The QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt was a light 57 mm naval gun and coast defence gun of the late 19th century used by many countries.
Note that this gun should not be confused with the short-barreled 57 mm Cockerill-Nordenfelt
"Canon de caponnière" or fortification gun, which was used to arm the German
A7V
The A7V was a heavy tank introduced by Germany in 1918 during World War I. One hundred chassis were ordered in early 1917, ten to be finished as fighting vehicles with armoured bodies, and the remainder as ''Überlandwagen'' cargo carriers. Th ...
tank in World War I.
Nordenfelt guns can be visually differentiated from equivalent and similar Hotchkiss guns by having slimmer barrels than the Hotchkiss, hence the Nordenfelt was considerably lighter.
United Kingdom
The UK adopted a 42-calibre version as Ordnance QF 6-pounder Nordenfelt
[British forces traditionally denoted smaller ordnance by the weight of its standard projectile, in this case .] Mk I, Mk II, Mk III.
United Kingdom Naval service
They were originally mounted from 1885 onwards for use against the new (steam-driven)
torpedo boats
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...
which started to enter service in the late 1870s. The Nordenfelt gun was adopted at the same time as the very similar
QF 6 pounder Hotchkiss
The Ordnance QF Hotchkiss 6 pounder gun Mk I and Mk II or QF 6 pounder 8 cwt were a family of long-lived light naval guns introduced in 1885 to defend against new, small and fast vessels such as torpedo boats and later submarines. There were ma ...
, but the Navy was not satisfied with the special Nordenfelt ammunition and fuzes. Following the explosion in 1900 of an ammunition ship due to defective fuses, Britain replaced Nordenfelt fuzes with the Hotchkiss design. Nordenfelt guns were phased out in favour of the Hotchkiss and were declared obsolete by 1919.
Finland
When Finland gained its independence from Russia in 1917 dozens of QF 6-pounder Nordenfelt cannons were stationed in Finland. After the
Finnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...
in 1918 around 35 - 40 Nordenfelt cannons became available to the Finnish army. These guns were later used as a standard light coastal gun of the Finnish coastal artillery and were in service until the 1950s. During
World War II
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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
some of these guns were also used as fortification artillery and bunker guns in the
Mannerheim Line
The Mannerheim Line ( fi, Mannerheim-linja, sv, Mannerheimlinjen) was a defensive fortification line on the Karelian Isthmus built by Finland against the Soviet Union. While this was never an officially designated name, during the Winter War it ...
.
Ammunition
Diagrams showing the proprietary Nordenfelt 1-inch (top left) and 6-pounder (all others, labelled "2.2 inch") ammunition designs :
Surviving examples
A gun at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, Manly, Queensland, Australia*
A gun at the Manege Military Museum, Helsinki, Finland
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 ordnance ...
Weapons of comparable role, performance and era
*
QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss
The Ordnance QF Hotchkiss 6 pounder gun Mk I and Mk II or QF 6 pounder 8 cwt were a family of long-lived light naval guns introduced in 1885 to defend against new, small and fast vessels such as torpedo boats and later submarines. There were ma ...
: Hotchkiss equivalent
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 and L.F. Thurston, British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914-1918. London: Ian Allan, 1972.
External links
Handbook for the Nordenfelt 6-PR quick firing guns Marks I and II. Great Britain. Admiralty. London : Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office by Eyre & Spottiswoode 1887at State Library of Victoria
Handbook of the 6 pounder Nordenfelt quick-firing gun. Land service 1892, 1900at State Library of Victoria
Handbook of the Nordenfelt 6-pr. quick-firing guns, marks I and II, 1897at State Library of Victoria
*
ttp://www.victorianshipmodels.com/antitorpedoboatguns/Nordenfelt/nordenfelt6pdrqf.html Nordenfelt 6 pdr Quick FirerHistory, technical details, animations
Animation showing the mechanism of the Nordenfelt 6 pdr
{{DEFAULTSORT:QF 06 pounder Nordenfelt
Victorian-era weapons of the United Kingdom
57 mm artillery
Naval guns of the United Kingdom
Coastal artillery
