandon them, in accordance with rules that Germany followed early in the war. The dynamiting team, deck gun, and one torpedo attack are shown. In six parts, silent with German caption slides and English subtitles.) *{{cite AV media , date=8 July 1945 , title=USS Cod fires machine guns, deck gun, and torpedoes, to scuttle Dutch submarine, ''O-19'', after rescuing her crew in World War II , medium=16mm film , url=http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675076088_USS-Cod_50-caliber-machine-gun_gun-crew-firing_navigator-with-sextant , publisher=U.S. Navy , via=Criticalpast.com Naval artillery