The Canon de 138 mm Modèle 1927 was a medium-calibre

gun A gun is a device that Propulsion, propels a projectile using pressure or explosive force. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns or water cannon, cannons), or gas (e.g. light-gas gun). So ...

of the

French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...

used during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was derived from a German

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

design. It was used on the destroyers of the ''Aigle'' and ''Vauquelin'' classes and the ''Bougainville''-class sloops.

Description

The 40-

calibre In guns, particularly firearms, but not artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or wher ...

''Mle 1927'' was derived from the German

''15 cm L/45 UToF'' gun as mounted on the large torpedo boat SMS S113 received by France as war reparations. It copied the German gun's semi-automatic action and its horizontal sliding-block breech. It had an autofretted, monobloc barrel. It used of powder to push a shell to a muzzle velocity of .Campbell, p. 298

Mounting

The ''Mle 1927'' was used in single centre-pivot mountings that weighed approximately that were fitted with a thick

gun shield A U.S. Marine manning an M240 machine gun equipped with a gun shield A gun shield is a flat (or sometimes curved) piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, or artillery pie ...

. The mount could depress -10° and elevate to +28° which gave it a maximum range of . The gun had a firing cycle of 4 or 5 seconds with its automatic spring rammer, but the dredger hoists transporting the shells and cartridge cases slowed the rate of fire down to 8-10 rounds per minute.

Notes

References

* Campbell, John. ''Naval Weapons of World War Two''. London: Conway Maritime Press, 2002

External links

PIECES MOYENNES : 120 à 239

{{DEFAULTSORT:Canon de 138 mm Modele 1927 World War II naval weapons Naval guns of France 138 mm artillery Military equipment introduced in the 1920s