The 40.6 cm SK C/34 , sometimes known as the Adolfkanone (Adolf gun), was a German naval gun , designed in 1934 by Krupp and originally intended for the early H-class battleships .
77-435: Intended to be mounted in battleship turrets , the guns were produced in left and right-handed pairs. These pairs were split for individual mounting in the coastal defence role. The gun's barrel was approximately 20 metres (66 ft) long. In a coastal defence emplacement the gun could be elevated to 52 degrees, giving it a range of 56 kilometres (35 mi) with the special 600 kilograms (1,300 lb) long range shell called
154-410: A tower . A small turret, or sub-turret set on top of a larger one, is called a cupola . The term cupola is also used for a rotating turret that carries a sighting device rather than weaponry, such as that used by a tank commander. Before the development of large-calibre, long-range guns in the mid-19th century, the classic battleship design used rows of gunport-mounted guns on each side of
231-476: A barbette is a position on an aircraft where a gun is in a mounting which has a restricted arc of fire when compared to a turret, or which is remotely mounted away from the gunner. As such it is frequently used to describe the tail gunner position on bombers such as the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress , with American aviation books frequently describing the position as a tail gun turret, or simply as
308-471: A barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protection that eventually led to the pre-dreadnought . The name barbette ultimately comes from fortification : it originally meant a raised platform or mound, as in the French phrase en barbette , which refers to the practice of firing a cannon over a parapet rather than through an embrasure in
385-411: A barbette the protection was fixed, and the weapon and crew were on a rotating platform inside the barbette. In the 1890s, armoured hoods (also known as "gun houses") were added to barbettes; these rotated with the platform (hence the term "hooded barbette"). By the early 20th century, these hoods were known as turrets. Modern warships have gun-mountings described as turrets, though the "protection" on them
462-420: A carriage that retracted behind a parapet for reloading; this better protected the crew, and made the gun harder to target, since it was only visible while it was firing. The type was usually used for coastal defence guns. As naval gun turrets improved to allow greater elevation and range, many disappearing guns, most of which were limited in elevation, were seen as obsolescent; with aircraft becoming prominent in
539-578: A failed 1916 experiment, a variant of the SPAD S.A two-seat fighter was probably the first aircraft to be fitted with a remotely-controlled gun, which was located in a nose nacelle . As aircraft flew higher and faster, the need for protection from the elements led to the enclosure or shielding of the gun positions, as in the "lobsterback" rear seat of the Hawker Demon biplane fighter. The first British operational bomber to carry an enclosed, power-operated turret
616-415: A fortification's casemate . The former gives better angles of fire but less protection than the latter. The disappearing gun was a variation on the barbette gun; it consisted of a heavy gun on a carriage that would retract behind a parapet or into a gunpit for reloading. Barbettes were primarily used in coastal defences, but saw some use in a handful of warships, and some inland fortifications. The term
693-689: A gun placed to fire over a parapet, rather than through an embrasure , an opening in a fortification wall. While an en barbette emplacement offered wider arcs of fire, it also exposed the gun's crew to greater danger from hostile fire. In addition, since the barbette position would be higher than a casemate position—that is, a gun firing through an embrasure—it would generally have a greater field of fire. The American military theorist Dennis Hart Mahan suggested that light guns, particularly howitzers , were best suited for barbette emplacements since they could fire explosive shells and could be easily withdrawn when they came under enemy fire. Fortifications in
770-453: A gun turret mounted along the side, or the wings, of a warship , off the centerline. The positioning of a wing turret limits the gun's arc of fire, so that it generally can contribute to only the broadside weight of fire on one side of the ship. This is the major weakness of wing turrets as broadsides were the most prevalent type of gunnery duels. Depending on the configurations of ships, such as HMS Dreadnought but not SMS Blücher ,
847-416: A large, cylindrical gun turret mounted amidships above the low-freeboard upper hull , also referred to as the "raft". This extended well past the sides of the lower, more traditionally shaped hull. A small, armoured pilot house was fitted on the upper deck towards the bow; however, its position prevented Monitor from firing her guns straight forward. Like Coles's, one of Ericsson's goals in designing
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#1732855887679924-406: A low freeboard to reduce topweight and a corresponding tendency to capsize . By the 1870s, designers had shifted to the rotating barbette mount, which eschewed armor protection to reduce weight; this would permit the use of heavy guns in high-freeboard ships. This new type of vessel was referred to as a barbette ship , to differentiate them from turret ships and central battery ships . In
1001-480: A remotely operated twin- MG 131 machine gun Fernbedienbare Drehlafette FDL 131Z (Z – "zwilling" /twin) powered forward dorsal gun turret, with the full translation of the German term comprising the prefix as "Remotely controlled rotating gun mount". The term "lafette" in German actually refers to a gun carriage of nearly any type, with its original use as being for the mounting design for bombard -style siege guns of
1078-429: A revolving gun turret. Coles's aim was to create a ship with the greatest possible all round arc of fire, as low in the water as possible to minimise the target. The Admiralty accepted the principle of the turret gun as a useful innovation, and incorporated it into other new designs. Coles submitted a design for a ship having ten domed turrets each housing two large guns. The design was rejected as impractical, although
1155-425: A ship's upperworks and secondary armaments, as distances of battle were limited by fire control and weapon performance. In the early 1900s, weapon performance, armour quality and vessel speeds generally increased along with the distances of engagement; the utility of large secondary batteries reducing as a consequence, and in addition at extreme range it was impossible to see the fall of lesser weapons and so correct
1232-474: A small team passing fixed ammunition into the feed system. Smaller calibre weapons often operate on the autocannon principle, and indeed may not even be turrets at all; they may just be bolted directly to the deck. On board warships, each turret is given an identification. In the British Royal Navy , these would be letters: "A" and "B" were for the turrets from the front of the ship backwards in front of
1309-503: A tail gun. The term "barbette" is also used by some, again primarily British historians, to describe a remotely aimed and operated gun turret emplacement on almost any non-American military aircraft of World War II, but it is not usable in a direct translation for the varying German language terms used on Luftwaffe aircraft of that era for such emplacements. As just one example, the German Heinkel He 177 A heavy bomber had such
1386-547: A turret mounting, except for large destroyers, like the American Fletcher and the German Narvik classes. In naval terms, turret traditionally and specifically refers to a gun mounting where the entire mass rotates as one, and has a trunk that projects below the deck . The rotating part of a turret seen above deck is the gunhouse, which protects the mechanism and crew, and is where the guns are loaded. The gunhouse
1463-399: A turret where the rammer is fixed to the cradle that carries the guns, allowing loading to occur across a wider range of elevations. Earlier turrets differed significantly in their operating principles. It was not until the last of the "rotating drum" designs described in the previous section were phased out that the "hooded barbette" arrangement above became the standard. A wing turret is
1540-459: A turret, though the armored tube that held the turret substructure, which included the shell and propellant handling rooms and the ammunition hoists, was still referred to as a barbette. These ships were the prototype of the so-called pre-dreadnought battleships , which proved to be broadly influential in all major navies over the next fifteen years. When applied to military aircraft, largely in aviation history books written by British historians ,
1617-477: Is also used for certain aircraft gun mounts. Shipboard barbettes were primarily used in armoured warships, starting in the 1860s during a period of intense experimentation with other mounting systems for heavy guns at sea. In these, gun barrels usually protruded over the barbette edge, so barbettes provided only partial protection, mainly for the ammunition supply. Alternatives included the heavily-armoured gun turret and an armoured, fixed central gun battery . By
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#17328558876791694-467: Is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in some degree of azimuth and elevation (cone of fire). Rotating gun turrets protect the weapon and its crew as they rotate. When this meaning of the word "turret" started being used at the beginning of the 1860s, turrets were normally cylindrical. Barbettes were an alternative to turrets; with
1771-465: Is handled, and the main trunk, which accommodates the shell and propellant hoists that bring ammunition up from the magazines below. There may be a combined hoist ( cf the animated British turret) or separate hoists ( cf the US turret cutaway). The working chamber and trunk rotate with the gunhouse, and sit inside a protective armoured barbette . The barbette extends down to the main armoured deck (red in
1848-518: Is limited to protection from the weather. Rotating turrets can be mounted on a fortified building or structure such as a coastal blockhouse, be part of a land battery , be mounted on a combat vehicle , a naval ship , or a military aircraft , they may be armed with one or more machine guns , automatic cannons , large- calibre guns, or missile launchers . They may be manned or remotely controlled and are most often protected to some degree, if not actually armoured . The protection provided by
1925-475: Is supported on a bed of rotating rollers, and is not necessarily physically attached to the ship at the base of the rotating structure. In the case of the German battleship Bismarck , the turrets were not vertically restrained and fell out when she sank. The British battlecruiser Hood , like some American battleships, did have vertical restraints. Below the gunhouse there may be a working chamber, where ammunition
2002-801: The Bay of Danzig . All three guns were fired during May and June 1941 and shortly after the guns were dismounted and transported to France for use as Battery Lindemann. From this new location near Sangatte in France, they were used to fire at Dover , in the county of Kent in England and shipping in the English Channel. There is a Museum of Coastal Defence located in the remains of the battery in Hel. The seven guns that reached their destinations in Norway were split into two batteries: After
2079-768: The United States Army Air Corps , almost simultaneously with the RAF's Overstrand biplane bomber design. The Martin XB-10 prototype aircraft first featured the nose turret in June 1932—roughly a year before the less advanced Overstrand airframe design—and was first produced as the YB-10 service test version by November 1933. The production B-10B version started service with the USAAC in July 1935. In time
2156-488: The radio alphabet was used on naming the turrets (e.g. "Anton", "Bruno" or "Berta", "Caesar", "Dora") as on the German battleship Bismarck . In the United States Navy , main battery turrets are numbered fore to aft . Secondary gun mounts are numbered by gun muzzle diameter in inches followed by a second digit indicating the position of the mount, with the second digit increasing fore to aft. Gun mounts not on
2233-611: The "Q" turret amidships in favour of heavier guns in fewer mountings. Like pre-dreadnoughts , the first dreadnoughts had two guns in each turret; however, later ships began to be fitted with triple turrets. The first ship to be built with triple turrets was the Italian Dante Alighieri , although the first to be actually commissioned was the Austro-Hungarian SMS ; Viribus Unitis of the Tegetthoff class . By
2310-525: The 19th century typically employed both casemate and barbette emplacements. For example, the Russian Constantine Battery outside Sevastopol was equipped with 43 heavy guns in its seaward side during the Crimean War in the mid-1850s; of these, 27 were barbette mounted, with the rest in casemates. A modified version of the barbette type was the disappearing gun , which placed a heavy gun on
2387-551: The Admiralty remained interested in turret ships and instructed its own designers to create better designs. Coles enlisted the support of Prince Albert , who wrote to the first Lord of the Admiralty, the Duke of Somerset, supporting the construction of a turret ship. In January 1862, the Admiralty agreed to construct a ship, HMS Prince Albert which had four turrets and a low freeboard, intended only for coastal defence. While Coles designed
40.6 cm SK C/34 gun - Misplaced Pages Continue
2464-484: The Adolf-shell. It used the standard German naval system of ammunition where the base charge was held in a metallic cartridge case and supplemented by another charge in a silk bag. In terms of construction the 406 millimetres (16.0 in) guns were identical to the 38 cm SK C/34 - only the calibre of the barrel was different. The rate of fire for the weapon was around 2 rounds per minute as coastal artillery. Since
2541-522: The First World War, they were largely seen as obsolete. However, they remained in use through the early Second World War, at least by the United States, due to limited funding for replacement weapons between the wars. Later heavy coastal guns were often protected in hybrid installations, in wide casemates with cantilevered overhead cover partially covering a barbette or gunhouse mount. Following
2618-540: The Overstrand was fitted with an enclosed and powered nose turret , mounting a Lewis gun . Rotation was handled by pneumatic motors while elevation and depression of the gun used hydraulic rams. The pilot's cockpit was also enclosed but the dorsal (upper) and ventral (belly) gun positions remained open, though shielded. The Martin B-10 all-metal monocoque monoplane bomber introduced turret-mounted defensive armament within
2695-552: The Russian town of Taganrog in the Black Sea during the Siege of Taganrog . The Lady Nancy "proved a great success" and Coles patented his rotating turret design after the war. The British Admiralty ordered a prototype of Coles's patented design in 1859, which was installed in the ironclad floating battery, HMS Trusty , for trials in 1861, becoming the first warship to be fitted with
2772-684: The aim. Therefore, most early dreadnought battleships featured "all big gun" armaments of identical calibre, typically 11 or 12 inches (280 or 300 mm), some of which were mounted in wing turrets. This arrangement was not satisfactory, however, as the wing turrets not only had a reduced fire arc for broadsides, but also because the weight of the guns put great strain on the hull and it was increasingly difficult to properly armour them. Larger and later dreadnought battleships carried superimposed or superfiring turrets (i.e. one turret mounted higher than and firing over those in front of and below it). This allowed all turrets to train on either beam, and increased
2849-402: The animation). At the base of the turret sit handing rooms, where shell and propelling charges are passed from the shell room and magazine to the hoists. The handling equipment and hoists are complex arrangements of machinery that transport the shells and charges from the magazine into the base of the turret. Bearing in mind that shells can weigh around a 5 long tons (5.6 short tons; 5.1 t),
2926-490: The beginning of World War II , most battleships used triple or, occasionally, quadruple turrets, which reduced the total number of mountings and improved armour protection. However, quadruple turrets proved to be extremely complex to arrange, making them unwieldy in practice. The largest warship turrets were in World War II battleships where a heavily armoured enclosure protected the large gun crew during battle. The calibre of
3003-667: The bombers; making beam, stern and rising attacks practicable. Although the idea had some merits in attacking unescorted bombers the weight and drag penalty of the turret (and gunner) put them at a disadvantage when Germany was able to escort its bombers with fighters from bases in Northern France. By this point British fighters were flying with eight machine guns which concentrated firepower for use in single fleeting attacks of fighters against bombers. Barbettes Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships . In recent naval usage,
3080-546: The bridge and behind the "B" turret, thus having restricted training fore and aft. Secondary turrets were named "P" and "S" ( port and starboard ) and numbered from fore to aft, e.g. P1 being the forward port turret. There were exceptions; the battleship HMS Agincourt had the uniquely large number of seven turrets. These were numbered "1" to "7" but were unofficially nicknamed "Sunday", Monday", etc. through to "Saturday". In German use, turrets were generally named "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", going from bow to stern. Usually
3157-509: The bridge, and letters near the end of the alphabet (i.e., "X", "Y", etc.) were for turrets behind the bridge ship, "Y" being the rearmost. Mountings in the middle of the ship would be "P", "Q", "R", etc. Confusingly, the Dido -class cruisers had a "Q" and the Nelson -class battleships had an "X" turret in what would logically be "C" position; the latter being mounted at the main deck level in front of
40.6 cm SK C/34 gun - Misplaced Pages Continue
3234-474: The centerline would be assigned odd numbers on the port side and even numbers on the starboard side. For example, "Mount 52" would be the forwardmost 5 inches (130 mm) gun mount on the starboard side of the ship. During World War I, air gunners initially operated guns that were mounted on pedestals or swivel mounts known as pintles . The latter evolved into the Scarff ring , a rotating ring mount which allowed
3311-883: The end of the war the Trondenes guns were taken over by the Norwegian Army , along with 1,227 shells. The battery was last fired in 1957 and formally decommissioned in 1964. The three Engeløya guns were sold for scrap in 1956 but the four guns at Trondenes were spared and one is open as a museum. In the summer there are normally three or four guided tours per day. The three guns from Hel, re-sited in France and renamed Batterie Lindemann (German unit MKB 6 / MAA 244), saw considerable service. The three guns were emplaced singly in turrets, protected by massive concrete encasements in places four metres thick. The battery fired 2,226 shells at Dover between 1940 and 1944. The guns were not put out of action by bombing despite being hit many times, thanks to
3388-511: The fallen captain of the battleship Bismarck , Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann . One of the remaining guns was used to replace the worn-out gun #2 at Batterie Lindemann , while serial #11 has not been accounted for yet (it may have also been used as replacement at Batterie Lindemann ). The first three guns were situated at the Hel Fortified Area , Poland as Battery Schleswig-Holstein (German unit MKB 2 / MAA 119) during 1940 to protect
3465-524: The firepower of those guns unable to engage an enemy because they sited on the wrong beam into a more powerful, and more versatile unified battery. Designs for a rotating gun turret date back to the late 18th century. In the mid-19th century, during the Crimean War , Captain Cowper Phipps Coles constructed a raft with guns protected by a 'cupola' and used the raft, named the Lady Nancy , to shell
3542-533: The first seagoing warship to carry her guns in turrets. Laid down in 1866 and completed in June 1869, it carried two turrets, although the inclusion of a forecastle and poop prevented the turret guns firing fore and aft. The gun turret was independently invented in the United States by the Swedish inventor John Ericsson , although his design was technologically inferior to Coles's version. Ericsson designed USS Monitor in 1861, its most prominent feature being
3619-597: The gap and jammed the turrets during the First Battle of Charleston Harbor in April 1863. Direct hits at the turret with heavy shot also had the potential to bend the spindle, which could also jam the turret. Monitor was originally intended to mount a pair of 15-inch (380 mm) smoothbore Dahlgren guns , but they were not ready in time and 11-inch (280 mm) guns were substituted, each gun weighing approximately 16,000 pounds (7,300 kg). Monitor ' s guns used
3696-594: The gun to be turned to any direction with the gunner remaining directly behind it, the weapon held in an intermediate elevation by bungee cord , a simple and effective mounting for single weapons such as the Lewis Gun though less handy when twin mounted as with the British Bristol F.2 Fighter and German "CL"-class two-seaters such as the Halberstadt and Hannover -designed series of compact two-seat combat aircraft. In
3773-688: The heaviest armament: four 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns or, late in the war, two AN/M2 light-barrel versions of the US Browning M2 machine gun as in the Rose-Rice turret . The tail gunner or "Tail End Charlie" position was generally accepted to be the most dangerous assignment. During the war, British turrets were largely self-contained units, manufactured by Boulton Paul Aircraft and Nash & Thompson . The same model of turret might be fitted to several different aircraft types. Some models included gun-laying radar that could lead
3850-427: The hoists have to be powerful and rapid; a 15 inches (380 mm) turret of the type in the animation was expected to perform a complete loading and firing cycle in a minute. The loading system is fitted with a series of mechanical interlocks that ensure that there is never an open path from the gunhouse to the magazine down which an explosive flash might pass. Flash-tight doors and scuttles open and close to allow
3927-603: The intended 56,000-ton H-class battleships “H” and “J” were never completed, the guns that had been designed for them were used as coastal defense artillery during the Second World War . At least twelve guns were produced; seven were sited in Norway, and three were used in Poland near Danzig . Soon after their first training shots, the Polish guns were moved to France and sited near Sangatte and renamed Batterie Lindemann in honour of
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#17328558876794004-512: The introduction of ironclad warships in the early 1860s, naval designers grappled with the problem of mounting heavy guns in the most efficient way possible, beginning with broadside box batteries and quickly moving to rotating gun turrets , since these afforded the ability to fire directly ahead, which was deemed important due to the adoption of ramming tactic after the Battle of Lissa in 1866. But early turrets were very heavy, which necessitated
4081-451: The late 1880s, all three systems were replaced with a hybrid barbette-turret system that combined the benefits of both types. The armoured vertical tube that supported the new gun mount was referred to as a barbette. Guns with restricted arcs of fire mounted in heavy bombers during World War II—such those in the tail of the aircraft, as opposed to fully revolving turrets—were also sometimes referred to as having barbette mounts, though usage of
4158-540: The late 1880s, the British Royal Navy adopted a new mounting that combined the benefits of both kinds of mounts in the Majestic class . A heavily armoured, rotating gun house was added to the revolving platform, which kept the guns and their crews protected. The gun house was smaller and lighter than the old-style turrets, which still permitted placement higher in the ship and the corresponding benefits to stability and seakeeping. This innovation gradually became known simply as
4235-410: The late 19th century up until the 1910s. In pre-dreadnought battleships, the wing turret contributed to the secondary battery of sub-calibre weapons. In large armoured cruisers , wing turrets contributed to the main battery, although the casemate mounting was more common. At the time, large numbers of smaller calibre guns contributing to the broadside were thought to be of great value in demolishing
4312-489: The main armament on large battleships was typically 300 to 460 mm (12 to 18 in). The turrets carrying three 460 mm (18 in) guns of Yamato each weighed around 2,500 t (2,500 long tons; 2,800 short tons). The secondary armament of battleships (or the primary armament of light cruisers ) was typically between 127 and 152 mm (5.0 and 6.0 in). Smaller ships typically mounted guns of 76 mm (3.0 in) and larger, although these rarely required
4389-603: The much faster firing 8-inch to shoot during the long reload time necessary for 12-inch guns by superposing secondary gun turrets directly on top of the primary turrets (as in the Kearsarge and Virginia -class battleships), but the idea proved to be practically unworkable and was soon abandoned. With the advent of the South Carolina -class battleships in 1908, the main battery turrets were designed so as to superfire , to improve fire arcs on centerline mounted weapons. This
4466-522: The number of turrets carried and the number of guns mounted increased. RAF heavy bombers of World War II such as the Handley Page Halifax (until its Mk II Series I (Special) version omitted the nose turret), Short Stirling and Avro Lancaster typically had three powered turrets: rear, mid-upper and nose. (Early in the war, some British heavy bombers also featured a retractable, remotely-operated ventral /mid-under turret). The rear turret mounted
4543-485: The passage between areas of the turret. Generally, with large-calibre guns, powered or assisted ramming is required to force the heavy shell and charge into the breech . As the hoist and breech must be aligned for ramming to occur, there is generally a restricted range of elevations at which the guns can be loaded; the guns return to the loading elevation, are loaded, then return to the target elevation, at which time they are said to be "in battery". The animation illustrates
4620-420: The ship was to present the smallest possible target to enemy gunfire. The turret's rounded shape helped to deflect cannon shot. A pair of donkey engines rotated the turret through a set of gears; a full rotation was made in 22.5 seconds during testing on 9 February 1862. However, fine control of the turret proved to be difficult, as it would have to be reversed if it overshot its mark. In lieu of reversing
4697-423: The ship, often mounted in casemates . Firepower was provided by a large number of guns, each of which could traverse only in a limited arc. Due to stability issues, fewer large (and thus heavy) guns can be carried high on a ship, but as this set casemates low and thus near the waterline they were vulnerable to flooding, effectively restricted their use to calm seas. Additionally casemate mounts had to be recessed into
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#17328558876794774-523: The side of a vessel to afford a wide arc of fire, and such recesses presented shot traps , compromising the integrity of armour plating. Rotating turrets were weapon mounts designed to protect the crew and mechanism of the artillery piece and with the capability of being aimed and fired over a broad arc, typically between a three-quarter circle up to a full 360 degrees. These presented the opportunity to concentrate firepower in fewer, better-sited positions by eliminating redundancy, in other words combining
4851-485: The standard propellant charge of 15 pounds (6.8 kg) specified by the 1860 ordnance instructions for targets "distant", "near", and "ordinary", established by the gun's designer Dahlgren himself. They could fire a 136-pound (61.7 kg) round shot or shell up to a range of 3,650 yards (3,340 m) at an elevation of +15°. HMS Thunderer (1872) represented the culmination of this pioneering work. An ironclad turret ship designed by Edward James Reed , she
4928-511: The strain on the hull would have been too great. Many modern surface warships have mountings for larger calibre guns, although the calibres are now generally between 3 and 5 inches (76 and 127 mm) for use against both air and surface targets . The gunhouses are often just weatherproof covers for the gun mounting equipment and are made of light un-armoured materials such as glass-reinforced plastic . Modern turrets are often automatic in their operation, with no humans working inside them and only
5005-577: The target and compensate for bullet drop . As almost a 1930s "updated" adaptation of the First World War Bristol F.2b concept, the UK introduced the concept of the "turret fighter", with aeroplanes such as the Boulton Paul Defiant and Blackburn Roc where the armament was four (0.303 in (7.7 mm)) machine-guns was in a turret mounted behind the pilot, rather than in fixed positions in
5082-406: The term is primarily restricted to British publications. American authors generally refer to such mounts as tail guns or as tail gun turrets. The use of barbette mountings originated in ground fortifications. The term originally referred to a raised platform on a rampart for one or more guns, enabling them to be fired over a parapet . This gave rise to the phrase en barbette , which referred to
5159-496: The thick concrete. Only Bruno turret was damaged, on 3 September 1944, when a shell from a British railway gun hit its elevating gear; the battery was captured shortly afterwards. 68°50′02″N 16°34′59″E / 68.8339°N 16.5831°E / 68.8339; 16.5831 Gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret ) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret
5236-456: The turret from sliding sideways. When not in use, the turret rested on a brass ring on the deck that was intended to form a watertight seal. However, in service, the interface between the turret and deck ring heavily leaked, despite caulking by the crew. The gap between the turret and the deck proved to be another kind of problem for several Passaic -class monitors , which used the same turret design, as debris and shell fragments entered
5313-433: The turret may be against battle damage, the weather conditions, general environment in which the weapon or its crew will be operating. The name derives from the pre-existing noun turret , from the French "touret", diminutive of the word "tower", meaning a self-contained protective position which is situated on top of a fortification or defensive wall as opposed to rising directly from the ground, in which case it constitutes
5390-413: The turret, a full rotation would have to be made to train the guns where desired. Including the guns, the turret weighed approximately 160 long tons (179 short tons; 163 t); the entire weight rested on an iron spindle that had to be jacked up using a wedge before the turret was free to rotate. The spindle was 9 inches (23 cm) in diameter which gave it ten times the strength needed in preventing
5467-638: The turrets, the ship was the responsibility of Chief Constructor Isaac Watts . Another ship using Coles' turret designs, HMS Royal Sovereign , was completed in August 1864. Its existing broadside guns were replaced with four turrets on a flat deck and the ship was fitted with 5.5 inches (140 mm) of armour in a belt around the waterline. Early ships like the Royal Sovereign had little sea-keeping qualities being limited to coastal waters. Sir Edward James Reed , went on to design and build HMS Monarch ,
5544-461: The weight of fire forward and aft. The superfiring or superimposed arrangement had not been proven until after South Carolina went to sea, and it was initially feared that the weakness of the previous Virginia -class ship's stacked turrets would repeat itself. Larger and later guns (such as the US Navy's ultimate big gun design, the 16"/50 Mark 7 |16-inch) also could not be shipped in wing turrets, as
5621-526: The wing turrets could fire fore and aft, so this somewhat reduced the danger when an opponent crossed the T enabling it to fire a full broadside. Attempts were made to mount turrets en echelon so that they could fire on either beam, such as the Invincible -class and SMS Von der Tann battlecruisers , but this tended to cause great damage to the ships' deck from the muzzle blast. Wing turrets were commonplace on capital ships and cruisers during
5698-489: The wings. The Defiant and Roc possessed no fixed, forward-firing guns; the Bristol F.2 was designed with one synchronized Vickers machine gun firing forward on a fuselage mount. The concept came at a time when the standard armament of a fighter was only two machine guns and in the face of heavily armed bombers operating in formation, it was thought that a group of turret fighters would be able to concentrate their fire flexibly on
5775-445: Was equipped with revolving turrets that used pioneering hydraulic turret machinery to maneouvre the guns. She was also the world's first mastless battleship , built with a central superstructure layout, and became the prototype for all subsequent warships. With her sister HMS Devastation of 1871 she was another pivotal design, and led directly to the modern battleship. The US Navy tried to save weight and deck space, and allow
5852-483: Was necessitated by a need to move all main battery turrets to the vessel's centerline for improved structural support. The 1906 HMS Dreadnought , while revolutionary in many other ways, had retained wing turrets due to concerns about muzzle blast affecting the sighting mechanisms of a turret below. A similar advancement was in the Kongō -class battlecruisers and Queen Elizabeth -class battleships, which dispensed with
5929-473: Was the Boulton & Paul Overstrand twin-engined biplane, which first flew in 1933. The Overstrand was similar to its First World War predecessors in that it had open cockpits and hand-operated machine guns. However, unlike its predecessors, the Overstrand could fly at 140 mph (230 km/h) making operating the exposed gun positions difficult, particularly in the aircraft's nose. To overcome this problem,
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