Thursday, April 25, 2013

HAPPY 98TH ANZAC DAY! ~ QF 4.7 INCH GUN MK I - IV [WEAPON OF THE FORTNIGHT ~ SUNDAY 14 APRIL 2013 TO SATURDAY 27 APRIL 2013]



            I would love to wish every Australians and New Zealanders a Happy 98th ANZAC Day! I chose the QF 4.7 Inch Mk I – IV Naval gun as the weapon of the fortnight to remember those soldiers. I got all the information from Wikipedia.          

Each year on ANZAC Day in Te Awamutu, New Zealand the graves of War Veterans are decorated.
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and suffering of all those who have served." Originally 25 April every year was to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Anzac Day is also observed in the Cook Islands, Niue, Pitcairn Islands, and Tonga. It is no longer observed as a national holiday in Papua New Guinea or Samoa.

Typical naval deck mounting, 1890s
 

Naval gun
Medium field gun
Coastal defence gun
Place of origin
Service history
In service
1887–1918
Used by
Naval: United Kingdom 
Japan
Field: 
Wars
Production history
Designer
Designed
ca. 1885
Manufacturer
Number built
1,167[1]
Variants
Mark I, II, III, IV, VI
Specifications
Weight
Barrel & breech 4,592 lb (Mk I–III); 4,704 lb (Mk IV)
Barrel length
189 inch bore (40 cal)
Crew
10

Separate loading QF; WWI : AP, Shrapnel, Common Lyddite, Common pointed, HE 45 pounds (20.41 kg)
120 millimetres (4.72 in)
Single motion interrupted screw
12 inch (carriage Mk I)
-6° – 20° (Mk I field carriage)
Traverse
5–6 rounds per minute
Gunpowder : 1,786 feet per second (544 m/s)
Cordite : 2,150 feet per second (660 m/s) with Cordite
Maximum range
10,000 yards (9,100 m) at 20°, 12,000 yards (11,000 m) at 24°


The QF 4.7 inch Gun Mks I, II, III, and IV were a family of British quick-firing 120-mm naval and coast defence guns of the late 1880s and 1890s which served with the navies of various countries. They were also mounted on various wheeled carriages to provide the British Army with a long range gun. They all had a bore of 40 calibres length.

The gun was originally designed to replace the older BL 5 inch (127 mm) naval guns. It was optimised for the modern smokeless propellants such as Cordite and could be loaded and fired far more rapidly than the BL 5-inch gun while firing a shell only slightly lighter.


1 Design and development

The guns were designed and manufactured by the Elswick Ordnance Company, part of Armstrong Whitworth. They were a major export item and hence were actually of 120 mm calibre (4.724 inches) to meet the requirements of metricised navies: 4.7 inch is an approximation used for the British designation. The guns, Mark I to Mark III, were Pattern P, Pattern Q and Pattern T respectively. All three differed in detail of construction but were of the tube and hoop types. The Mark IV differed from these by incorporating a wire wound element to its construction. As first built, all used a three-motion screw breech, some were altered later by modifying the three-motion screw becoming "A" subtypes, or by fitting a single motion breech ("B" type). Army guns altered to use a bagged charge with a steel (instead of the more usual brass) case were renumbered as Mark VI.

2 United Kingdom service

2.1 Royal Navy service

British pre-dreadnoughts and cruisers of the period used these guns. Total production was 154 Mark I, 91 Mark II, 338 Mark III and 584 Mark IV. The Royal Navy received 776 of these guns directly. The Army transferred a further 110 to the Navy.

The Latona-class minelayer gave up their guns to produce high-angle anti-aircraft guns to defend London.

By World War I the guns were obsolete for warship use, but many were re-mounted on merchant ships and troopships for defence against enemy submarines and commerce raiders.

2.2 British Army service

In land service, limited numbers were mounted for use as coast artillery. In addition, some Mark IV guns were mounted on converted 40-Pr Rifled Breech Loading Gun carriages for use by batteries of the Volunteer Artillery. These were semi-mobile guns with limbers, which could be drawn by horses or gun tractors. They continued in use with artillery units of the Territorial Force, with some being used into the First World War.

"Joe Chamberlain" at Magersfontein.

Gun on static siege mounting, Siege of Ladysmith.

Gun on "Percy Scott" carriage at the Battle of Colenso.
 2.3 Second Boer War (1899–1902)

British forces in the Second Boer War were initially outgunned by the long range Boer artillery. Captain Percy Scott of HMS Terrible first improvised timber static siege mountings for two 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns from the Cape Town coastal defences, to counter the Boers' "Long Tom" gun during the Siege of Ladysmith in 1899–1900.

Captain Scott then improvised a travelling carriage for 4.7 inch guns removed from their usual static coastal or ship mountings to provide the army with a heavy field gun. These improvised carriages lacked recoil buffers and hence in action drag shoes and attachment of the carriage by cable to a strong point in front of the gun were necessary to control the recoil. They were manned by Royal Navy crews and required up to 32 oxen to move.

2.4 World War I

2.4.1 South-West Africa Campaign (1914–1915)

The same guns mounted on "Percy Scott" carriages were used by South African forces against German forces in the South-West Africa Campaign in World War I. Guns were landed at Lüderitz Bay in October 1914 and later at Walvis Bay in February 1915 and moved inland across the desert in support of South African troops.

In sand, South West Africa Campaign, WWI. Note oxen.
2.4.2 Western Front (1914–1917)

Up to 92 QF 4.7 inch guns on more modern Mk I "Woolwich" carriages dating from June 1900 with partially effective (12 inch) recoil buffers, and on heavier "converted" carriages from old RML 40 pounder guns, went to France with Royal Garrison Artillery units, mostly of the Territorial Force, in 1914–1917.

They figured prominently in the early battles, such as at Neuve Chapelle in March 1915 where there were 32, and only 12 60 pounders, assigned to counter-battery fire. General Farndale reports that counter-battery fire there failed to deal with the German artillery, but ascribes the failure to the as yet imprecise nature of long range map shooting, and the difficulty of maintaining forward observers on the flat terrain.

By the Battle of Aubers Ridge on 9 May 1915 the barrels of the 28 guns of the 3rd and 8th Heavy Brigades and the 1st West Riding and 1st Highland Heavy Batteries engaged were now so worn that driving bands were stripped off shells at the muzzle, limiting accuracy. In addition two guns in the armoured train "Churchill" were in action at Aubers Ridge. Thirty-three 60 pounders were available. Counter-battery fire again failed due to the inaccuracy of the worn-out guns and also because the army still lacked accurate means of locating enemy guns, as air observation and reporting and use of radio was only beginning.

The inaccuracy through wear and relatively light shell diminished their usefulness in the developing trench warfare, and they were replaced by the modern 60 pounder guns as they became available. At the Battle of the Somme in June–July 1916 there were 32 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns and 128 60-pounders engaged. The last were however not withdrawn until April 1917. Guns withdrawn from the Western Front were redeployed to other fronts such as Italy and Serbia.

On 1900 Mk I "Woolwich" carriage, Sausage Valley, Somme 1916.
 
2.4.3 Battle of Gallipoli (1915)

A 4.7 inch gun was used by the 1st Heavy Artillery Battery, a joint unit of Australians and Royal Marines, on Gallipoli to counter long range Turkish fire from the "Olive Grove" (in fact "Palamut Luk" or Oak Grove) between Gaba Tepe and Maidos. Lt-Colonel Rosenthal, commanding 3rd Australian Field Artillery Brigade, noted : "I had made continual urgent representations for two 4.7-inch guns for right flank to deal with innumerable targets beyond the range of 18-prs., but it was not till 11 July that one very old and much worn gun arrived, and was placed in position on right flank, firing its first round on 26 July. " This gun was destroyed and left behind at the withdrawal from Gallipoli but later salvaged as a museum piece. The burst barrel is on display at the Australian War Memorial.

Germans with captured QF gun, on "Woolwich" carriage, in Belgium
2.4.4 Salonika Front

Several 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns mounted on "Percy Scott" carriages served with British and Serb forces in the Salonika (Macedonian) campaign from January 1916 onwards.

Dragging the gun up to its position at Anzac, July 1915.
Gun in emplacement at Anzac, Gallipoli.

Surviving examples

·         Preserved 4.7"/40 (12 cm) Mark IV*/VI on field carriage outdoors at Artillery Park, Valladolid, Spain.
·         The burst gun barrel from Gallipoli is displayed at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
·         Naval gun on display at the Museo Tecnico Navala Della Spezia, Italy.
·         Japanese-built 4.7"/40 Mark IV in the Military Museum of Finland in Suomenlinna, Finland
·         4.7 inch QF Gun, No.563, Mark IV, manufactured in 1894 by Royal Gun Factory, preserved in courtyard of Indian Museum at Kolkata (Calcutta)

Japanese-built 4.7"/40 Mark IV in Manege Military Museum
See also
Weapons of comparable role, performance and era
 


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