heavy gun mounts outside USA
January 2nd, 2009 From
>Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 10:10:38 -0700
>From: Mike Potter
>Reply-To: mike.potter@artecon.com
>Organization: Artecon, Inc.
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01Gold (WinNT; I)
>To: mahan@microworks.net
>Subject: heavy gun mounts outside USA
>Precendence: bulk
>Sender: mahan-owner@microworks.net
>
>Ian L. Buxton wrote:
> >
> > The discussion about Scharnhorst reminds me that one triple 11inch
> > turret from her sister still exists. The original 28cm
> > triple turret (Caesar) was removed from GNEISENAU
> > and re-erected in 1943 at the entrance to Trondheim fjord in Norway.
> > …
> > BTW is this the only WW2 vintage heavy naval turret still
> > in existence outside the Iowas and preserved American BBs?
>
>A recent article in =Warship Intl= showed a Russian triple 12″ gun
>turret that still exists as a coast defense weapon on the Black Sea. I
>don’t remember that the article stated when this turret was
>manufactured. Did large gun _mount_ technology change significantly
>between the world wars? I know the guns themselves did, wire-wound
>manufacture being obsolete by then, for example.
>
>UK-built Japanese 1904-era battleship =Mikawa= exists, cement-mounted,
>in Yokosuka but her 12″ turrets are sealed, or 20 years ago they were.
>
>HMS =Belfast= still exists in London as a successful museum, with 6″
>turrets and 4″ and 40mm gun mounts open to the public. Posters advertise
>her as “Heavy Metal in the 1940s.”
>
>Denmark still has two of =Gneisenau=’s twin 15cm turrets in military
>operation for coast defense.
>
>Ian Buxton and I are using “turret” in its 20th C sense. I know that in
>the 19th C turrets were distinct from barbette mountings.