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During World War II, many of these guns were used on minor warships and some of the older destroyers. Some were also employed in coastal batteries. The Mark I and Mark III had similar ballistic performance, but differed in construction. The Mark I had an A tube with short chamber liner, half length wire, full length jacket and a screw breech ring connected the jacket to the breech bush over the A tube. Mark IA differed in that the A tube was thicker over the front of the chamber. The Mark III had an A tube, wire of reduced length, B tube and jacket with a screwed C hoop connecting them. Ten Mark I, eight Mark IA and 261 Mark III guns were manufactured. There were also seven Mark I/III built like the Mark III but with the breech ring and bush as the Mark I. Five of these were later converted entirely to the Mark III design and then designated as the Mark III*. The Mark II was a trunnioned gun of the same performance as the Mark I. Eight guns were made to rearm the old battleship Temeraire and the paddle steamer Sphinx. |
HMS Invincible
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