15.5 cm / 60 years 3 ship gun
| 15.5 cm / 60 years 3 ship gun | |
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| General Information | |
| Military designation: | 60 口径 三年 式 15.5cm3 連 装 砲 |
| Manufacturer country: | Japanese Empire |
| Developer / Manufacturer: | Marine workshops Kure |
| Development year: | 1930 |
| Production time: | 1935 to - |
| Number of pieces: | 80 |
| Weapon Category: | cannon |
| Team: | 19 to 22 in triplet towers |
| Technical specifications | |
| Pipe length: | 9.30 m |
| Caliber : |
155 mm (6.1 inch ) |
| Caliber length : | 60 |
| Number of trains : | 40 |
| Twist : | clockwise |
| Weight ready for use: | 12,700 kg |
| Cadence : | 5 rounds / min |
| Elevation range: | −7 ° to +55 degrees |
| Side straightening area: | depending on the tower |
| Furnishing | |
| Closure Type : | Screw lock |
| Charging principle: | Grenade and propellant bag |
The 15.5 cm / 60 year 3 ( Japanese 60 口径 三年 式 15.5cm3 連 装 砲 ) was a ship gun of the Imperial Japanese Navy . It was used on the Mogami-class cruisers , the cruiser Ōyodo, and the Yamato-class battleships . The designation year 3 indicates the year of the first development of the locking system, the year Taishō 3, or 1914 according to the Gregorian calendar.
development and construction
The weapon was developed as a direct result of the agreement from the Naval Conference in London of 1930 in order to make the best possible use of the maximum limit of 15.5 cm for the caliber of light cruisers . The weapon should be installed in triplet towers, which should be set up on the cruisers of the Mogami class , in order to be used here against ship targets as well as against air targets. When planning the cruisers, a later replacement of the turrets for those with 20 cm / 60 year 3 guns was planned, so that the turrets with the 15.5 cm / 60 year 3 guns were designed so that, for example, motors for movement the weapon could be housed completely within the towers. This later allowed these towers to be easily moved to other ships.
The locking system had already been developed in 1914 and was supplemented in 1933 and 1934 by the designs for a 15.5 cm gun with a suitable mount. The space available within the planned triplet turrets with a total weight of around 180 tons did not allow the breeches of all guns to be opened to the side, so the middle gun was rotated 45 ° to allow the breech of the middle gun to collide with that of the neighboring gun to prevent. Grenades and propellant charge had to be loaded separately with this weapon due to its weight.
The towers could be swiveled to the side at up to 6 ° per second. The speed with which the elevation angle of the pipes could be changed was up to 15 ° per second.
In order to protect the teams inside the towers from the tropical temperatures, a sheet of steel was pulled over the top and the front of the towers, which was fastened with spacers about 10 cm above the actual armor, in order to allow direct sunlight to the tower armor and thus to heat it up to prevent the interior of the tower.
The armor itself consisted of 2.5 centimeters of NVNC armored steel on all sides of the tower. A stereoscopic rangefinder with a base length of 8 meters was installed on top of some triplet towers for independent combat against targets. The rangefinders were on the heavy cruisers on a turret each at the bow and stern and on all four turrets of the battleships of the Yamato class.
The weapon itself was capable of firing various types of ammunition. With the maximum possible speed of the ammunition feed of five rounds per minute and barrel, the cadence of the weapon could not exceed this value and was therefore ultimately useless as an anti-aircraft weapon.
The types of ammunition used consisted of:
- Armor-piercing shells "Type 91" with a weight of 55.87 kg and a maximum range of 27,400 meters. The shell had no armor-piercing cap and could penetrate up to 100 mm of NVNC armor at an angle of impact of 30 ° and a distance of 20 km.
- "Type 4" high explosive shells weighing 45.02 kg
- Flare grenades with a range of up to 21,600 meters and a flare that generated up to 950,000 cn
The lifespan of the tubes was due to the design of 250 rounds, depending on the type of ammunition used, quite short.
commitment
The guns were first installed on the four Mogami-class cruisers in five triplet towers each, but these were removed in 1939 and replaced by 20.3 cm twin towers. Eight of these towers were placed on the two battleships Yamato and Musashi , four of which were removed in 1944. The light cruiser Ōyodo finally received two of these triplet towers in 1944, which were erected on its forecastle. The Tone class , the first ship of which was put into service in 1938, was originally also supposed to carry 15.5 cm triple towers, but received 20 cm weapons in the equipment phase.
The remaining guns were partly used for coastal defense and air defense in Japan. For example, near Sasebo in specially made single mounts.
Evidence and references
Remarks
- ↑ This number is limited to the soldiers directly in the tower. The soldiers who supplied the tower with ammunition on the lower levels are not included. USNTMJ O-47, p. 37
- ↑ USNTMJ Document O-19 also lists on page 19 a anti-submarine grenade weighing 51.38 kg. A Type 0 anti-aircraft grenade is mentioned on page 9 of this document, with a maximum deployment altitude of 8,010 meters and an effective fragment radius of 21 meters. However, contradictions and errors in the document make it difficult to make a clear statement.
- ↑ The information on the range is contradictory and fluctuates between 27,400 and 21,000 meters. Likewise, the designation of the storey as type 4 or type 0 - depending on the source used
Individual evidence
- ↑ USNTMJ 0-47 (1) p. 22
- ↑ USNTMJ 0-47 (1) page 27
- ↑ USNTMJ 0-47 (1) p. 16
- ↑ USNTMJ 0-47 (1) p. 32
- ^ Lacroix, Wells: Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. United States Naval Institute, Annapolis 1997, p. 463
- ↑ USNTMJ O-19, pp. 30 and 52
- ↑ USNTMJ O-19, p. 9
- ^ Defense of Japan 1945. pp. 17, 20.
literature
- William H. Garzke, Robert O. Dulin: Battleships: axis and neutral battleships in World War II. US Naval Institute Press, 1985, ISBN 0-87021-101-3 .
- Janusz Skulski: Anatomy of the ship, The Battleship Yamato. 1988, ISBN 0-85177-490-3 .
- Report of the United States Naval Technical Mission To Japan, Japanese Naval Guns and Mounts-Article 1, Mounts Under 18 ”, O-47 (1), 1946.
- Report of the United States Naval Technical Mission To Japan, Japanese Projectiles General Types, O-19, 1946.
- Steven J. Zaloga : Defense of Japan 1945. Osprey Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84603-687-3 .
