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These guns were generally identical, but were designed for use in twin turrets, with the Mark IV being the right-hand gun and the Mark XV being the left-hand gun. As there were no spares, when these guns on Severn and Mersey wore out in October 1914 after extensive use off the Belgian coast, the turrets were removed and replaced with two single 6" (15.2 cm) BL Mark VII. Two of these guns had been salvaged from the pre-dreadnought HMS Montagu, which had been wrecked on Lundy Island in 1906. As Humber's guns were not so badly worn, she kept her turret. During a bombardment of the Turkish village of Biyuk Anafarta on 9 June 1915, Humber suffered a bore premature in her right gun after 15 rounds. She remained in action with her other armament for a few more months until she was sent to Alexandria where both 6" (15.2 cm) guns were replaced by relined ones originally used on the other monitors. Construction was similar to other Vickers wire guns of that time with cannelured rings at the forward inner A/A tube shoulders. Used a hand-worked Welin breech-block. A total of four guns of each Mark were built. The two spare guns, which for some reason were never used, differed in having tapered inner A tubes. |
Javary in 1913
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