BL 15 “/ 42 Mark I - the first English naval gun caliber of 15 inches (381 mm). Developed in 1912. The gun was widely used in the British Navy and the coastal artillery and remained in service for a record long time.

Bl 15 Inch Mk I Naval Gun Application

The guns were mounted on battleships of various types from 1915 to 1944. HMS Vanguard was the last battleship built for the Royal Navy of England in 1944, armed with this type of weapon.

• Ships, armed with 15-inch guns Mark I.
• Battleships of the “Queen Elizabeth” (5 ships with eight guns each).
• Battleships of the “Rivendzh” (5 ships with eight guns each).
• Battle cruisers of the “Renown” (2 ships with six guns each).
• HMS Hood - Battlecruiser (8 guns).
• Battle cruisers of the “Glòries” (2 ships with four guns each).
• Monitors of the “Erebus” (2 ships with two guns each).
• Monitors such as “Marshal Ney” (2 ships with two guns each).
• Monitors of the “Roberts” (2 ships with two guns each).
• HMS Vanguard - Battleship (8 guns taken from the battle cruisers and Koreydzhes Glòries).
• The gun was used tagzhe in coastal defense. Five guns were mounted in Singapore in 1930. Two coastal guns (“Clam” and “Jane”) were installed near Uenstoun Farm in Kent in 1940.

Bl 15 Inch Mk I Naval GunProduction

There were produced 184 guns. Subsequently, they were taken from the ships, repaired, and returned to other vessels, thus extending their life. In the factories, the release was subdivided as follows.

• Armstrong Whitworth, Elswick, Newcastle 34.
• Armstrong Whitworth, Openshaw, Manchester 12.
• William Beardmore & Company, Parkhead, Glasgow 37.
• Coventry Ordnance Works, Coventry 19.
• Royal Arsenal, Woolwich - 33.
• Vickers Limited, Sheffield 49.
• Two guns, one from the battleship HMS Ramillies (left) and one from the battleship HMS Resolution (right), were installed in front of the Imperial War Museum in London.

Description and performance characteristics

This gun was traditional for the British at the time, with wire construction (on the inner tube trunk liner, multiple layers are wound steel rectangular wires, close to the top of the outer tube shell) to the gate of the piston type. The weight of guns, including the importance of the gate, was 101.6 tons (98.7 tons without a shutter).

The length of the barrel guns was 15,715 mm (42 gauge), and the total length of the barrel 16 520 mm (43.36 meters). Cannon led fire projectiles weighing 871 kg with a muzzle velocity of 732-785 m / s. The gun had a shallow slope with a constant cutting speed of 30 caliber and a depth of less than 1% of the gauge - 3.16 mm with a width of 11.3 mm grooves (rifling number 76). The field width is 4.44 mm.

Originally applied three types of shells: an armor-piercing, high-explosive, and polubroneboyny - all of equal weight - 871 kg, kitted lidditom (52.3 kg polubroneboynom) - the first two types of armor-piercing shells with a soft cap.

In the years 1918 - 1919, a piercing projectile with a mass of hard armor cap containing 20 kg Shellito (mixture of 2/3 trinitrophenol and 1/3 less able to knock dinitrophenol) was adopted. Then, Shellito replaced Lydda and other types of projectiles. According to some sources, in parallel with Shellito used amatol and TNT. The charge consisted of cordite MD45. The total control weighed 194 kg, reduced - 146 kg.

The maximum range of the guns Mark I was 22 400 meters (at an elevation angle of 20 °) and 29,720 meters (at an elevation angle of 30 °), but for coastal artillery guns that are adapted to large angles of elevation, the maximum range reached 40 370 m. The barrel life is 350 rounds, a full charge.