DISASTROUS HANG-FIRE
TRAGEDY ON DEVONSHIRE EXPLAINED 8-INCH GUN EXPLODES (United P.A. —By Telegraph — Copyright) British Official IVireiess Reed. 11 a.m. RUGBY, Tuesday. The Admiralty announces that it has been ascertained that the cause of the recent gun accident on the cruiser Devonshire, through which 17 lives were lost, is attributed to a hangfire of very short duration in one gun of the eight-inch turret. Owing to the simultaneous discharge of the other guns in the same turret, it was probably momentarily thought that the gun in question had also fired, and the operation of reloading was therefore commenced. It appears probable that the mistake was immediately discovered, but before it could be rectified the charge in the gun exploded and blew out the paritally-unlocked breech-block. The great force of the explosion also ignited the cordite charges, which were waiting in their containers to be loaded for tho next round.
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Bibliographic details
Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 729, 31 July 1929, Page 9
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149DISASTROUS HANG-FIRE Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 729, 31 July 1929, Page 9
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