• Source: 8-inch Mk. VI railway gun

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 (232 mm)) (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)




See also


List of U.S. Army weapons by supply catalog designation
Railway gun




References



TM 9-2300 Standard Artillery and Fire Control Material. 1944.
"TM 9-463" (PDF).
SNL E-34
"FM 4-49" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 December 2010. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
Berhow, Mark A., ed. (2004). American Seacoast Defenses, A Reference Guide (second ed.). CDSG Press. ISBN 0-9748167-0-1.
Lewis, Emanuel Raymond (1979). Seacoast Fortifications of the United States. Annapolis, Maryland: Leeward Publications. ISBN 978-0-929521-11-4.




External links


Navweaps.com 8-inch Mark VI gun photo page
WWII Army railroad site with info on railway guns Archived 2011-09-25 at the Wayback Machine
Breech operation on preserved gun at Fort Miles
8-inch gun info from Kodiak Military History Museum
Coast Artillery Journal, Nov-Dec 1942, with article on 8" Mk VI M3A2 guns Archived 2015-01-20 at the Wayback Machine

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• 8-inch Mk. VI railway gun
• 8-inch gun M1888
• BL 8-inch howitzer Mk VI – VIII
• List of World War II weapons of the United States
• BL 6-inch Mk II–VI naval gun
• BL 13.5-inch Mk V naval gun
• BL 6-inch gun Mk XIX
• QF 3.7-inch AA gun
• BL 9.2-inch Mk IX – X naval gun
• QF 4.7-inch Mk I–IV naval gun