BL 12 inch Railway Gun
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| Ordnance BL 12 inch Gun Mk IX on truck, railway | |
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 12 inch Mk IX W railway gun on Armstrong Mk II mounting, Meaulte, France 1916 |
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| Type | Naval gun |
| Place of origin |  United Kingdom |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1915 - 1930 (Rail) |
| Used by | United Kingdom |
| Wars | First World War |
| Production history | |
| Manufacturer | Woolwich Arsenal (guns) Vickers & Elswick Ordnance Company (carriage) |
| Produced | 1906 (guns) |
| Number built | 4 (Rail) |
| Variants | mountings Mk I, Mk II |
| Specifications | |
| Barrel length | Bore 480 inches (12.192 m) (40 cal) |
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| Shell | HE 850 pounds (385.55 kg) |
| Calibre | 12-inch (304.8 mm) |
| Breech | Welin screw |
| Recoil | Hydro - spring, 34 inches (863.6 mm)[1] |
| Carriage | Railway truck |
| Elevation | 0° - 30°[1] |
| Traverse | 1° L & R[1] |
| Muzzle velocity | 2,610 feet per second (796 m/s)[1] |
| Maximum range | 32,700 yards (29,900 m)[1] |
| Filling | Amatol |
| Filling weight | 94 pounds (42.64 kg) |
The Ordnance BL 12 inch gun Mk IX on truck, railway mounted surplus 12 inch Mk IX W naval guns, manufactured by Woolwich Arsenal in 1906 [2], on various railway platforms to provide mobile long-range heavy artillery on the Western Front in World War I.
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[edit] History
Vickers mounted 2 Mk IX W guns on slightly different railway mountings, Mk I, from September 1915. They are both identified by the open-frame appearance, recoil buffers above the barrel and the bogies with frames between the wheels similar to locomotive bogies. One mounting has a distinctive diamond-shape from the side and has warping winch on the front; the other's carriage has a more squared-off profile with no warping winch at the front.
Elswick Ordnance Company (Armstrongs) mounted 2 more on its own design of Mk II railway mounting, delivered to the Western Front in August 1916. They are identified by the boxed-in frame appearance, recoil buffers below the barrel and the bogies with frames outside the wheels.
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[edit] Combat service
At the end of World War I, the dispositions of the guns on the Western Front were : 1 gun of 92 Battery and 1 gun of 543 Battery with First Army i.e. Artois; 1 gun of 92 Battery with Third Army i.e. Somme; 1 gun of 543 Battery with Fourth Army i.e. Somme.[3]
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[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d e Hogg & Thurston 1972, Page 193
- ^ Hogg & Thurston 1972, Page 192. At least 1 of the guns may have been manufactured during WWI, as 'British 12"/40 (30.5 cm) Mark IX' states that only 3 Mk IXw guns were actually originally built but that 6 more were made during WWI.
- ^ Farndale 1986
[edit] References
- Dale Clarke, British Artillery 1914-1919. Heavy Artillery. Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2005
- General Sir Martin Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Western Front 1914-18. Oxford: Royal Artillery Society, 1986.
- I.V. Hogg & L.F. Thurston, British Artillery Guns & Ammunition 1914-1918. London: Ian Allan, 1972.
[edit] See also
[edit] Surviving examples
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