Handbook for the 12-Pr. Quick-Firing Guns

1913

Repository	Document ID	Pages	Dimensions	Plates
TNA	ADM 186/189	48	15cm x 24.5cm	33

My copy of this document is a black and white photocopy of an original at TNA.  I'm sure many of the plates are in color, but I do not have the benefit of seeing it. 

CONTENTS

Notes

The Twelve Pounder guns were a rather tired weapon notion by WW-I.  They were just too small for meaningful application in any but the tiniest vessels.  Between the years 1906 through 1914, new destroyers and larger ships were moving to 4" guns or even larger weapons.

I have found this book very helpful in my research.  Its plates are helpful for modeling, and the text is fairly helpful in general.  You might find that it works nicely in conjunction with the Sight Manual of 1916 which will have additional images of the sightsetting and telescope equipment.

You should note that "cwt" is an abbreviation for a hundredweight.  This odd measure is equivalent to 112 pounds.

The 12-cwt. gun was for use in destroyers, primarily.  The heavier 18-cwt. was suited to battleships and cruisers, and the 8-cwt. was for very small craft.

One important background note on naval weapons, and in particular the Royal Navy's weapons of this period, is that small guns like this are often discussed as systems comprised of a gun (which is simply the barrel and breech mechanisms) and a mounting upon which it sits.  The RN nomenclature system details guns by the diameter of their bore and a "Mark" designation of a roman numeral.  Small changes in a design sometimes do not merit a new Mark number, but are instead denoted by appending stars (asterisks) , e.g.: Mark VII**.  Mountings are usually denoted by a roman numeral after a "P.", which may stand for "pedestal", for such is what these man-worked weapon mounts were called.  Mountings may also have stars in their designation.

For instance, on the "I" class destroyers, the 12 pounderguns were accurately identified as 12-cwt. 12 pounders QF on P. VI. mountings.  The ones of HMS Dreadnought, in contrast, were 18-cwt. 12 pounders on P. IV.* mountings.