Disappearing gun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It should be possible to replace this fair use image with a freely licensed one. If you can, please do so as soon as is practical.
A disappearing gun was a type of (mainly coastal) artillery, which could be retracted (or recoiled after firing) into a protected housing or bunker. The advantages of this were concealment and cover from enemy fire, especially during the reloading stage. The gun usually moved into the protective housing by force of the shot's recoil, and was raised again by releasing energy stored in a hinged counterweight or by the use of compressed air.[1]
[edit] History
Designed in the 1860s (by Captain A. Moncrieff of the Edinburgh Militia), the systems involved soon got even more elaborate, with hydro-pneumatic recoil-control appearing in the 1880s. Disappearing 'carriages' tended to be extremely ponderous and complicated, with surviving records indicating a rate of fire of 1 per 1-2 minutes on a 8-inch (20 cm) gun, far slower than less complicated guns. Their size and complexity also made them very expensive.[1]
A series of Royal Navy/Royal New Zealand Navy trials carried out in New Zealand (where numerous disappearing guns had been bought and installed during the 'Russian scares'), revealed the virtual impossibility for a warship to obtain direct hits against a fixed shoreline target, except by chance hits in the general area. No further production of disappearing carriages was therefore undertaken. Though effective against ships, they were still quite vulnerable to air strikes. Therefore after World War I, batteries of disappearing guns were usually casemated or covered with camouflage for protection.[2]
By 1912 the guns were declared obsolete in the British Army, with only some other countries, particularly the United States, still producing them up to World War I[1] and using them through World War II.
[edit] See also
- Fort Queenscliff, Australia, Coastal Defence fortification
- Battery Chamberlin, home of one of the few remaining disappearing guns in the United States
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Disappearing Guns (from the Royal New Zealand Artillery Old Comrades Association)
- ^ Fort Winfield Scott: Battery Lowell Chamberlin. California State Military Museum. Retrieved on March 30, 2007.
