BLURBS

The story of the naval gun is the story of navies, for without the gun naval warfare would have been a totally different affair. Early sea battles were simply a matter of laying two ships together to allow the crew to engage in hand-to-hand combat, and the first sea-going firearms merely added to the short range carnage. Gradually, however, it became apparent that by standing off and relying upon the gun's long reach, matters could be resolved in a less expensive fashion, and so naval tactics began to appear.

From then on the gunfounder began to have as great an effect on sea battles as did the ship's captain or the wind, and the gun gradually increased in size and range until it reached a limit governed by the dimensions of the ships and the space available to allow the gun to be worked. Eventually a stalemate appeared, in which opposing ships had little technical advantage and victory went to the side which could stand longest under the pounding.

This impasse was broken by the arrival of the shell-firing gun and the adoption of armour plating on ships, followed by the steam engine. A running battle then developed, between the gunmakers on the one hand and the builders of armour on the other; first the armour defeated the gun, then bigger guns defeated the armour, then the armour got thicker, and so on until the present day.

Next came the Victorian engineers who knew little of naval tactics but a great deal about machinery and the manipulation of metal. This led to the rifled gun and the breech-loading gun, turrets, ironclad ships, hydraulic machinery and such aberrations as the dynamite cannon. Then it was the turn of the chemist, developing more powerful propelling powders and more devastating explosives, and the metallurgists who developed harder shells and tougher armour.

Given powerful guns and ammunition, capable of shooting prodigious distances, the next problem facing the naval gunner was the basic one of hitting the target, and many ingenious inventions were brought in to aid this aspect of the sea fight. All this ingenuity and science came together in the early part of the twentieth century in time to take part in some of the greatest naval battles in history.

After World War 1, opinions as to the value of naval gunnery were mixed, but in default of definite lessons the development of the gun continued, more complex devices entering service with the great navies. And World War 2 saw the final glories of the big gun ships and also the rise of air power and its ability to outflank the big gun. Since that time the pace of technical development has intensified, with aircraft and missiles dominating the scene but not entirely vanquishing the gun.

NAVAL GUN is the story of this development, placing the accent on the guns rather than on the ships or the tactics which employed them. It relates the rise and decline of naval ordnance from the fourteenth century until yesterday, illustrating the main line of development and yet exploring some less well-known but equally important and diverting byways.