"What's that brass pointy thing on the shelf?" asked one of the leading experts on gun ammunition. "An experimental fuze for the hyper-velocity 8/13.5-inch gun" was the reply [see image below].
In October 1940, just a few months after the evacuation of the remnants of the British Army from Dunkirk, some bright spark in the Navy convinced the Director of Naval Ordnance that he should ask the Ordnance Board to help develop a hyper-velocity gun by lining down a 13.5-inch gun to 8 inches. The range required was 60 Nautical Miles and to achieve this the barrel had to be extended to the maximum that existing machinery could cope with. The shell developed for this gun was pre-rifled, weighed 256lb and was fitted with a No 241 fuze. The gun was first fired in June 1942. In one trial three HE shells exploded prematurely mid-trajectory and the failures attributed to the fuze. After several fuze modifications had been tried, a gun was transferred to a site near Dover and firing trials conducted. A range of 100,000 yards was achieved but barrel wear limited full charge firings to about 30 rounds. In view of the short life of the gun the programme came to an end sometime in 1944 in favour of an investigation into the development of large calibre 'Sabot' ammunition.
[Ref: Ordnance Board Proceedings]
In October 1940, just a few months after the evacuation of the remnants of the British Army from Dunkirk, some bright spark in the Navy convinced the Director of Naval Ordnance that he should ask the Ordnance Board to help develop a hyper-velocity gun by lining down a 13.5-inch gun to 8 inches. The range required was 60 Nautical Miles and to achieve this the barrel had to be extended to the maximum that existing machinery could cope with. The shell developed for this gun was pre-rifled, weighed 256lb and was fitted with a No 241 fuze. The gun was first fired in June 1942. In one trial three HE shells exploded prematurely mid-trajectory and the failures attributed to the fuze. After several fuze modifications had been tried, a gun was transferred to a site near Dover and firing trials conducted. A range of 100,000 yards was achieved but barrel wear limited full charge firings to about 30 rounds. In view of the short life of the gun the programme came to an end sometime in 1944 in favour of an investigation into the development of large calibre 'Sabot' ammunition.
[Ref: Ordnance Board Proceedings]