BL 12-inch railway gun

Ordnance BL 12 inch Gun Mk IX on truck, railway
Ordnance BL 12 inch Gun Mk IX on truck, railway
	; 12 inch Mk IX W railway gun on Armstrong Mk II mounting, Méaulte, France 1916;
Type	Railway gun
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	1915 - 1930 (Rail)
Used by	United Kingdom
Wars	First World War
Production history
Manufacturer	; Woolwich Arsenal (guns); Vickers & Elswick Ordnance Company (carriage)
Produced	1906 (guns)
; No. built	4 (Rail)
Variants	mountings Mk I, Mk II
Specifications
; Barrel length	Bore: 40 ft (12.192 m) L/40
Shell	HE; 850 lb (385.55 kg)
Calibre	12-inch (304.8 mm)
Breech	Welin screw
Recoil	; Hydro - spring, 34 inches (863.6 mm);
Carriage	Railway truck
Elevation	0° - 30°;
Traverse	1° L & R;
Muzzle velocity	2,610 ft/s (796 m/s);
Maximum firing range	32,700 yards (29,900 m);
Filling	Amatol
Filling weight	94 lb (42.64 kg)

The British Ordnance BL 12 inch gun Mk IX on truck, railway mounted surplus 12 inch Mk IX W naval guns, manufactured by Woolwich Arsenal in 1906,^[2] on various railway platforms to provide mobile long-range heavy artillery for the British Army on the Western Front in World War I.

History[edit]

Vickers mounted two Mk IX W guns on slightly different railway mountings, Mk I, from September 1915. They are both identified by the open-frame appearance, recoil buffers above the barrel and the bogies with frames between the wheels similar to locomotive bogies. One mounting has a distinctive diamond-shape from the side and has a warping winch on the front; the other's carriage has a more squared-off profile with no warping winch at the front. The weapons on the Mk I mountings were originally reserve guns for HMS Cornwallis.^[3]

Elswick Ordnance Company (Armstrongs) mounted two more on its own design of Mk II railway mounting, delivered to the Western Front in August 1916. They are identified by the boxed-in frame appearance, recoil buffers below the barrel and the bogies with frames outside the wheels.

Design[edit]

The gun cars allowed only 1° left and right traverse, achieved by pivoting the entire gun car body about the forward bogies, in the two Vickers carriages, or about the rear bogies in the Armstrong carriages. Like most railway guns in the war it was operated on specially-constructed curved sections of track and moved forward or backward to point it at a new target. Fine adjustment could then be achieved by onboard traversing, which at the gun's maximum range covered an arc of about 1,000 yards.^[4]

The initial shock of firing was absorbed by a hydro-spring mechanism, allowing 34 inches of recoil within the gun mounting. The remaining recoil energy was absorbed by allowing the entire railway wagon to roll backwards 40 feet^[5] (Vickers carriage) or 3-4 yards^[6] (Armstrong carriage) against locked brakes. This "rolling recoil" system allowed the gun to be operated without the need to construct a pit with a strong static platform below the gun for it to recoil into and to allow transmission of all the recoil force directly to the ground as was typical of many large US and French railway guns.

Combat service[edit]

Crew of 12-inch (304.8 mm) railway gun on Vickers Mk I mounting, Woesten, 23 August 1917, Third Battle of Ypres

At the end of World War I, the dispositions of the guns on the Western Front were: 1 gun of 92 Battery and 1 gun of 543 Battery with First Army i.e. Artois; 1 gun of 92 Battery with Third Army i.e. Somme; 1 gun of 543 Battery with Fourth Army i.e. Somme.^[7]

Notes and references[edit]

^ ^a^b^c^d^e Hogg & Thurston 1972, Page 193

^ Hogg & Thurston 1972, Page 192. Two of the guns may have been manufactured during World War I, as 'British 12"/40 (30.5 cm) Mark IX' states that 6 more Mk IX W guns were made during World War I.

^ Hogg 1998, pp. 118-122

^ Miller 1921, page 154

^ Miller 1292, page 149

^ Miller 1921, page 155

^ Farndale 1986

Bibliography[edit]

Dale Clarke, British Artillery 1914-1919. Heavy Artillery. Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2005

General Sir Martin Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Western Front 1914-18. Oxford: Royal Artillery Society, 1986. .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
ISBN 1-870114-00-0

I.V. Hogg & L.F. Thurston, British Artillery Guns & Ammunition 1914-1918. London: Ian Allan, 1972.

Hogg, Ian V. (1998). Allied Artillery of World War I. Ramsbury, Wiltshire, UK: The Crowood Press, Ltd. ISBN 1-86126-104-7.

Harry W Miller, United States Army Ordnance Department. Railway Artillery: A Report on the Characteristics, Scope of Utility, Etc., of Railway Artillery, Volume II, Pages 146-155. Washington : Government Print Office, 1921

External links[edit]

British 12"/40 (30.5 cm) Mark IX

[Hogg&Thurston1972Page193-1] Hogg & Thurston 1972, Page 193

[Hogg&ThurstonPage192-2] Hogg & Thurston 1972, Page 192. Two of the guns may have been manufactured during World War I, as 'British 12"/40 (30.5 cm) Mark IX' states that 6 more Mk IX W guns were made during World War I.

[3] Hogg 1998, pp. 118-122

[4] Miller 1921, page 154

[5] Miller 1292, page 149

[6] Miller 1921, page 155

[7] Farndale 1986

v t e British Empire artillery of the First World War
Tank guns	QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss QF 6-pounder 6 cwt
Infantry guns	1.59-inch Breech-Loading Vickers Q.F. Gun, Mk II
Field artillery	BL 12-pounder 6 cwt QF 12-pounder 8 cwt QF 12-pounder 18 cwt QF 13-pounder BL 15-pounder BLC 15-pounder QF 15-pounder QF 18-pounder QF 4-inch gun Mk III BL 4-inch gun Mk VII QF 4.5-inch howitzer
Medium & heavy artillery	QF 4.7-inch gun BL 5-inch howitzer BL 5.4-inch howitzer BL 60-pounder gun BLC 6-inch siege gun BL 6-inch gun Mk VII BL 6-inch gun Mk XIX BL 6-inch 26 cwt howitzer BL 6-inch 30 cwt howitzer BL 8-inch howitzer Mk I – V BL 8-inch howitzer Mk VI – VIII
Siege artillery	BL 7.5-inch Mk III naval gun BL 9.2-inch howitzer BL 9.2-inch Mk X naval gun BL 12-inch howitzer BL 12-inch Mk X naval gun BL 15-inch howitzer
Mountain artillery	RML 2.5-inch mountain gun BL 10-pounder mountain gun BL 2.75-inch mountain gun QF 2.95-inch mountain gun QF 3.7-inch mountain howitzer
Mortars	Garland trench mortar 3-inch Stokes mortar Vickers 1.57-inch mortar 2-inch medium mortar Newton 6-inch mortar 9.45-inch Heavy Mortar
Smoke and chemical weapons	4-inch Stokes Mortar Livens Projector Livens Large Gallery Flame Projector
Anti-aircraft guns	QF 1-pounder pom-pom QF 2-pounder "pom-pom" Mk II 75 mm AA gun QF 12-pounder 12 cwt QF 13-pounder 6 cwt QF 13-pounder Mk IV QF 13-pounder 9 cwt QF 3-inch 20 cwt QF 18-pounder QF 4-inch Mk V
Coastal artillery	QF 12-pounder 12 cwt QF 4-inch naval gun Mk I – III BL 6-inch Mk VII naval gun BL 9.2-inch Mk IX – X naval gun RML 9-inch
Railway guns	BL 9.2-inch railway gun BL 12-inch railway gun BL 12-inch railway howitzer BL 14-inch railway gun

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