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8-inch Mk. VI railway gun

Field	Value
name	8-inch Mk.VI M3A2 railway gun
image	8 inch MK. VI.jpg
image_size	300px
caption	8-inch Mk.VI M3A2 railway gun
origin	United States
type	Railway gun
is_artillery	yes
is_ranged	yes
is_explosive	yes
service	1941–1946
used_by	United States
wars	World War II
manufacturer	Baldwin Locomotive Works (railway carriage)
production_date	1941
number	32? railway version, 16 fixed barbette mounts
weight	tube and breech: 42000 lb
complete railway mount: 188000 lb
length	tube and breech: 30 ft
cartridge	separate loading HE and AP,
260 lb AP
caliber	8 inches (203 mm)
rate	2 rounds a minute
velocity	2750 ft/s AP, or 2840 ft/s HE.
max_range	35300 yd
feed	hand
breech	Interrupted screw, step cut (Welin type)
recoil	Hydro-pneumatic
carriage	M1A1 railway
elevation	45 degrees
traverse	360 degrees

complete railway mount: 188000 lb 260 lb AP

8-inch Navy MkVIM3 gun on barbette mount M1A1, as used by the Army in coast defense.

The 8-inch Navy gun Mk.VI M3A2 on railway mount M1A1 was a World War II improved replacement for the World War I-era 8-inch (203 mm) M1888 gun and was used by the US Army's Coast Artillery Corps in US harbor defenses. The guns were also mounted in fixed emplacements on the barbette carriage M1A1. These guns were US Navy surplus 8"/45 caliber guns from battleships scrapped under the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. Mark VI (also Mark 6) was the Navy designation. The Army designation for this gun was "8-inch Navy gun Mk.VI M3A2".

History

The ex-Navy Mark VI railway gun was quickly put together at the start of World War II, to supplement the older World War I 8-inch M1888 railway gun. It was developed from an experimental 12-inch (305 mm) railway howitzer carriage of World War I. The all-around rotating mount and outriggers were designed to allow the gun to track a moving target for coast defense. These guns had a very short life in Army use, entering service in February 1941 and being cut up for scrap immediately after the war. The guns were the Navy's 8-inch (203 mm)/45 caliber Mark VI, and were originally secondary armament on Virginia- and Connecticut-class battleships launched 1904-06 and scrapped in the 1920s. They were mounted in both fixed emplacements and on the M1A1 railway carriage.

Deployment

Fixed two-gun batteries at Fort Church (Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island), Fort Rosecrans (San Diego, California), Fort Ruger and two other locations (Oahu, Hawaii) (two not completed), Fort Schwatka (Dutch Harbor, Alaska), Fort J. H. Smith and Fort Abercrombie (Kodiak, Alaska), Fort Segarra near St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands, and Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico (not armed).
Railway guns: 8 at Fort Miles, Delaware, two 4-gun batteries each in the Los Angeles and Puget Sound harbor defenses and Fort John Custis near Cape Charles, Virginia, others at Fort Hancock, New Jersey (near New York City).

Sighting and fire control equipment

The following sighting equipment was used with the gun.

M1 Deflection board
M1 fire adjustment board
M1A1 Range correction board
M3 Spotting board
M1912 Clinometer
M1 Percentage corrector
M1A1 Height finder, or M2A1
M6 Azmuth indicator
M5 Elevation indicator
M1910A1 Azmuth instrument
M8 Helium filling kit
M1 Gunners quadrant
Type B, set forward rule
M1 prediction scale
bore site
firing table, 8-I-1.
M7 stereoscopic trainer
M1 generating unit

Support cars

M2 fire control car
M1 machine shop car
modified box car for ammunition

Surviving Examples

Four weapons of this type survive:

One gun at Fort Miles, Delaware, on M1 railway proof mount (experimentally bored out to 9.12 in) (was previously at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren, VA
Two 8-inch Guns Mk VI M3A2 (#160L2 & #154L2), Battery 404, Fort Abercrombie, Kodiak, AK
One 8-inch Gun Mk VI M3A2 (#134L2), Kodiak Airport, Kodiak, AK (gun formerly at Battery 403, Fort J.H. Smith, Kodiak, AK)

References

SNL E-34

References

"USA 8"/45 (20.3 cm) Mark 6".
[http://cdsg.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/FORTS/CACunits/CACreg1.pdf Gaines, William C., Coast Artillery Organizational History, 1917-1950, ''Coast Defense Journal'', vol. 23, issue 2, pp. 6-8, 25-27]
"FT 8-I-1 Firing tables".
Berhow 2004, p. 234
"Railway Batteries".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

world-war-ii-artillery-of-the-united-states coastal-artillery railway-guns 203-mm-artillery weapons-and-ammunition-introduced-in-1941

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