| BL 15 inch Mark I | |
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An animation representing the loading cycle of the Mark I turret for the BL 15 inch Mark I. |
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| Type | naval gun |
| Place of origin | UK |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1915-1959 |
| Used by | UK |
| Production history | |
| Designed | 1912 |
| Manufacturer | see text |
| Produced | 1912-1918 |
| Number built | 186 |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 100 long tons (100 t)[1] |
| Length | 650.4 inches (16.52 m)[1] |
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| Shell | separate charges and shell |
| Shell weight | 1,920 pounds (870 kg) |
| Calibre | 15-inch (381.0 mm) |
| Recoil | 46 inches (1.2 m)[1] |
| Rate of fire | 2 rounds per minute |
| Muzzle velocity | 2,575 feet per second (785 m/s) |
| Maximum range | 32,500 yards (29,720 m): 30° elevation, streamlined shell |
The BL 15 inch Mark I succeeded the 13.5-inch (340 mm) gun. It was the first British 15 inch (381 mm) gun design and the most widely used and longest lasting of any British designs, and arguably the most efficient heavy gun ever developed by the Royal Navy. It was deployed on capital ships from 1915 until 1959, and was a key Royal Navy gun in both World Wars.
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This gun was an enlarged version of the successful BL 13.5 inch Mk V naval gun, specifically intended to arm the new Queen Elizabeth class battleships as part of the British response to the new generation of Dreadnought battleships Germany was building during the naval arms race leading up to World War I. The normal slow and cautious prototype and testing stages of a new gun's development were bypassed, and it was ordered straight from the drawing board due to the urgency of the times. In the event it met all expectations and was a competitive battleship main armament throughout both World Wars.
The barrel was 42 calibres long (i.e., 15 in x 42 = 630 in) and was referred to as "15 inch/42". This wire-wound gun fired a 1920 lb (871 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,575 ft/s (785 m/s). Maximum range in shipboard mountings was 32,500 yards (29,720 m) (30 degrees elevation) but coastal artillery mounting with higher elevations could reach 44,150 yards (40,370 m). The firing life of a 15 inch gun was approximately 335 full charge firings, after which it had to be re-lined.[2]
These guns were used on several classes of battleships from 1915 until HMS Vanguard, the last battleship to be built for the Royal Navy, completed in 1946.
Warships with the BL 15 inch Mark I gun:
Two coastal guns (Clem and Jane) were mounted near Wanstone Farm in Kent in the 1940s. Five guns were mounted in Singapore in the 1930s.
186 guns were manufactured between 1912 and 1918.[3] They were removed from ships, refurbished, and rotated back into other ships over their lifetime.
Two guns, one formerly from HMS Ramillies (left gun) and one from HMS Resolution (right gun), are mounted outside the Imperial War Museum in London.
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