GERMAN GUNS AND ENGLISH SHIPS.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 445, 17 November 1875, Page 4

GERMAN GUNS AND ENGLISH SHIPS.

(Pall Mall Gazette.') The military contributor of the Cologne Gazette, referring to the trials which have taken place this summer on Herr Krupp's shooting ground at Visbeck. near Dulmen, observes that it has now been proved that even ironclads of the class of the Devastation would be powerless to force an entrance into a harbour gua r ded with the new heavy guns worked by the German navy. “ The condition,” he proceeds, “in which the target, an iron plate 16 inches thick, was left after eleven shots from the 26-centimetre coil gun and ten from the new 30£-centimetre gun, shows that any further strengthening of the iron plates of armoured ships would be fruitless. It appears from the photographs taken of the target after each shot that even when the firing was only half over the target was a mere wreck, so that a plate of 18 or 20 inches would be equally incapableof resisting the new guns as the oue on which the experiment was made. These trials have also proved that there is no necessity for increasing the size of our guns, as, if the system of simultaneous discharges by means of electricity were applied to the guns on our ironclads, twenty-four and twenty-six centimetre guns would be sufficient to penetrate the strongest plates known. How far the results of the trials will have an influence on naval construction remains to be seen. That in fighting at close quarters a broadside frigate firing its guns simultaneously at one point must produce a much more powerful effect than a turret ship, which can only fire two guns at a time, is beyond doubt. The latter, however, ensuies a more accurate aim at distant objects, and it is therefore probable that a certain number of turret ships will continue to bo used in our iron clad fleet. The Borsenzeitung says that the 26 centimetre Krupp, with a charge of 35 kilogrammes and a projectile of 175 kilogrammes, is now regarded by the German Admiralty as the best ship gun, and that the larger calibres of 28 and 30J centimetres will only be used for coast defences. As to the ships with 24-inch plates, such as the new English turret ship Inflexible, Herr Krupp has already laid befoie the German Admiralty plans for the construction of guns with calibres of 35.5 centimetres, 40 centimetres, and 46 centimetres, the latter, at a distance of 2000 paces, shooting through a 24-inch plate, and its teak backing. Another powerful gun which is to be used both on board ship and for coast defences is the 28 centimetre howitzer. This gun is charged with 20 kilogrammes of prismatic powder, and its projectile weighs 192 kilogrammes. Its range at an elevation of 22 degrees is 5800 metres, and at 60 degrees 6300 metres; and if it be raised to an angle of 70 degrees, a projectile fired from it will penetrate to a depth of 3 metres, when falling on a ship’s deck. The Borsenzeitung adds that the competition which has existed between the English and the German guns since 1868 may now be regarded as definitively closed in favor of the latter. “ The English guns have been driven step by step from the Continental markets, and there is now not a single State which will use English guns for its navy or the defence of its coasts. Only the other day a trial took place in Japan of the English heavy Woolwich guns and the German breechloaders, in which the former proved decidedly inferior, and the English gunmakers have thus lost their last customer except Brazil.”