Superfiring

Arrangement of gun turrets on a warship with one higher and behind the other The two bow gun turrets on one of the first superfiring battleships, the Brazilian Minas Geraes. They are "superfiring" because one has been mounted over the other, and can shoot over its top. Superfiring armament is a naval design technique in which two or more turrets are located one behind the other, with the rear turret located above ("super") the one in front so that it can fire over the first. This configuration meant that both forward and aft turrets could fire at any target within their sector, even when the target was directly ahead of the turrets. History Historically, large surface warships were known by the generic label of battleships, with a further distinction between pre-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts. The era of technical evolution occurred roughly from 1900 to 1945. Part of the technical evolution was driven by the need to compress as much large-gun firepower into the smallest space possible. In early designs, the large-caliber turrets were all located on the same plane firing to one side or the other. In firing ahead or to the rear, usually only the forward-most or rearmost turret could f