BL 6 Inch Mk VII Naval Gun - Naval Gun

Naval Gun

The gun was introduced on the Formidable class battleships of 1898 (commissioned September 1901) and went on to equip many capital ships, cruisers, monitors, and smaller ships such as the Insect class gunboat which served throughout World War II.

Mk VIII in Naval service was identical to Mk VII, except that the breech opened to the left instead of to the right, for use as the left gun in twin turrets.

Guns were mounted in the following ships :

• Formidable class battleships laid down 1898
• Cressy class armoured cruisers laid down 1898
• Duncan class battleships laid down 1899
• Drake class armoured cruisers laid down 1899
• Monmouth class armoured cruisers laid down 1899
• Challenger second class protected cruisers laid down in 1901
• King Edward VII class battleships Commonwealth, Dominion, Hindustan, King Edward VII, New Zealand laid down 1902
• Devonshire class armoured cruisers laid down 1902
• HMS Tiger, battlecruiser laid down 1912
• Centurion class battleships as re-gunned in 1902
• Iron Duke class battleships laid down 1912
• Humber class monitors as re-gunned in 1914 with guns from HMS Montagu
• M15 class monitor M27 of 1915
• Insect class gunboats of 1915

In World War II the gun was used to arm British troop ships and Armed Merchant Cruisers, including HMS Rawalpindi, which briefly fought the German 11-inch gun Battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in November 1939, and HMS Jervis Bay which similarly sacrificed herself to save her convoy from the 11" Pocket Battleship Adm.Scheer in November 1940 .