QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt
| QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt | |
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| General Information | |
| Military designation: | Ordnance QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt |
| Manufacturer country: |
 United Kingdom
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| Developer / Manufacturer: | Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company |
| Development year: | 1885 |
| Start of production: | 1885 |
| Model variants: | Mk I, II, III |
| Weapon Category: | cannon |
| Technical specifications | |
| Pipe length: | 42-50 caliber |
| Caliber : |
57 mm |
The QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt was a 57 mm caliber ship gun. QF stands for Quick Fire (Schnellfeuergeschütz), 6 pounder for the bullet weight and Nordenfelt for the manufacturer (The designation of British guns at the time of construction was not uniform, guns were named according to the bullet weight, the weight of the gun or the caliber ). The guns were used in the fleets of various countries and in stationary coastal fortifications. Several versions with tube lengths between 42 and 50 calibers were produced.
The cannon should not be confused with the short-barreled Cockerill-Nordenfelt "Canon de caponnière" , which was used as armament in the German A7V tank .
From the QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss can QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt be visually distinguished by the slender tube.
construction
The gun fired cartridged ammunition . Propellant charge , distributor and grenade were combined in one cartridge and loaded together. This type of ammunition was called Fixed QF .
commitment
The QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt was used in the fleets of numerous countries.
In the Royal Navy, the versions Mk I, II and III with a tube length of 42 calibers were used. The gun was used on warships from 1885. The task was to defend against the then newly emerging steam-powered, fast torpedo boats . Exercises had shown that the cadence and aiming speed of conventional artillery were inadequate for fighting small and fast targets. The task was later expanded to include combat against (surfaced) submarines . The cannon was introduced almost simultaneously with the Ordnance QF-6 pounder Hotchkiss , but the two guns used different ammunition. The ammunition and detonators specially developed for the Nordenfelt, however, were unsatisfactory in practice. After the explosion of an ammunition transporter in 1900, which could be traced back to defective detonators, the existing Nordenfelt detonators were replaced by Hotchkiss detonators. The QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt was subsequently gradually taken out of armament and replaced by Ordnance QF-6 pounder Hotchkiss , in 1919 the use of this weapon in the Royal Navy ended.
literature
- Text Book of Gunnery, 1902. LONDON: PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE
- Ian V. Hogg , LF Thurston: British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914–1918. Ian Allan, London 1972, ISBN 0-7110-0381-5 .
