12 cm/45 3rd Year Type naval gun was a Japanese naval gun and coast defense gun used on destroyers, and torpedo boats of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

Design and development

The 12 cm/45 gun designed in 1895 was an indigenous variant of an Elswick Ordnance Company export design known as the Pattern Y. The Japanese designation was the "Type 41". Later in 1921 the 12 cm/45 gun was used as the basis for a high-angle anti-aircraft gun, designated the 12 cm/45 10th Year Type.[2] The "Third Year Type" refers to the Welin breech block used and this should not be confused with the later Type 3 12 cm AA Gun developed by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1943. In the Japanese Army artillery naming system, "Type 3" refers to the year of introduction, rather than the type of breech block used. When used in naval applications, it was mounted in a shielded barbette, as shown.

A re-design in 1922 called the 12 cm 11th Year Type naval gun (Model 1922) with a shorter gun barrel and a horizontal sliding breech-block was used on submarines and torpedo boats. The 12 cm/45 was manually loaded and fired a 20.3 kg (45 lb) high-explosive, an illumination shell or after 1943 an anti-submarine shell.

In addition to its shipboard role it was widely deployed as a coastal defense gun for Japanese bases in the Pacific and was one of the more common types found by Allied forces.[3]

Naval Use

See also

Weapons of comparable role, performance and era

Gallery

  • 3rd Year Type guns used in a coastal defense role.
    3rd Year Type guns used in a coastal defense role.
  • Two Japanese guns at Fort Siloso - Sentosa Island, Singapore.
    Two Japanese guns at Fort Siloso - Sentosa Island, Singapore.

References

  1. ^ "110 to 149mm Ammo". ordnanceandmilitaria.com. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
  2. ^ "Japan 12 cm/45 10th Year Type Official Designation: 45 caliber 10th Year Type 12 cm". www.navweaps.com. Archived from the original on 2017-01-09. Retrieved July 11, 2021.
  3. ^ United States; Navy; Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas (1945). Japanese artillery weapons. p. 46. OCLC 51837610.

Bibliography

  • Bishop, Chris (eds) The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II. Barnes & Nobel. 1998. ISBN 0-7607-1022-8
  • Campbell, John (1985). Naval Weapons of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-459-4.
  • Chant, Chris. Artillery of World War II, Zenith Press, 2001, ISBN 0-7603-1172-2
  • Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War One: Guns, Torpedoes, Mines and ASW Weapons of All Nations; An Illustrated Directory. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.

External links