Added: 5 years ago
From: WELLBRAN
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  • Leave them britches alone... what'd they ever do to you!!!!

    Is that just an odd pronunciation of breeches?

  • I'm assuming the cover for the head is used for the hair. And if people are asking why their faces are exposed, there is no hair on your face that can burn off.

  • The last 13.5 BL gun to be made is now on display at the Royal Amouries museum at Fort Nelson Portsmouth.

    I've often looked at it and tried to figure out how the breech loading routine worked.

    Thanks to this clip I now know.

    You can see it on google Earth.

    Its at the front by the road.

  • @derbbus

    If you go to: watch?v=dCHip9ZVUW0

    ...you'll see internal shots from 4.5 and VANGUARD's 15 inch, where the single stop cage is the size of a sideboard.

    These turrets achieved a remarkably fast rate of fire with this loading system and quite why we didn't preserve one mounting I don't know. This aspect of engineering is now very difficult to research and maintains its air of mystery, all these years later.

    Even the IWM has very little footage of the internal workings.

  • @timpovikings

    There's a decent animation of the loading sequence on Wikipedia. (If you havent already seen it)?

    Look for BL 15inch mark 1 gun.

  • Wow thanks for posting this!

  • I've always thought it interesting that the turret crews put on anti-flash hoods and gloves, but leave their faces completely exposed.

  • Something to do with breathing in and out, I think, and being able to speak clearly.

  • The Vanguard arrangement meant the cage stayed in one place while shell and cordite were rammed. Big problem in these guns was caused by the cage whips stretching or parting during use, which obviously slowed the ROF.

    The cages also sometimes jammed the spoon - the piece that flips into the open breech as the cage rises. Slight movement of the barrel off the loading angle and ramming at just the wrong moment would kill the gun.

    No electronic interlocks back then!

  • These are KG V class.

    Nelson/Rodney didn't have the counterweights built around the breech or the recuperators on top. This cage is also unique. QEs and Vanguard had an arrangement whereby the loading number sat alongside the cage and rammed shell, then opened a trap to drop the first and second half charges of cordite into the space the shell had been in, and rammed them. External shots are almost certainly QEs.

    Vanguard turret drill appears in Sink The Bizmark - and it's awesome!

  • As far as I know this clip depicts HMS Howe, contrary to popular youtube opinion, so thanks for that KGV confirmation

  • WELLBRAN

    You're very welcome. Another clue is the cramped gunhouse and the 'stalls' between the guns for greater safety; lots of moving parts, very close together.

    Criminal we didn't save a battleship or monitor. The mechanics of large calibre gunnery are still something of a mystery. Which is why GIs thought themselves minor deities!

    BTW, is this loop from "GOING GREAT GUNS"?

  • WELLBRAN

    The VANGUARD drill is on a YT loop called "Sink The Bismarck WW2 Classic". It also has handling room and traverser clips.

    Rammer can be heard shouting the state of guns while loading: "RIGHT GUN SHELL - RIGHT GUN FIRST HALF CHARGE...!" If you watch, he gets on and off a chair that is on a pylon attached to the gun cradle and moves up and down with the gun.

    There is only one working 15 inch breech left and it's at the EXPLOSION museum in Portsmouth.

  • WELLBRAN

    This is the best footage I know of which shows the single-stop cage in close up.

  • Where'd you get this footage, if I can ask?

  • Looks like a triple turret unless the 4th gun was blocked by the camera angle. The rangefinding officer seemd to use a single viewfinder equipment so probably a British coincidence rangefinder. Could be a Nelson/Rodney.

  • king george?

  • I don't think so , the first shots inside the turret are definately a Nelson class battleship, unless as said before the 4th was obscured, The shot of the guns firing is either a queen Elizabeth class , possibly a revenge and if isn't any of those it would have to be the HMS vanguard

  • Too bad the Japanese never made videos like this for any of their battleships.

  • The loading process looks to be a little quicker and efficent than that of the Iowa Class ships guns.

  • That is my Dream job !

  • kgv is hms howe? there were 5 kgv class ships hms king george v, hms prince of wales, hms anson, hms howe, hms duke of york

  • These clips are from a variety of diffent ships especially the exterior ones, but the turret interior shots look like a KGV to me.

  • KGV is HMS Howe

  • could be very wrong but looks like a 3 gun turret,pos rodney nelson,the external view is a 15" 42cal though.

  • Nah wouldn't think so the rodey and nelson had three 16 inch guns mounted in their turrets. This ship has two she is most probably a queen elizabeth , Revenge or even the canguard but I doubt it

  • yes the first shots are of a tripple turret so must be nelson or rodney with 16". kgv class had two quad and one twin superfiring forward 14" and all the rest had 8 and 6 15" guns in twin turrets. so the first internal shots are tripples so nelson and rodney!!!

  • Poor old Vanguard - if the Brits had had her at the Falklands, Pt Stanley airport would have been out of action quick smart, and the Harriers could have stayed as CAP units.

  • This film looks to be of a KGV class Turret interior not right for Vanguard.

  • Youre right , we should have kept the one battlship like the vanguard in reserve - the mighty guns aren't useless Even better we should have kept Vanguard and the KGV class in reserve

  • The rangefinder must be a coincidence one judging from its single eyepiece. Very likely a British ship.

  • the ship shown firing Has a 15 inch/42 Cal. Mark 1 Gun in a Mark 1 Turret

  • Im only 13 Years old Man. Im just Addicted to World War 2 Battleships. Thats why I know Much about their Guns

  • Even more remarkable

  • @Detoyato great to hear, i got into them at the same age, they are fascinating. modern naval ships dont have the same grace and fearsomeness the battleships have! great video, very interesting

  • @bassistmatt uhuh!. And the WWI era ships were by far and away the most awesome. Ships like the Lutzow the Iron Duke the Moltke and the Lion. Great ships.

  • @Detoyato the ww1 brits have very elegant tripod masts, carried it through to ww2, a trademark. german ww1 ships have pole masts. the two are very distinctive. yep they look great! noticed this check out the Bayern class ww1 german battleships' turrets then look at the gun turrets on ww2 Bismarck class.

  • Thats from a KGV 14 inch Mark III Quad Gun Turret. Identified by Looking at the breech.

  • You must be the only 18ye old with inside knowledge of a WW2 Battleship, to be able to know that at 18 is extraordinary.

  • WWII photos of Japanese traitor helping US bombers to find the bombing location in Japan. American are very success field test on Japan. Now, they are challenge another countries (British, Russian, American, Korean...etc) reporter and press

    It is ashame to be a Japanese. Your grand father die because of Japanese traitor 万歳

  • However the footage is taken from various sources, as the archive footage is fragmented, so the Author has put together footage that represents the era. We are talking 60 odd years ago and archives have been chopped up and lost over the years. as you may or may not understand.

  • Just to say that the footage that this was taken from, was HMS Howe

  • Good clip and thanks for posting. One thing I noticed was that there were no bulkheads separating the guns. A hit on the turret would therefore knock out all of the guns at once.

  • That's fair enough. I thought it was some sort of official propaganda video. Thanks for replying.

    Having asked around, the footage of the interior of the turret is definitely a quad 14" turret from the KGVs.

  • Strange. I'm assuming that it's a 16" triple turret from the Nelson class shown in action, while the footage of a ship firing is definitely of a 15" gun ship. Poor splicing, but excellent anyway.

  • Who said it was the same ship? In any case the footage is from a good source and it clearly states on numerous occasions that some footage was strung together from different timeframes, for various reasons, being so old that a lot of footage was missing,or bad quality, or pre-editted for some reason. this was a long time ago you know?

  • Breech-mounted counterweights confirm quad 14", Nelson class and QEs had bare brass and steel breeches. Am currently attempting to digitise aimilar footage so may post when I find out how. SINK THE BISMARK contains nice shots of one of VANGUARD's gunhouses with splendid views of the loading of 15" guns and some brief shell room and traverser shots.

  • Yes, you're right, I always wondered where that footage came from, and only recently heard that part of the movie was shot on HMS Vanguard. Most of the video is a training film, made for recruits in WW2 and for security reasons a lot was left out.

  • If it's Vanguard, it's post WWII. Vanguard launched in Nov. '44 but didn't commission until Aug. '46. It's possible this was done during builders trials though.

  • @Bullettube High time the full movie came available by now!!!!

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