Disappearance

The Disappearing Guns of HMS Temeraire (1876)

The Disappearing Guns of HMS Temeraire (1876) in loading and firing positions

Remnants of a gun carriage at South Channel Fort, Australia

Marine cannon BL 8 inches on the summit of Mount Victoria

Disappearing gun (also Verschwindelafette , Engl. : Disappearing Gun ) is a collective term for a historical gun type.

The common feature of these types is a movable mount that brought the gun to a lower level after the shot, which meant increased protection from direct fire for the gun crew. These guns were mainly used in coastal batteries , but were also used on the ship HMS Temeraire (1876).

Development history

The first design was made in the 1860s by Captain A. Moncrieff of the Edinburgh Militia . From 1871, guns with "Armstrong RBL 7-inch guns" on Moncrieff mounts were ready for use. The Moncrieff system was quickly developed and already had a hydropneumatic reverse brake in the 1880s. The retractable mounts tended to be very bulky and complicated.
The British ship HMS Temeraire (1876) was equipped with two "Disappearing Guns", one each as a bow and stern gun. The HMS Temeraire is the only ship known to be equipped with this type of gun.
The mount, known as Elswick mounting , is a version of the articulated mount built in the early 1880s by Armstrong's Elswick Ordnance Company (EOC) , which was used at the end of the 18th century for stationary artillery for fortress and coastal artillery. The mount was developed by Armstrong ’s Tyneside and manufactured by the Elswick Ordnance Company.

function

The recoil swung the gun back into a bunker. The advantages of this system were camouflage and protection against enemy fire when loading. After loading it was brought back to the firing position by a movable counterweight or compressed air. A few, like those at Fort Hancock, New Jersey , were steam powered.

The rate of fire was only one shot every 1-2 minutes for a 200 mm cannon, much less than conventional cannons of the same caliber. Their size and complex structure made them very expensive.

reception

The New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy conducted a series of disappearing gun firing attempts in New Zealand . These were procured during the Panjdeh incident during the conflict between Great Britain and Russia known as " The Great Game ". These tests showed that hits by a warship on a land battery of such a comparably small size occurred only by chance - the additional protective effect of the retractable gun was therefore not sufficiently related to the disadvantages. Based on the results, no further mountings were made.

The position was relatively well protected against attacks from the sea, but sensitive to air attacks. Therefore, after the First World War , the batteries were placed in casemates or at least camouflaged.

In 1912 the British Army declared the cannons obsolete. Only in a few states, especially the USA, were they manufactured up to the First World War and kept operational during the Second World War .

Montcrieff Gun (Flat Holm Island)
Manufactured by the Elswick Ordnance Company in the late 1890s
View of a well-preserved articulated mount
BL-8 gun (breech-loading / breech-loading 8 inch / 20.3 cm) on Elswick mounting

Positions

United States
- San Francisco: Battery Chamberlin , some of the few preserved cannons in the USA can be seen here today.
Fort Casey , Washington , one cannon has been preserved
Australia
- Fort Queenscliff , here is a cannon placed from the South Channel Fort.
- South Channel Fort
- Fort Scratchley in Newcastle
- Henry Head
- Shepherd's Hill Fort, Newcastle, Australia
New Zealand
- Mount Victoria , North Shore
- North Head; a barrel and parts of the carriage are preserved
- Taiaroa Head (fully preserved 6 "Armstrong cannon)

other
- Fort Wint on Grande Island in Subic Bay near Luzon in the Philippines

literature

Charles Stephenson: The Fortifications of Malta 1530-1945. (Fortress; 16). Osprey Publ., Oxford 2004, ISBN 1-84176-836-7 .
Thomas Allnutt Brassey, Tom Leyland: The disappearing gun. In: The Naval Annual. Adamant Media Corporation, Boston, Mass. 2000, ISBN 978-1-421-24176-0 (reprint of the Boston edition, Mass. 1900, 15th year)

Web links

Commons : Disappearances - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

↑ ^a ^b ^c Wally Ruffell, Disappearing Guns (accessed on Aug. 14, 2009) ( Memento from Aug. 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
↑ Roger Chesneau and Eugene M. Kolesnik, ed .: Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Conway Maritime Press, London 1979, ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c Disappearing Guns ( Memento from August 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (from the Royal New Zealand Artillery Old Comrades Association)
↑ Fort Winfield Scott: Battery Lowell Chamberlin . California State Military Museum. Retrieved March 30, 2007.

[Wally-1] Wally Ruffell, Disappearing Guns (accessed on Aug. 14, 2009) ( Memento from Aug. 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

[2] Roger Chesneau and Eugene M. Kolesnik, ed .: Conway's All The Worlds Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Conway Maritime Press, London 1979, ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5 .

[RNZ-3] Disappearing Guns ( Memento from August 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (from the Royal New Zealand Artillery Old Comrades Association)

[4] Fort Winfield Scott: Battery Lowell Chamberlin . California State Military Museum. Retrieved March 30, 2007.