SIXTEEN-INCH GUNS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 14 September 1916, Page 3

SIXTEEN-INCH GUNS.

AMERICA’S NEW WARSHIPS. LESSONS OF THE WAR, After a discussion lasting more than a year, and closely watching the work of the British and German battleships, Navy has recommended, and the Secretary of the Navy has approved, the the General Board of the American arming of the new battleships California and Tennessee with 16-inch guns in place of the 14-ineh guns carried

by the “Pennsylvania ” class. These vessels carry twelve Id-inch guns. The new ships will have eight 10-inch guns, and naval experts who advocate the larger calibre say the additional range of 2000 yards will make them more efficient and give them advantage over ships with smaller guns. The opponents of big guns says that very few actions will be fought at the extreme range of 17,000 yards; that at 15,000 yards, which is the extreme range of the Id-inch gun its penetrating power is equal to that of the 16inch gun, and that at that range and closer the 12-ineh and Id-inch guns can concentrate a heavier volume of fire than eight guns of larger calibre. The fear, how r ever, of the American Navy being outranged was the decisive factor, and as the British Navy has 15inch guns it was decided to arm the new vessels with the still larger weapon. The Naval Bureau of Ordnance has already built and tested a 16-inch gun at the naval proving grounds.