World One War: Formidable's Guns
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The arms race, both militarily and Naval in the years prior to World War One was and has been defined as a catalyst to the outbreak of war in August 1914.
With the escalation of firepower and the need to ‘beat’ international competition, Great Britain’s Canopus and Formidable Class Pre-Dreadnought Battleships were a clear example of the ‘arms race’ which engulfed Europe.
At the turn of the 20th Century, Pre-Dreadnought Battleships were a key component in all European Navies.
In looking at the Canopus Class, this class of battleship was made up of six ships which entered service between 1899 and 1902. This class of ship had a primary armament of four 12inch Mk VIII (304.8mm) calibre long guns.
The 12inch Mk VIII gun was in fact one of the first large British Naval Guns designed to withstand the high pressure generated by the new cordite propellant. Not only was this gun designed to withstand large propellant blasts, but it was also Britain’s first large wire-wound gun.
The gun was initially installed on the Majestic-Class battleship from 1895, which was the predecessor to the Canopus-Class. The gun was also later installed on the Canopus-Class from 1899. The barrel and breach of the gun weighed in total 46 tons and the barrel length was 425.2 inches (10,800mm).
The shell fired by the Mk VIII weighed 850 pounds, the muzzle velocity of the gun was 2,367 feet per second (721 meters per second) and its effective range was 10,000 yards (9,100 meters).
By World War One, the Mk VIII Naval gun was obsolete and the guns were removed from the ageing Majestic and Canopus Class Battleships.
It is interesting to note that the Canopus-Class battleships were the first British Battleships to be fitted out with Water-Tube Boilers. The addition of Water-tube boilers generated more power than the cylindrical boilers used in previous ships. The new boilers led to the adoption of fore and aft funnels, rather than side-by-side funnels.
The Formidable-Class battleship was an enigmatic, yet short-lived design of the future…
HMS Formidable, completed by 1901, was the lead ship of her class of pre-Dreadnought battleships. Notably she was the second British Battleship to be sunk in action during World War One.
The Formidable-Classes armaments were a significant improvement on previous classes. The Formidable-Class was ‘up-gunned’ from 35-40-calibre 12inch guns. The new 12inch Mk IX (305mm) could be loaded at any bearing and elevation. The main improvement was that the shell hoist was split with a working chamber beneath the turrets to reduce the chance of a cordite explosion spreading to the magazine.
The Armstrong Whitworth 12inch gun of 40 calibres length was designed and built by Armstrong’s Ordnance works, Elswick Ordnance Company. It is surprising to discover that this type of gun was originally designed for the Royal Sovereign-Class Battleship, one of Great Britain’s earliest Pre-Dreadnought classes of Battleships. However due to financial constraints, the gun wasn’t introduced until the Formidable-Class.
Titled the ‘Type 41 12inch (305mm)/40 Calibre Naval Gun’, the weapon was the standard main battery on United Kingdom built Pre-Dreadnought ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy. In total Japan purchased 44 of these guns to outfit the Fuji and Shikiishima-Class Battleships.
The gun entered service with the Royal Navy on the Formidable-Class Battleships and was also outfitted to the Duncan-Class and King Edward VII-Class.
The gun weighed in total 49 Long Tons (50 Tons) and the barrel length was 485inches (12.32 meters)
The shell weighed 850 pounds (390kg) and the charge and shell were separate. The gun could elevate between -5 to +15 degrees and it could traverse from +150 degrees to -150 degrees.
The muzzle velocity was 2,481 feet per second (756 meters per second) and the effective range was 15,000 yards (14km) at 15 degree elevation.
In comparing both the guns of the classes, although the Mk of the gun had increased very little, the barrel length, muzzle velocity and effective range, rapidly increased with the Mk IX Naval Gun on-board Formidable.
Although there is evidence of gun design and performance improvement, the appearance of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 which heralded in a new-era of Naval Warfare, sounded the death knell for Pre-Dreadnought classes and ships as they became outclassed in every aspect of design and function.
Despite being quickly outclassed, the Formidable-Class of ships saw significant action in World War One, in particular the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. HMS Formidable was torpedoed and sunk by U-24 in 1915 and HMS Irresistible was sunk by a mine on the 18th of March 1915 in the Dardanelles.
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