QF 4.7 inch Gun Mk I - IV

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QF 4.7 inch Gun Mk I - IV
On "Percy Scott carriage", of the type used in the South West Africa Campaign, WWI
Type	Naval gun Medium field gun Coast defence gun
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	1887 - 1918
Used by	Naval: United Kingdom Italy Japan United States Field: United Kingdom ‎Union of South Africa Australia
Wars	Second Boer War World War I
Production history
Designer	Elswick Ordnance
Designed	ca. 1885
Manufacturer	Elswick Ordnance Vickers Sons and Maxim
Number built	1,167^[1]
Variants	Mark I, II, III, IV, VI
Specifications
Weight	Barrel & breech 4,592 lb (Mk I - III); 4,704 lb (Mk IV)^[2]
Barrel length	189 inch bore (40 cal)^[2]
Crew	10

Shell	Separate loading QF; WWI : AP, Shrapnel, Common Lyddite, Common pointed, HE 45 lb (20.41 kg)^[3]
Calibre	4.724 inch (120 mm)
Breech	single motion interrupted screw
Recoil	12 inch (carriage Mk I)
Elevation	-6° - 20° (Mk I field carriage)^[2]
Traverse	0°
Rate of fire	5-6 rounds per minute
Muzzle velocity	2,150 ft/s (648 m/s)^[4]
Maximum range	10,000 yds at 20°, 12,000 yards at 24°^[5]

The Ordnance QF 4.7 inch Gun Mk I, II, III, IV were a family of British naval and coast defence guns of 1888 and 1890s which were also mounted on various wheeled carriages to provide the British Army with a long range gun. They all had a bore of 40 calibres length.

The gun was originally designed to replace the older 5 inch (127 mm) naval guns and was optimised for the modern smokeless propellants such as Cordite.

1 Design and development
2 Naval service
3 Second Boer War (1899 - 1902)
4 World War I
5 Surviving examples
6 Notes
7 References
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] Design and development

The guns were designed and manufactured by the Elswick Ordnance Company, part of Armstrong Whitworth. The guns, Mark I to Mark III, were Pattern P, Pattern Q and Pattern T respectively. All three differed in detail of construction but were of the tube and hoop types. The Mark IV differed from these by incorporating a wire wound element to its construction. As first built, all used a three-motion screw breech, some were altered later by modifying the three-motion screw becoming "A" subtypes, or by fitting a single motion breech ("B" type). Army guns altered to use a bagged charge with a steel (instead of the more usual brass) case were renumbered as Mark VI.

Total production was 154 Mark I, 91 Mark II, 338 Mark III and 584 Mark IV. The Royal Navy received 776 of these guns directly. the Army transferred a futher 110 to the Navy.

[edit] Naval service

The guns saw use on several ships of different navies. British Pre-dreadnoughts and cruisers of the period used them as did Italian cruisers built by Ansaldo. The Japanese built very similar guns under licence as the "4.7 inch /40 (12 cm) 41st Year Type" for their cruisers. From their stocks they transferred 13 of their own build and 24 other 4.7 inch guns to Britain during the First World War.

The US Navy New Orleans Third Class Cruisers used them; these had been built by Armstrongs for the Brazilian navy but bought by the US. The Latona class minelayers gave up their guns to produce high-angle anti-aircraft guns to defend London.^[6]

[edit] Second Boer War (1899 - 1902)

"Joe Chamberlain" firing at Magersfontein

Gun on static siege mounting, Siege of Ladysmith

British forces in the Second Boer War were initially outgunned by the long range Boer artillery. Captain Percy Scott of the Royal Navy improvised a travelling carriage for 4.7 inch naval guns removed from their usual static coastal or ship mountings to meet this challenge.

These improvised carriages lacked recoil buffers and hence in action drag shoes and attachment of the carriage by cable to a strong point in front of the gun were necessary to control the recoil^[7]. They were manned by Royal Navy crews and required up to 32 oxen to move^[7].

The guns were also mounted on carriages from 6 inch howitzers, as at the Battle of Colenso (1899). Captain Scott also improvised timber static siege mountings for two 4.7 inch guns to counter the Boers' "Long Tom" gun during the Siege of Ladysmith in 1899-1900^[7].

[edit] World War I

[edit] South-West Africa Campaign (1914-1915)

In sand, South West Africa Campaign, WWI. Note oxen

The same guns and "Percy Scott carriages" were used by South African forces against German forces in the South-West Africa Campaign in World War I. Guns were landed at Lüderitz Bay in October 1914 and later at Walvis Bay in February 1915 and moved inland across the desert in support of South African troops.

[edit] Western Front (1914 - 1917)

On 1900 Mk I "Woolwich" carriage, Western Front

Up to 92 QF 4.7 inch guns on more modern Mk I "Woolwich" carriages dating from June 1900 with partially effective (12 inch) recoil buffers, and on heavier "converted" carriages from old RML 40 pounder guns, went to France with Royal Garrison Artillery units, mostly of the Territorial Force, in 1914-1917.

They figured prominently in the early battles, such as at Neuve Chapelle in March 1915 where there were 32, and only 12 60 pounders, assigned to counter-battery fire. General Farndale reports that counter-battery fire there failed to deal with the German artillery, but ascribes the failure to the as yet imprecise nature of long range map shooting, and the difficulty of maintaining forward observers on the flat terrain.^[8]

By the Battle of Aubers Ridge on 9 May 1915 the barrels of the 28 guns of the 3rd and 8th Heavy Brigades and 1st West Riding & 1st Highland Heavy Batteries engaged were now so worn that driving bands were stripped off shells at the muzzle, limiting accuracy.^[9] In addition two guns in the armoured train "Churchill" were in action at Aubers Ridge. Thirty-three 60 pounders were available. Counter-battery fire again failed due to the inaccuracy of the worn-out guns and also because the army still lacked accurate means of locating enemy guns^[10], as air observation and reporting and use of radio was only beginning.

The inaccuracy through wear and relatively light shell diminished their usefulness in the developing trench warfare, and they were replaced by the modern 60 pounder guns as they became available. At the Battle of the Somme in June-July 1916 there were 32 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns and 128 60 pounders engaged.^[11] The last were however not withdrawn until April 1917. Guns withdrawn from the Western Front were redeployed to other fronts such as Italy and Serbia.^[12]

[edit] Battle of Gallipoli (1915)

Dragging the gun up to its position at Anzac, July 1915

Gun in emplacement at Anzac, Gallipoli

A 4.7 inch gun was used by the 1st Heavy Artillery Battery, a joint unit of Australians and Royal Marines, on Gallipoli to counter long range Turkish fire from the "Olive Grove" (in fact "Palamut Luk" or Oak Grove)^[13] between Gaba Tepe and Maidos. Lt-Colonel Rosenthal, commanding 3rd Australian Field Artillery Brigade, noted : "I had made continual urgent representations for two 4.7-inch guns for right flank to deal with innumerable targets beyond the range of 18-prs., but it was not till 11th July that one very old and much worn gun arrived, and was placed in position on right flank, firing its first round on 26th July.^[14]" This gun was destroyed and left behind at the withdrawal from Gallipoli but later salvaged as a museum piece^[15]. The burst barrel is on display at the Australian War Memorial.

[edit] Salonika Front

Several 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns mounted on "Percy Scott carriages" served with British and Serb forces in the Salonika (Macedonian) campaign from January 1916 onwards.

[edit] Surviving examples

A preserved 4.7"/40 (12 cm) Mark IV*/VI on field carriage outdoors at Artillery Park, Valladolid, Spain.
The burst gun barrel used at Gallipoli is displayed at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
Naval gun on display at the Museo Tecnico Navala Della Spezia, Italy^[16]

[edit] Notes

^ http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_47-40_mk1.htm Navweaps.com] accessed 7th April 2008
^ ^a ^b ^c Hogg & Thurston 1972, page 111
^ Various shell weights, both heavier and lighter than 45 lb (20.41 kg), were tried. Early Mk I - IV Common Lyddite shells weighed 46 lb 9 oz (21.1 kg) Subsequent Mks V, VI, VII beginning October 1909, weighed 45 lb. All shells used in WWI are believed to be 45 lb. Sources : Hogg & Thurston 1972, Page 242; Treatise on Ammunition 10th Edition 1915, pages 45, 165, 170, 188, 217
^ cordite
^ 12,000 yds at 24° with 45 lb (20.41 kg) shell is quoted by Hall, December 1971. Tony Bridgland, "Field Gun Jack versus the Boers" (Pages 7-8) quotes a range of 12,000 yards being achieved at 24° in trials of the improvised field carriage at Simonstown in October 1899, and refers to The Times reporting this figure. 10,000 yards at 20° in WWI is quoted by Hogg & Thurston page 111, referring to the maximum elevation of Mk I field carriage. Hogg & Thurston 1972 page 235 quote 11,800 yards at 30° on CP (centre pintle mount) for the coast defence gun. Lighter and heavier shells were tried early in the gun's career, but by WWI 45 lb was the standard shell weight.
^ British 4.7"/40 (12 cm) Elswick 4.7"/40 (12 cm) QF Marks I, II, III, IV and VI
^ ^a ^b ^c Hall 1971
^ Farndale 1986, page 87, 88
^ Farndale 1986, page 104
^ Farndale 1986, page 106, 107
^ Farndale 1986, page 144
^ Hogg & Thurston 1972, page 110
^ Mallett 1999
^ Rosenthal 1920
^ Mallett 2005
^ Sala armi subacquee