The naval artillery indicates the Artillerie which is used on the Navire S of combat.
The artillery indicates the Arme S collective or heavy being used to send, at long distance, on the enemy or his positions and its equipment, various projectiles large Caliber: Shell, Ball, rocket, Missile, to support its own troops engaged in a battle or a seat.
Origins
The idea to use the gun as a naval weapon appeared very early in Europe, surely in second half of the 13th century. One finds thereafter references to guns with hand, with anti-personnel vocation, towards 1350. The naval action with the the Middle Ages, is delivered like a seat on the dry land. The two ships moor one with the other, then one fights to seize the enemy ship. The buildings of the time are the naves, or Caraque S, equipped with two large castles, one with the prow, the other with the poop, where the archers overhanging the bridges sift arrows the attackers on the bridges. As on ground, the gun will be integrated into this type of combat, from the light parts, kinds of grosses Arquebuse S, will assist the archers, making it possible to better fight the armoured infantrymen. At the 15th century, these portable guns are equipped with a hook which one drives on the wall to draw, which absorbs a good part of the frightening retreat of these weapons. Gradually, appear also fixed parts larger gauge, distributed on the various bridges and stages of the castles. The Christopher English has for example towards 1410, three iron guns, the Grâce God of 1485 has twenty and one of them, and the Mary off the Tower , fifty eights.
The guns of this time out of wrought iron, are built according to a method of assembly pointing out the barrel X, of the slightly round iron plates are maintained together by external successive rings. The loading is carried out by the cylinder head, the room being removable. The mountings are with two wheels, or without wheels, the gun resting in a wood cradle which encloses it. Ballistic qualities are very low, because of the important perviousness of the tubes and the presence of plays between the ball and the wall (Vent of ball). The projectiles are out of iron, even out of stone, for the Pierrier extremely fast S. In way, the tubes tend to burst, appearing thus very dangerous for their being useful. The first guns built in Bronze by casting also start to appear. They more reliable, because are subjected to the bursting, but two to three times the more expensive, because of the cost of bronze, that their equivalent out of iron.
The time of the galleons
An innovation will allow a revolution in the placement of artillery, towards 1500, by the Brest ois Descharge. The Port, this wood shutter which can seal the position of the part apart from the combat, will make it possible to place the guns on the lower bridges of the ships because, until there, the risk to embark water by heavy sea was too important. The artillery being lower on water, obstructs less the stability of the ship, which makes it possible to embark heavier guns. The number of guns, which had largely increased towards the end of the 15th century, will decrease, but their gauge will grow. The Sovereign English , for example, which, with its launching in 1495, embarked 141 parts, will be rebuilt in 1509, with 69 guns. But the gauges and the lengths of tube increase.
In parallel, the ships also change, in particular with the appearance of the Galion which, more stable and manoeuvrable, supplants the Caraque for the war. Their artillery is laid out moreover on two bridges, although that lower is armed only on the back half, because the curve of the hull brings it too much closer to water towards the Proue. With the experiment, the bridges will be built in a more rectilinear way, which will allow the placement of guns over the entire length of this bridge. At the end of the 16th century, one thus sees appearing complete warships with two bridge-batteries. The new tactics, inaugurated by English against the Invincible Armada, privilege the remote shooting by guns of through. The goal of artillery is less to kill the crew of the enemy, with short range, to disable their ship to make him lose any military value. Again guns, with the longer tubes, charged by the mouth, start to appear to arm the sides with the ships. The Repulse of 1596 illustrates this tendency; it carries only twenty Couleuvrine S of 18 pounds, twenty Half-couleuvrine S of 9 books and eight Fauconneau X of 5 books 1/4, all laid out on a bridge of battery and the principal bridge. These Galleon S, derived improved of those from Spanish, gives rise to the first ship of the lines.
The time of the ship of the lines
As for terrestrial artillery, one gradually will standardize the types and the gauges of the guns. English, in the middle of the century, has nothing any more but ten models of guns: 42,32,24,18,12,9,6,4,3 and 1/2 books. The various bridges of the battery are equipped with a single gauge, which tends to simplify the provisioning of the parts. The largest gauges, therefore heaviest, are placed on the lower bridge to harm the least possible the stability of the ship, then the higher bridges embark increasingly small gauges. The parts laid out for the shooting in hunting and retirement disappear, but one preserves ports where a part can be quickly put out of battery. The French ships, in particular, having to fight galères in the Mediterranean, kept a long time this characteristic, enabling them to defend oneself, even if the absence of wind prevented from operating.
The loading by the cylinder head disappears gradually, in spite of the lengthening of the parts. The method of construction by assembly of forgings as, the guns henceforth - as they are out of bronze or iron - are run in a mould, then the room is drilled. The mountings evolve to a model with four small wheels which will become traditional for more than two centuries, on which the gun rests now via its pivots. During the shooting, the part moves back, which makes it possible to easily reload it by the mouth, then serving them replace it with the port to open fire again. The retreat is deadened, in addition to by the weight of the part by a set of cords and pulleys connected on both sides of the gun to the wall of the ship.
In 1686, French, during a forwarding against Algiers, conceive a new type of boat specifically intended for the bombardment of the coasts and fortifications, the bomb, army of one or several mortar S, assembled directly on the principal bridge, generally in front of large the Mât. These ships, with the bridges firmly built to support the base plate of the mortar and the shock of the shooting, are gréés in Ketch. The Royal Navy imitates them very quickly. As of 1687, it launches Salamander, copied from the French model. Thereafter, it makes evolve/move the concept while mounting the mortars in line but on pivot, which makes it possible to point them in Azimut and gréant the ships out of square headlights. The mortars fixed in site at approximately 45°, regulated their range by proportioning the mass of the propelling load. The British employed three gauges of mortars 13,10 and 6 inches, French of the 32,27 and 15 cm. A mortar of 13 inches could send a bomb of 200 pounds to a distance from 4200 Yard S, the time of flight was of approximately 30 seconds, the rocket cut beforehand to the good length put fire at a load of more than six powder books, contained in the projectile.
18th century
19th century
The American Civil War
The day before this conflict, the naval artillery still evolved/moved and reached gauges of several tens of books. The principal innovations are due to Dahlgren, Robert P Parrot. The increase in the gauges related to the increase in the powder loads results in thickening the tubes in their giving an aspect characteristic of " bottle of soda". Another method appraisal consists in reinforcing the tube with forged steel bands.The system of Parrot will be taken again and adapted by the Southerners (in particular by John Mr. Brooke).
There are still very few parts taking care by the cylinder head, mainly for safety reasons.
20th century
The First World War
Weapons
Fire control system
The effectiveness of embarked artillery does not lie simply in the face of the guns. It is a question of aiming quickly and well. For that the " develops; control of tir" , that from aucuns will go until presenting like a science. ( the examples will be taken in the Bataille of Jutland ).
The fire control system is entrusted to an officer. To ensure the best visibility to him, it will be installed in height, sometimes in the mast. A top, armor-plated, a true blockhouse, must enable him to observe, with several tens of kilometers of distance, in spite of the smoke of the guns, smoke screens, sheaves of the shootings, targets moving at speeds from 40 to 50 kilometers/hour. And these targets are in general visible only by their own mast. On the level of the turrets, the adversary is then completely out of sight.
The officer of fire control system uses rangefinders to determine the distances. The British use rangefinders with coincidence, the Germans of the stereoscopic rangefinders. It seems that the latter were more precise. In addition to the officer, there is in the " top of tir" several sailors achieving each one a precise task. For example, to regulate a rangefinder continuously, or to receive the orders of the commander.
The officer of shooting is obliged with such a concentration that he is unaware of even what occurs around him. Thus, a British will spend several hours to realize that two of the six ships of its division ran.
The indications of the officer of shooting are transmitted to the station of calculation, room sheltered at the bottom of the ship. There will be calculated the two elements essential to the turrets, rise (pointing in height of the guns) and the layer (pointing in direction of the guns). To determine these parameters, are taken into account the distance from the goal, its road, its relative speed, but also the wind, the hygroscopy, the journey time of the projectiles, even the quality of the powders. Let us recall that there do not exist computers and calculations are made with the hand.
The result of calculations is transmitted to the turrets and returned with the officer of shooting for observation of the results. There is no remote control. In the turrets, the rise and the layer calculated by the central station of calculation are posted and their indications are repeated by the sailors by operating the wheels of adjustment. Let us recall that, in their closed turret, the sailors do not know on what they draw.
The errors of transmission are inevitable with such a procedure. The officer of shooting of Derfflinger will tell thus that its corrections of shooting transmitted to the station of calculation seemed without effect. He multiplied by two the transmitted data and had then satisfaction to see the sheaves framing his goal.
The shooting is started by the officer of shooting. It is frequent that the guns draw successively and not together, on the one hand to spare the structure of the ship, on the other hand to more easily appreciate the result of the shooting.
There are two kinds of shooting. The " shooting of réglage" and the " shooting of efficacité". The first makes it possible to determine the good parameters of shooting. For that, the officer of shooting supervises the arrival of the shells which it has just launched. To help it, of the clocks are regulated over the time of flight envisaged. They sound then, to awake the attention of the sailors as much that to make it possible to make the distinction with the sheaves of the shootings of the other ships.
According to the results observed, the officer of shooting will carry out " bonds" in layer and distance. When the sheaves frame the target, it will start the " shooting of efficacité" , where all the guns will draw as soon as possible. It can also choose the type of shell. The linerships of the time carry " shell explosifs" , which bursts with the contact, and of the " shell of rupture" who must penetrate the shielding before exploding. The effectiveness of the latter decrease with the range. They are three shells of this type, sent by SMS Von der Tann, which will run HMS Indefatigable.
This should not make forget the small percentage of blows to the goal, 3%.
The Second world war
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