15 cm SK C/28

15 cm SK C/28 150mm doubleturret stevns.jpg 300 15 cm SK C/28 in Drh LC/34 turret from German battleship Gneisenau 2 used as coast-defense guns in Denmark Nazi Germany Naval gunCoastline-defence gun yes yes 1935–2001 Nazi GermanyDenmark Second World War Rheinmetall 1930—35 Rheinmetall 1935—43? 9026 - 9080 kg lb on 8.291 m ftin 1 7.815 m ftin 1 separate-loading, cased charge 149.1 mm in 8 rpm (maximum) 875 m/s ft/s on 23,000 m yd at 40° semi-automatic, vertical sliding-block depends on the mount depends on the mount The 15 cm SK C/28SK - Schnelladekanone (quick loading cannon); C - Construktionsjahr (year of design) was a German medium-caliber naval gun used during the Second World War. It served as the secondary armament for the Bismarck battleship 4 and Scharnhorst battleship 2s, Deutschland cruiser 2s and the Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier 2s. A number of surplus weapons were used as coast-defense guns and eight were adapted to use Army carriages and used as heavy field guns as the 15 cm Schiffskanone C/28 in Mörserlafette. Description This gun was designed as a smaller and lighter version of the 15 cm SK C/25 guns used as the main armament of the Königsberg cruiser (1927) 5- and Leipzig cruiser 2s. It shared the earlier gun's design with a loose barrel, jacket and breech-piece with a vertical sliding breech block.Campbell, p. 241 Naval mountings The Drh. LC/34 twin-gun mount was the most common mount for the gun in the Kriegsmarine. It was used as the secondary armament of the Bismarck battleship 0 and Scharnhorst battleship 2s and was planned to equip the proposed H-class battleships. The mount weighed between 114 - 120 t ton, depending on its armor thickness; the Scharnhorst's mounts had between 14 - 3 cm in on of armor while the Bismarck's had 10 - 2 cm in on. Maximum elevation was 40°, giving a range of 23000 m yd and maximum depression was -10°, while maximum elevating speed was 8° per second. Each mount was designed for full 360° of traverse, but was limited to much less than that by the ship's superstructure. Speed in train was a maximum of 9° per second. The fastest firing cycle was 7.5 seconds, or 8 rounds per minute. Ammunition was supplied by twin hoists between the guns, at the rear of the mount. The M cruiser 1 was intended to use a lighter version of this mount with thinner armor that only weighed approximately 102 t ton. This may have designated as the Drh. LC/40, but development ceased when the ships were canceled in 1939.http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNGER_59-55_skc28.htm German 15 cm/55 (5.9") SK C/28 20 November 2008 2009-06-23 Tony DiGiulian https://web.archive.org/web/20090726174328/http://navweaps.com/Weapons/WNGER_59-55_skc28.htm 26 July 2009 live German battleship Scharnhorst 2 and German battleship Gneisenau 2 also carried four single MPL C/35 mounts that weighed 26.71 t ton with armor between 6 - 2 cm in on thick. Each mount could depress -10° and elevate to 35°; this gave a maximum range of 22000 m yd. The MPL C/28 mount used in the Deutschland cruiser 2s was virtually identical to the newer mount except its gun shield was smaller so it weighed only 24.83 t ton. The Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier 2s were going to carry eight twin-gun Dopp MPL C/36 casemate mountings. These weighed 47.6 t ton and had an armored shield 30 mm in thick. The mount elevated at a speed of 6° per second and trained at a rate of 8° per second. Coast defense mountings The Küsten-Marinepivotlafette (Küst. MPL C/36) was a highly successful mobile coast defense mount fitted with a gun shield. The gun traversed on a six-legged firing platform that allowed 360° of traverse. It could depress -7° and elevate to a maximum of 47° 30', which gave it a range of 23500 m yd. The gun on its carriage weighed 19761 kg lb. It was towed via two two-axle trailers, one at each end. For travel the four lateral legs of the platform folded vertically. It entered service in 1940.Gander and Chamberlain, p. 265 Army mount Production of carriages for the 21 cm Mörser 18 and the 17 cm Kanone 18 in Mörserlafette exceeded the available number of barrels in 1941 and eight SK C/28 barrels were adapted for use on the carriages as the 15 cm Schiffskanone C/28 in Mörserlafette. They were converted to Heer-standard percussion firing. Most guns were replaced by 17 cm in on barrels as they became available, but one battery retained them through the beginning of the Battle of Kursk in July 1943.Niehorster, Leo W. G. German World War II Organizational Series, Vol. 5/II: Mechanized GHQ units and Waffen-SS Formations (4 July 1943), 2005, p. 41 Ammunition The SK C/28 used several different shells depending on its target. The 15 cm Sprgr L/4.6 KZ m Hb weighed 45.5 kg lb on and had a muzzle velocity of 785 m/s ft/s on. It was a nose-fused HE shell with ballistic cap with two copper driving band and a lead ring behind them to act as a decoppering device by scraping away any copper residue from the driving band. The 15 cm Sprgr L/4.5 Bd Z m. Hb was a base-fused shell with a ballistic cap and weighed 44.8 kg lb on. It was roughly equivalent to the British "Common Pointed" and also used a lead decoppering ring. The armor-piercing 15 cm Pzgr L/3.8 m Hb shell had a ballistic cap and weighed 45.3 kg lb on. All shells used 14.1 kg lb on of propellant in an artificial silk bag, housed in a brass cartridge case.Hogg, p. 228 An illumination shell was also available, although details are unknown. History Surplus naval mountings were used to reinforce German coast defenses from Norway to the French Atlantic coast. These included guns from incomplete or disarmed ships like the aircraft carrier German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin 2 or the battleship German battleship Gneisenau 2. For example, three or four of the Graf Zeppelins Dopp MPL C/36 mounts equipped both batteries of Naval Artillery Battalion (Marine-Artillerie-Abteilung) 517 at Cap Romanov near Petsamo, Finlandhttp://www.nuav.net/coastgr9.html#finland Festung Norwegen Artillery Group 9 Monsen Kurt 2000 2009-06-23 https://web.archive.org/web/20080511233644/http://www.nuav.net/coastgr9.html 11 May 2008 live Rolf, p. 267 while two of the Gneisenaus Drh. LC/34 mounts were emplaced on the west coast of Denmark at Esbjerg where they equipped Batterie Gneisenau of Naval Artillery Battalion 518.Rolf, p. 296 All told, a total of 111 SK C/28 guns were employed on coast defense duties in a variety of mounts, 28 in Norway, 12 in Denmark, 24 in the German Bight, 8 in the Netherlands, and 39 in Belgium and the Atlantic coast of France.Rolf, p. 387 Surviving guns in Norway and Denmark were used throughout the Cold War by both countries. See also List of naval guns Weapons of comparable role, performance and era BL 6 inch Mk XXIII naval gun: approximate British equivalent 6"/47 caliber Mark 16 gun: approximate US equivalent Footnotes Notes Note Citations 25em References Campbell John Naval Weapons of World War Two Conway Maritime Press London 2002 0-87021-459-4 Gander Terry Chamberlain, Peter Weapons of the Third Reich: An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms, Artillery and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939–1945 Doubleday New York 1979 0-385-15090-3 Hogg Ian V. German Artillery of World War Two Stackpole Books Mechanicsville, PA 1997 2nd corrected 1-85367-480-X Rolf Rudi Der Atlantikwall: Bauten der deutschen Küstenbefestigungen 1940-1945 Biblio 1998 Osnabrück 3-7648-2469-7 Rolf Rudi A Dictionary on Modern Fortification: An Illustrated Lexicon on European Fortification in the Period 1800-1945 PRAK 2004 Middleburg, Netherlands External links SK C/28 on navweaps.com history of the guns at Langesland fortress, Denmark https://web.archive.org/web/20110719125559/http://www.langelandsfortet.dk/150mm_kanon_uk.htm 19 July 2011 history of the guns at Stevnsfort, Denmark June 2017 Category:150 mm artillery Category:World War II artillery of Germany Category:Naval guns of Germany Category:World War II naval weapons Category:Coastal artillery Category:Military equipment introduced in the 1930s