7.5" Naval Guns 1917 XV Corps

[petwes]

A bit of a puzzle.

The war diary for XV Corps lists an Artillery group of Naval Siege Guns (Long Range Gun Group). 312 SB and 330 SB are shown as being equipped with 7.5" guns. I cannot find anything about guns of this calibre being used on the Western front. Just to confuse matters WO95/5494 records that these batteries were equipped with 5" guns at that time.

Any comments would be welcome.

Peter

[SiegeGunner]

Where were these naval guns sited, Peter? The Royal Naval Siege Guns on the Belgian Coast had a number of 7.5" guns (Armstrong's, Elswick), acquired when the pre-dreadnought battleship Swiftsure (ex-Constitucion) was disarmed. Swiftsure's sister ship Triumph (ex-Libertad) also had 7.5" guns (Vickers), and the spares may have been redeployed after she was sunk off Gallipoli in 1915.

[dman]

There were a number of different models of 7.5 in guns in use by Royal Navy

They were made in various length - 45 or 50 calibers (caliber is length of gun barrel, thus a 50 caliber gun is 50 times bore diameter)

They were used on some classes of heavy cruisers amd as secondary armament for pre dreadnought battleships

NAV WEAPS site lists 4 different models of 7.5 inch guns

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_Main.php

[petwes]

Thank you both for the comments. The guns were indeed located on the Belgian coast although no precise location is given.

(By the way, I have corrected my original post as I managed to get the Corps number wrong. Sorry for any confusion).

It would seem most probable that WO95/5494 has got it wrong as I can't find any reference to a British 5" gun.

It would seem therefore most likely that these would have been the guns from Swiftsure. How would these guns have been mounted? Would they have been mobile or in a fixed emplacement?

Peter

[ororkep]

330 SB personnel were attached to Naval Siege Guns (Long Range Gun Group) under Commander H.C. Hallahan D.S.O., R.N., namely the 4 x 7.5 Guns of the ‘Swiftsure’ Battery at Oust Dunkirke M32a.10.05 (Sheet 11). Wyndham Lewis was the Subaltern commanding No 4 gun and his book ‘Blasting and Bombardiering’ gives a flavour of the period. The other two Naval 7.5 Batteries in the group were ‘Diana’ (x 2guns) and ‘Langleys’ (x 2 guns). As well as 312 SB, sections of 267 SB and 325 SB were also attached. They would appear to be in emplacements taken over from the French (unconfirmed). The 5in reference is a mistype.

Rgds

Paul

[petwes]

Thanks Paul