rolt968 Posted 21 January , 2018 Share Posted 21 January , 2018 I am researching a Royal Marine gunner who was lost at Coronel with HMS Monmouth. Can anyone tell me which guns on HMS Monmouth were manned by marines? Traditionally on cruisers and capital ships with four main turrets Royal Marines manned X turret. I believe this was because traditionally it was nearest to their mess deck. HMS Monmouth had fourteen six inch guns, but only two twin turrets (one each fore and aft) on the centre line. The rest were side mounted. RM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horatio2 Posted 21 January , 2018 Share Posted 21 January , 2018 (edited) You are confusing the employment of RMA and RMLI. It was the RMA gunners who manned main armament turrets, usually in battleships and battle cruisers. RMLI men were not "gunners" but privates and they manned the secondary armament. There were no RMA gunners in HMS MONMOUTH and some of her armament (in this case the single mountings) would have been manned by RMLI. Edited 21 January , 2018 by horatio2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolt968 Posted 21 January , 2018 Author Share Posted 21 January , 2018 9 minutes ago, horatio2 said: You are confusing the employment of RMA and RMLI. It was the RMA gunners who manned main armament turrets, usually in battleships and battle cruisers. RMLI men were not "gunners" but privates and they manned the secondary armament. There were no RMA gunners in HMS MONMOUTH and some of her armament (in this case the single mountings) would have been manned by RMLI. Although RMLI, this man was a qualified gunner. RM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horatio2 Posted 21 January , 2018 Share Posted 21 January , 2018 Certainly. That is the difference between being an RMLI private qualified in gunnery and an RMA man holding the equivalent rank of 'gunner'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolt968 Posted 21 January , 2018 Author Share Posted 21 January , 2018 Is there any way of knowing which gun he served? Would nearest to the marines' mess deck apply? RM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horatio2 Posted 21 January , 2018 Share Posted 21 January , 2018 Impossible to say, in my opinion, and I doubt that the messing arrangements had much to do with the allocation of action stations. There is previous discussion regarding HMS CHESTER here :- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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