THE BIGGEST GUNS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 54, 30 October 1914, Page 6

THE BIGGEST GUNS.

PRIDE OF BRITAIN'9 NAVY. THE 15-INCH RIFLE.

Perhaps'the most striking difference between the British, and the German tleets is shown in the guns they carr\ (states a writer in the Wellington Post). The policy of Britain has been to outdo her most formidable rival navy for navy, ship lor ship, and gun lor gun. Ana always the British ships have carried the heavier metal, is early every hghtable battleship in the British Navy carries guns or 12-inch failure, or higher, wnereas id is only within the paU nve or six years that a 12luch gun has made its appearance in German ships. Uur great naval euemj has as yet no bigger gun mounted, and only thirteen vessels, all Dreadnoughts, carry them—lib guns altugetlier. Britain has now two ships completing and two building with eignt la-inch guns; fourteen commissioned carrying 13.5-inch guns; sixteen Dreadnoughts armed with 12-inch; and 35 pre-Dreaduoughts each armed with four 12-inch, as well as smaller guns. The 13.5-inch gun was first mounted in the Lion, laid down in 1909; Germany's first 12-inch gun ship was laid down in 1908, and she is now building two vessels with 15-inch guns. A REMARKABLE WEAPON.

It is worth while to notice the 15inch gun. specially, for it is a very remarkable weapon, and is a particularly interesting example of the way in which the British naval authorities put sound faith in their own experience. The 13.5-inch gun, following upon tht 12-inch, 4 was found to be not only as much more powerful as was anticipated, but extremely accurate. Its "life," or'the number'of rounds it would fire without "becoming serious!} inaccurate through wear, was excellent; and the Admiralty decided to "go one better." As a rule, a new gun is not adopted except after severe and exhaustive trials; but the 15-inch gun was adopted virtually on paper. It was designed and built on the merit,of the 13.5-inch gun, and proved itself worthy of the faith that was reposed in it.. Because the full power of which such a gun is capable is so far aheaci of requirements, the gun itself as a piece of "construction has an ample reserve of strength and resistance to wear in the conditions imposed upon it, and the 15-ineh gun Which is now being placed in several of the latest ships has an extraordinarily long life. THE BEST GUN WE HAVE HAD.

Exact particulars of the weapon seem yet to have remained untold, but an idea of the nature of it can be gathered from the following remarks by the First Lord, Mr Winston Churchill, on the subject: "We ordered the whole of the 15-Ihch guns for the ships of the 1012-13 programme without ever making a trial gun. We trusted entirely to British naval science in marine artillery, to the excellence of our gunmaking system, and to the quality of British workmanship. "When the first of these guns was tried it yielded ballistic results which vindicated with what is to the lay mind marvellous exactitude the minutest calculations of the designer. It is the best gun we have ever .had; it reproduces all the virtues of the 13.5inch gun on a large scale, and it is the most accurate gun at all ranges that we have ever had. .As it is never pressed to its full compass by explosive discharge it will be an exceptionally long-lived gun.

"Its power may be measured by the fact that, Avbereas the 13.5-inch gun hurls a 14001 b projectile, a 15in gun discharges a projectile of nearly a ton in weight, and can hurl this immense mass of" metal ten or twelve miles. That is to say, there has been an increase of rather more than .30 per cont—l am purposely vague on this point—in the weight of the projectile for an addition of li-inch to the calibre.

"This increase in the capacity of the shell produces results in far greater proportion in its explosive power, and the high explosive charge which the 15-in gun can carry through and get inside the thickest armour afloat is very nearly half as large again in the 15-inch gun as was the charge in the 13.5-inch."

This 13.5-inch gun throws a shell of about 13501 b Weight, as against the 8501 b shot .of the 12-inch gun. The 15-inch gun throws a shell • weighing about 19501 b. The gun itself, as far as can be gathered from the figures available, weighs, in the 40-calibre type, 85 tons. * The charge used for firing is about 3801 b of cordite. Roughly, the energy developed by the 15inch gun is 30 per cent, greater than that of the 13.5-inch, and the effect it should produce on an enemy ship is 50 per cent, greater.