- 4"/50 caliber gun
The 4"/50 caliber Mark 9 gun (spoken "four-inch-fifty-caliber") was the standard low-angle,
quick-firing gun forUnited States destroyers throughWorld War I and the 1920s. United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter, and the barrel was 50 calibers long. (barrel length is 4" x 50 = 200" or 5 meters) [Fairfield 1921 p.156]The gun weighed about 2.7 tonnes and used fixed ammunition (case and projectile handled as a single assembled unit) with a 14.5-pound (6.6 kg) charge of
nitrocellulose propellant to give a 33-pound (15 kg) projectile a velocity of 2900 feet per second (884 m/s). Range was 9 miles (15 kilometers) at the maximum elevation of 20 degrees. [Campbell 1985 p.143]Increasing awareness of the need for improved
anti-aircraft protection encouraged mounting ofdual purpose gun s on destroyers beginning in the 1930s. The dual-purpose5"/38 caliber gun became standard for United States destroyers constructed from the 1930s throughWorld War II . United States destroyers built with 4"/50 caliber low-angle guns were rearmed with dual-purpose3"/50 caliber gun s. The 4"/50 caliber guns removed from destroyers were mounted onDefensively Equipped Merchant Ships likeSS Stephen Hopkins . [Campbell 1985 p.143]The 4"/50 caliber gun was mounted on:
*Caldwell class destroyer s [Fahey 1939 p.14]
*Wickes class destroyer s [Fahey 1939 p.14]
*Clemson class destroyer s [Fahey 1939 p.14]
*Town class destroyer s [Lenton&Colledge 1968 pp.90-92]
*United States S class submarine s [Fahey 1939 p.18]
* the first sevenBalao class submarine s [Campbell 1985 p.143]
*USS Dolphin (SS-169) [Fahey 1939 p.18]
* rearmed submarinesUSS Salmon (SS-182) ,USS Seadragon (SS-194) ,USS Gato (SS-212) andUSS Robalo [Campbell 1985 p.143]References
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