115 mm Cartridge from 4.5 inch mk 6 gun

**2pounder** · 5th August 2012, 09:07 PM

The annular groovees are in fact a whoping great thread into which a black plastic bung screws.

**radioman1** · 5th August 2012, 10:01 PM

Hi Tony as you say the very early marks were fixed rounds
2 The Dutch case is from the Van Speijk class very similar to our Leander class
3 After filling the case with propellant a soft metal lid was glued and screwed in place (used to clean the barrel as no tinfoil was used in the charge)
4 Did not notice any difference with the mouth of the returned fired case

Hope this info helps

**glevum** · 6th August 2012, 07:46 AM

Tony,

What date is your case?

Will

**Tony Williams** · 6th August 2012, 09:36 AM

Pictures are worth thousands of words....

**Falcon** · 6th August 2012, 06:36 PM

Tony, I believe your case was a fixed round. Is the case length 640mm?

**radioman1** · 7th August 2012, 12:36 AM

Hi Tony yes like you say its a fixed round
1 There is a faint black ink HE ( Type of round only marked on case of a fixed round
2 The primer only has 2 slots should have 4
3 The case stamped marking are not correct for a SL

hope this info helps

**Tony Williams** · 7th August 2012, 08:03 AM

Aha, thank you gentlemen - now we're getting somewhere. My case is c.700mm long.

The 4.5 inch ammo went through three iterations that I'm aware of: when first developed, it was fixed. It was soon found during WW2 that the fixed ammo was too big and heavy for easy manhandling so the ammo was separated. It remained separated through the postwar era (in the classic box-shaped Mk 6 twin gunhouse) until the advent of the autoloading Mk 8 gun in c.1970 as currently used (in modified form) to this day, when the ammo became fixed again for rapid auto handling (and I suppose with a longer neck to grip the shell).

Given the date on my case, it is presumably for the Mk 8 gun. So all the shorter ones with the annular grooves are for the earlier guns?

**radioman1** · 7th August 2012, 09:49 PM

Hi Tony had another good look at the case photo
1 The primer is a N44 only fitted to a Mk8 round

hope this info helps

**charley777** · 10th August 2012, 05:23 AM

Greetings...
4.5" Mks 1, 3, 4............... 113x640R (UK Naval so-called 4.5" actually 4.45" = 113.03mm)
4.5" Mks 2, 6 ...................113x696R
4.5" Mk 8 .........................113x700R
I have a feeling that the Norwegian cases for the Vickers 11.4cm L/45 are 635mm long. Any comments from anyone?
Likewise the Dutch Mk 5 Vickers possibly 635mm long.

**Tony Williams** · 10th August 2012, 07:48 AM

Thanks for that, Charley.

Your info raises a couple of questions in my mind. I would have expected the fixed ammo to need a longer neck to get a firm grip on the shell, so the cases should be longer overall. Yet the Mk 1 (which was supposedly fixed) is shown as being shorter than the later versions, which were separated. I am baffled...can anyone explain?