You have created an incredible amount of accurate detail and animation. Beautiful. Very well done and many thanks. At some stage in the future it would be interesting to see the mechanism operating with the gun slightly elevated (just to show that it can be done). And I love the steam from the De Bange obdurator face.
Thanks - much appreciated. I left the gun at 5 degrees as this was easier to render/animate (5 degrees also being the usual elevation used for loading by the crews). Steam took an age to render!
My father was on the HMS Roberts during WW2, his post was inside the 15 inch turret, his job was aligning the turret compass with the ships compass. I found this very interesting, Obviously he survived , as I'm here. But I do know they were batterned down in action. Respect .
Well here we all are some 75 years after the end of ww2,and the enthusiasm and interest in these awesome battleships still carries on great videos thank you very much
@@rnbreech4194After showing the personnel and their duties, kinda wish you had started in the shellroom and magazine and followed the bags and shells as they travelled to the chamber and gunhouse and then into the gun in sequence, from shell order to firing. And a bit slower. Fantastic animation, easy to see and follow. Great vid!
This is surely a masterpiece of 3D CAD. 63 men, wow! I had thought maybe twelve. I think this gives a bit of an insight into the incredible amount of planning and engineering that went into the making of such guns, all designed with just paper, pencil and slide rule, now perhaps about ninety years ago.
Thanks a lot - much appreciated! Much of the 15 inch gun turret technology was derived from the preceding 13.5 and 12 inch gun turrets so the design is over 110 years old
And hugely modified over 40-odd years. For example Vanguard's turret had the Magazines and Shellrooms swapped over. The turrets for Vanguard, Renown, Warspite, Valiant and Queen Elizabeth were modified for 30° elevation and the guns proofed for super-charges. Great video. Well done.
US battleships tended to have up to 80+ crew for their main turrets.... the RN design seems to have a slightly more automation hence less crew required than a US battleship
Absolutely blown away by the engineering and the sheer intricacy of the process: drawn and designed by pencil, paper and slide-rule. Many times machined using steam powered tools. Amazing!
You think you understand how "primitive" gun turrets work, and then you see this and realize you really had no idea how complex and ingenious it all really was. Thank you for sharing your research with us.
Thank you for all your hard work and superb artistry. My father was in the RN from 1929 till 1948 ending up as a CPO Gunnery . He served on the 15 inch guns on Repulse, Renown and narrowly escaped the sinking of the Barham, but talked very little of his time. This gives me a really valuable and emotional insight into his working life at sea. I ended up in The MN as engineering officer and so the engineering aspects of your work are also wonderful to see. A Heartfelt thank you once again.
My father is a WW2 Army Air Force veteran. He's still with us, and still articulate and healthy. I'm continually impressed that people are very interested in his service. He gets asked a lot of questions, especially by young people.
My regards to your father. I'd have a ton of questions to ask him too, it's a blessing that young people get to learn from him. Our elders are incredibly precious in that regard, it changes one's life to be in touch with that wisdom. It is even more precious now, as we are overall so disconnected from our elders.
Outstanding, I was a Gunners Mate 2 in the US Navy and a mount capt, on a 5" 54 Mk 42. I found this amung the best I have seen on a large caliber naval gun operation Thank you.
I want to make some comments after looking animation again. I am curious about the date of this design. Assuming that some version of it was used on HMS Elizabeth, the animation works well when comparing the very different approaches to turrets and handling systems between early British and U.S. turrets. The U.S. Mk1 14" turret, as used on Battleship Texas, was a contemporary of Elizabeth and was extremely primitive compared to the British design. That can be seen in a recent video shot in Texas' turret system. What is even worse in Texas was that until the addition of power hoists around 1919-20, powder was lifted by hand up a series of platforms manned by passers from the lower handling room to the powder flat located immediately below the turret gun pit. While U.S. shell and powder handling systems improved until the Washington treaty was enacted, it wasn't until the later U.S. 16" treaty and fast battleship designs that systems began to approach the sophistication found here. There is a well written report and critique submitted on 27 June 1917 by RN Commander Richard T. Down to his superiors, that was the result of his detailed inspection of some U.S. battleships and their turret systems. He was rightfully critical of the primitive nature of the U.S. designs, but he also said that their inferiority was largely offset by the high level of training of their gun crews. The only statement that I disagree with is a very small point. Commander Down stated that threads on U.S. breech plugs could be damaged if not carefully aligned before closing. I have directly operated one of the manual, horizontally hinged plugs on Texas and found that to not be correct. I first swung the plug very slowly to see what touched first before I put any force on it. Once satisfied that nothing would be damaged, I pulled the plug back to its fully open position, then swung it closed with considerable force. I could see and hear a cam mounted on the plug strike a channel on the screw box that serves as a guide. I could also feel the operating handle pivot up slightly as the cam struck the channel and rotate the plug to its proper position before the two sets of threads made contact with one another. Having said that, gun drills of the period required that the plug man inspect threads for burrs between shots, so there may have been some concern with this by the U.S. Navy.
@@johnolive3425 My comments were limited to comparisons of two very different breech and loading systems for two guns having almost equal size and power. Even the most casual comparison of both designs should make it obvious to anyone that the U.S. Mk. 1 design required much more physical effort to load and operate, was easier to make mistakes with and was slower in overall operation. That being said, it had advantages over the British design. It was far simpler to fabricate and maintain. There were vastly fewer parts to wear and break. It was almost intuitive and easy to teach operation, maintenance and repair to practically anyone. As a whole, U.S. designers were very smart engineers and were certainly aware of powered designs. They were undoubtedly competent enough to create them, but decision makers, including Navy ordnance experts, apparently decided that simpler was better. So, yes, the U.S. design was more primitive, but it is easy to see that the decision to use it was likely based upon solid logic. It is also reasonable to say that British decisions followed equally strong logic, so the two very different approaches were almost certainly due to different values and design goals. That is not an insult to Yankee ingenuity. Lastly, my opinion is formed by close reading of early U.S. Navy ordnance manual descriptions of the Mk.1 turret and literally hundreds of hours climbing through and studying the turrets on Battleship Texas. If you've made it this far in my reply, you can go to my video and see the difference between the system in this video and one on Texas. By the way, I relish its simplicity and practicality. th-cam.com/video/LoljOzJ6HQE/w-d-xo.html
@@tomscotttheolderone364 my sincere apologies. I misunderstood your comments as a harsh critique of our designs! And yes, the ammo handling procedures on the USS Texas were a ball-buster.
Now I know what that lad was screaming in "Sink The Bismarck" during the loading scenes. RIGHT GUN SHELL! RIGHT GUN FIRST HALF CHARGE! RIGHT GUN SECOND HALF CHARGE! I've been wondering what he was screaming for 50 years. Thank you!
My sincerest appreciation for the work and time that must be involved producing this detailed animation. Congratulations. Especially interesting (and poignant) for me as my father was Royal Navy throughout WWII, serving and surviving some of the most dreadful theatres of naval warfare. Thank you and best wishes.
Wow! This is the best video I have ever seen, explaining the workings of a RN 15” turret. Now I know what’s going on in the loading sequence shown on “Sink the Bismarck”, which shows one of HMS Vanguard’s turrets representing HMS Hood. Liked and subscribed!
And now all you have to do is push a button and the computer does all that for you. What took 63 men in WWII now takes a single computer and a single sailor pushing a button.
This animation was brilliant and explained a lot about the workings of these big guns. I always knew that it took a lot of crew to man these brutes, but I was never sure about the process involved. Your animation shows just how intricate and complicated the process of firing these guns is, even though the a lot of the work is done by hydraulics. The crew would need to be well trained and alert during the process, to ensure safe operation. A stressful job I think. Thanks for all your hard work in putting this together and uploading!
Amazing animation. I knew the workings of the MK 1 gun and turret well from books. But those were afterall words. Needed to picture them in my mind. This clip gives me visual representation. No words beat that. The CG quality excellent!
Thank you, I now have a much better understanding of my fathers experience as gun crew 4 in Warspite's X turret in WW2 👍 I have watched it 10 times already😊
Thanks for watching. No.4 had all the "interesting" jobs - especially in the event of a misfire. He would have to stand behind the gun to replace the vent tube and hope that the gun wouldn't suddenly fire, An officer would assist with a stick (from a safer distance of course)
@@rnbreech4194 He was a coal miner working on the coal face before and after his service. He was a Ripper and that entailed using explosives to bring the rock down from above the coal seem. So his life was full of explosions.
This is so great to visualize the engineering master piece of the guns. The interceptor switch and related action is so elegant and simple. -- I also like how the sailors are dressed as imperial guards!
This Channel is So Awesome - I Do Not Understand Why You Tube is Not Promoting you Guys .As a 3d Animation Channel (Blender) We understand the Amount of Time ,Work, Skills and Maybe Money that is put into this . We Wish you all the Best !
My father watched one of these turrets in action, taking pics, with his stood down AA gun crew off Utah beach on D-Day aboard the monitor HMS Erebus. Still got the photos.
At 16.40 a shell exploded while exiting the left barrel. Turret doors flew open and the marines in flash gear piled out along with a lot of smoke. At maximum run in it burst the jacket fortunately the breach held no one killed. Distorted the cradle and trunnion supports. After 2 days at anchor back to Devonport for temporary repairs. Inquiry traced it to faulty shell fuse. Returned to service 22 June with one barrel, not the only ship on D-Day to have this happen to.
Great animation, lots of work !!! It would be lovely to see a final run of the full cycle repeating 2 or 3 times especially in real time so one can get an idea of that
This is really SOMETHING! Great stuff for a technical history guy like me. Would be really cool to see an 8-barreled 2pdr mount in action--if possible in this format, that is.....
Strangely... Fascinating. Incredible detail. While watching I thought how clever such design is, but also tainted with a sadness about the end game of such human design efforts.
Funny I just saw a movie clip a couple of weeks ago inside the turret. was thinking that they were being repetitive on their commands, but after watching this I can understand what was going on and why. I never thought there was that many crewmen, but I can understand why there were large crews on Ships now. Many thanks for all your hard work.
I had the same turret/naval rifles on my 20" bicycle when I was a young buck. Got them for Christmas. Alittle unwieldy when biking through the woods but you learn to lean into the corners. I guess it's just a benefit of growing up in 'Merica
A wonderful addition to the series. Nice one. This unique and (now a lot less) secretive engineering could still be around, had we saved HMS Roberts, but there it is - we didn't. They sold her for scrap twice; just after the war, then she was bought back by the navy for training and accommodation, then she was sold again in 1965 in a parlous and neglected state and turned into razor blades. Another 10 minutes of incredible skill and meticulous research. well done, you.
Thanks a lot! Maybe someday, a British billionaire will find HMS Terror and brings its turret home - its probably in a bad state after 80 odd years though.
Just a quick note. HMS Roberts has always been of interest to me, as the main guns fired as a landing craft (LCM) my father was crewing during D-Day, passed along the side of it. He was always a bit deaf in the left ear afterwards. There was a big fuss over it afterwards and I think the gunnery officer in charge took the blame for not ensuring the 'field of fire' was clear. The landing craft was blown sideways, clear out of the water for a number of yards. What a great video showing just what had to happen, before my father and his mates took to the air. Luckily noone was blown overboard.
Can I ask why there are shells in storage in the Working Chamber? Is that the ready use ammunition and if so, wouldn't they load and fire those shells first at the beginning of the engagement? Or perhaps they were held in reserve in case the lift from the magazine was damaged?
Yes, if there is a failure with the gun loading or shaft cages, the crew switch to secondary loading. The secondary method of getting shells to the working chamber takes a longer time (and requires shell room crew to come up to the working chamber to assist). The readily available shells speeds up the process. Although not shown in the animation , there is also storage for shells in the gunhouse itself.
You won`t find a better example of Teamwork than what it took to operate one of those Guns and it would have been done in a matter of seconds too, amazing.
question: what are the shells seen lying about in the working chamber? "ready use" ammo? was powder for them available? and is their a crane to handle the 2,000 pound/880kg shells that has been ommited for clarity?
Yes, there is an overhead rail or radial crane on either side of the working chamber. They were in my model originally but cluttered up the renders. According to the handbook, there is stowage for 9 shells per gun in the Working Chamber and 3 per gun at the rear of the Gunhouse. I only modelled what I could see in available drawings. These shells would be used in the event of secondary loading i.e. the main hoist or the gunloading cage had failed. Secondary loading arrangements for Cordite would be direct from the magazine to the rear of the gunhouse via a dedicated shaft. Cordite was never "stored" outside of the magazine as far as I'm aware.
Fantastic animation, every rivet modelled. One thing that puzzles though, does the Working Chamber rotate with the gun, or is it (and the shaft down to the magazine) fixed and there is a separation somewhere, like inner/outer rings? The final scene shows the big hoist rails for the shells down in the shell room and they must be fixed in position, surely? Yet the gun housing on top deck must rotate to traverse onto target? How was that resolved? Or do the entire magazines traverse?
Thanks a lot - much appreciated. Yes, the Working Chamber and shaft rotates/trains with the turret. Everything shown in the animation intro is part of the turret rotating structure with the exception of the overhead rails in the Shell Room at the bottom of the shaft.
@@rnbreech4194 Ahha, I see - that’s neatly scratched the brain itch it was giving me lol. Thankyou for the response. Gonna subscribe & watch your other ones now :D
@@rnbreech4194 I have an additional to that question, is there a reason why there are spare shells in the working room as there seems to be without opening the flash chamber no way to lift them to the gunhouse, and even then you'd still need to lift the cordite up via the elevator anyway. Also even if you did that, 2 men lifting one of those shells would rapidly (if they could even do it) exhaust both men.
@@cgi2002 There is an overhead rail in the working chamber that is omitted from the animation (it cluttered up the scenes). This overhead rail would be used to move shells around the working chamber. There are also radial cranes in the gunhouse used to raise shells from the working chamber during secondary loading. The flash enclosure doors can be opened to traverse the shell bogie into the working chamber. There is also another method of raising shells directly from the shell room. There is a crane/shaft between the flash enclosures in the working chamber with a crane to lift shells in case the main shell room cages fail.
Amazing video! I always find it weird that british WW1 era guns were far more automated than the 16 inch guns on the Iowa class. Basically everything but ramming occurs far below decks. No manual handling of charge packs in the gun house at all.
Great piece of work! My late father actually did this kind of thing for real! Somewhere, I think I still have his notes for how it all fitted together....
As others have commented now the scene from Sink the Bismarck is explained. I first saw the movie back in the 60s when I was barely a teenager. I couldn't help but think about the poor guys in the HMS Hood down in the depths as she exploded. I cannot even imagine what happened as the ship broke open and sink. They had no chance.
Navy guy i knew, one of the last to use cordite guns, said it got very exciting on miss fires, you never saw so many run so quick. One guy left to empty the breach and turf cordite out of turret, to be thrown overboard.
👍🏻🏴❤️ My father served on two 15 inch gunned battleships; Malaya, and Valiant. Unlike both Nelson and Rodney on both of which he also served the 15 inch gun was not plagued with any problems. The definitive book on British Battleships of W.W.11, Raven and Roberts rated it the best battleship gun of any nation due to it’s evolution and updated range and efficiency.
@@keithgotch1546 I have my Father’s framed Crossing the Line colour certificate dated 12/04/42. 80 years ago!. “Hateful Hund, Worthless Wops, and Nasty Nips. Etcetera
The 13.5-inch gun was a good design, they got two working guns out of it by scaling it up: the BL 15-inch Mk I and the BL 18-inch Mk I. The turret of the 13.5 inch was also scaled up for these guns, as well as for the Japanese 14-inch guns. If you look at pictures of the Japanese ship Kongo, its turrets are very similar to the British 15-inch turrets.
@@5000mahmud Well as you will know the Kongo was designed and built in England as the lead ship of the subsequent Class of battlecruisers . With the interwar improvements to the 15 inch the elevation and range were improved . Vid., Roberts and Ravens huge tomb on the subject which has all the information required.
My father was on the Malaya as a signaler. At first he was stationed down at the keel level in the code room but when he realised that there was really no escape from there he "lost" his fear of heights and volunteered for duty on the aft mast spotting top. One of his jobs was to repair arial wires that had been brought down. This was done during action and in all weathers, hanging on to 3" angle iron spreaders way above the deck and the roaring guns. He passed away in 2015, God bless him, and all his mates.
Extremely well done. My only wish is if these graphics could be converted(?) into a 360deg VR video, as seeing this in my VR headset would be awesome. Better still, if you could walk around the decks as an observer, in first person view in VR. Watching an animated crew performing their functions and also seeing the machinery in operation through cutaways. Oh I can but dream.
Hi. See below quote from RN gunnery handbook maritime.org/doc/br224/part2.htm "B.L. cartridges must be put into the gun with the red igniter end to the rear and as close as possible to the breech block of the gun." This is to ensure that the cordite is ignited by the Vent Tube when it is fired.
I wonder why they store the cordite, the most explosive and vulnerable to secondary detonation, part of the system higher up in the ship and why they put it higher up in the ramming mechanism...
1:49 The idea of numbering the members of a gun crew goes back to Nelson's day. The idea was to make it easier to give orders during a battle. All the gun captain (Number 1, back then) had to do was yell the number of whoever he wanted to give an order to.
Thanks! It can get even more crowded if a gunloading cage fails and a gun switches to secondary loading - 2 numbers from the magazine come up to the gunhouse and become gun crew numbers 7 and 8. 2 numbers from the shell room come up to the working chamber and become gun crew numbers 9 and 10.
an excellent video. Where / why / what caused the powder bags to be stored out of their secure spaces? How did this system prevent the timely transfer of the powder bags? Where were these powder bags kept to increase the loading speed of the rifle?
Thanks a lot! Powder bags were never stored anywhere except in the magazine. If the main shaft cages failed, there was an Auxiliary Cordite Hoist in the main trunk that could deliver charges directly to the gunhouse. This method would require 2 Magazine crew to come up the gunhouse and become gun crew numbers 7 and 8. They would carry the bags from the Auxiliary Cordite Hoist to the guns for loading.
@@rnbreech4194 is there any chance you would do a similar animation on the Japanese 18.1inch guns? I realise design details for them are somewhat sketchy though so appreciate this might not be possible.
Astonishing detail. I checked your other video titles, will have to watch them out soon, but wondering if you had any interest in showing what current understanding is of the Royal Navy's "flash fire" problem with Battlecruisers at Jutland (apparently German ships also had faults but were better corrected following Dogger Bank?). Obviously it was 12" and 13.5" turrets that exploded, none of the 15" gunned ships were affected, but since you say in comments that the tech was pretty much the same for all calibers, you could perhaps even use your existing models to at least demonstrate where the problems lay. Seeing which doors were actually opened, where extra shells or cordite were stashed, etc. could help our understanding of how exactly the explosions occurred and perhaps what was done in later designs or fixes that reduced the problem. Thanks for a beautiful video!
A fantastic animation and I dread to think how many hours that took to decide what to include and exclude, design it, draw it and then render! I had no real appreciation of how these worked and whilst an animation of the whole process would be fantastic, that's me wanting to be spoon fed.
Wow! Now that's a quality animation and video. Really interesting and informative. One does have to wonder why more of the process is not automated. Really interesting though - thanks
Beautifull presentation, soothing and meditating music... the perfect ingredients for a like and a subscribe :) . Hope you will make more of these in the future.
So intensely procedural - because safety is job #1! Appreciate your work & graphics! I don't think American BBs sprayed water in after firing - nitrogen gas, but I've not seen water used(?)
Thanks a lot! There is actual footage of the water squirts in action aboard HMS Repulse in the video below at the 1 minute 30 mark. Its quite a fine spray rather than a torrent of water th-cam.com/video/mrQDRVWuYoQ/w-d-xo.html
For the first time in a very, VERY long time, TH-cam has suggested a video to me that i actually ended up LOVING enough for me to subscribe. Shocking... Well, I suppose that even a broken clock is right twice a day...
@@rnbreech4194 No way, you're the one deserving of thanks, dude. This animation really plays to my OCD side because you've detailed this thing down to even the smallest minutia. I mean, those plates on the side of the breach at #2's head level (not to mention EVERY damn switch and lever) are fuckin actually accurately labeled... I mean... Jesus... Lol
Absolutely stunning, what a technical marvel you have re-created, thank you. I have and emotional attachment to this subject as my Granddad was 'Gun loader, A-turret' on HMS Barham. I now am no longer sure of his specific capacity or duty since you've shown so much detail and personnel? Cheers RNbreech✌ Edit; On reflection after several multiple viewings I think Granddad must have been Gun crew no.1?
You have created an incredible amount of accurate detail and animation. Beautiful. Very well done and many thanks. At some stage in the future it would be interesting to see the mechanism operating with the gun slightly elevated (just to show that it can be done). And I love the steam from the De Bange obdurator face.
Thanks - much appreciated. I left the gun at 5 degrees as this was easier to render/animate (5 degrees also being the usual elevation used for loading by the crews). Steam took an age to render!
My father was on the HMS Roberts during WW2, his post was inside the 15 inch turret, his job was aligning the turret compass with the ships compass. I found this very interesting, Obviously he survived , as I'm here. But I do know they were batterned down in action. Respect .
'the' Her Majesty's Ship?
His. HMS Roberts was in service during the reign of George VI.
Your father need not have survived the war for you to have existed.
Well here we all are some 75 years after the end of ww2,and the enthusiasm and interest in these awesome battleships still carries on great videos thank you very much
Thanks a lot - much appreciated!
@@rnbreech4194After showing the personnel and their duties, kinda wish you had started in the shellroom and magazine and followed the bags and shells as they travelled to the chamber and gunhouse and then into the gun in sequence, from shell order to firing. And a bit slower. Fantastic animation, easy to see and follow. Great vid!
Fr 😮
This is surely a masterpiece of 3D CAD. 63 men, wow! I had thought maybe twelve. I think this gives a bit of an insight into the incredible amount of planning and engineering that went into the making of such guns, all designed with just paper, pencil and slide rule, now perhaps about ninety years ago.
Thanks a lot - much appreciated! Much of the 15 inch gun turret technology was derived from the preceding 13.5 and 12 inch gun turrets so the design is over 110 years old
the super dreadnoughts like HMS Warspite that fought in the 1916 WW1 battle of Jutland were these 15" guns, now well over 100 years ago
And hugely modified over 40-odd years. For example Vanguard's turret had the Magazines and Shellrooms swapped over. The turrets for Vanguard, Renown, Warspite, Valiant and Queen Elizabeth were modified for 30° elevation and the guns proofed for super-charges.
Great video. Well done.
US battleships tended to have up to 80+ crew for their main turrets.... the RN design seems to have a slightly more automation hence less crew required than a US battleship
Yes no CAD or CNC!
Absolutely blown away by the engineering and the sheer intricacy of the process: drawn and designed by pencil, paper and slide-rule. Many times machined using steam powered tools. Amazing!
I am bereft of words; the attention to detail, the precision... superb. Those 9 minutes went by in an instant.
Thanks for watching - much appreciated!
You think you understand how "primitive" gun turrets work, and then you see this and realize you really had no idea how complex and ingenious it all really was. Thank you for sharing your research with us.
Thank you for all your hard work and superb artistry. My father was in the RN from 1929 till 1948 ending up as a CPO Gunnery . He served on the
15 inch guns on Repulse, Renown and narrowly escaped the sinking of the Barham, but talked very little of his time. This gives me a really valuable and emotional insight into his working life at sea. I ended up in The MN as engineering officer and so the engineering aspects of your work are also wonderful to see. A Heartfelt thank you once again.
Thanks a lot - much appreciated
My father is a WW2 Army Air Force veteran. He's still with us, and still articulate and healthy. I'm continually impressed that people are very interested in his service. He gets asked a lot of questions, especially by young people.
My dad was a Navy vet, that was a tough job. Please relay my thanks to your dad for WINNING!
My regards to your father. I'd have a ton of questions to ask him too, it's a blessing that young people get to learn from him.
Our elders are incredibly precious in that regard, it changes one's life to be in touch with that wisdom. It is even more precious now, as we are overall so disconnected from our elders.
God Bless your Dad,my Dad was a USAAF vet.Wish I would have asked him more about his service.
Wasn't it Army Air Corps back then?
I can't even begin to imagine how many hours of CAD modeling are in that assembly. Absolutely beautiful work!!
Thanks - the rendering took a while too!
Outstanding, I was a Gunners Mate 2 in the US Navy and a mount capt, on a 5" 54 Mk 42. I found this amung the best I have seen on a large caliber naval gun operation Thank you.
Thanks a lot - much appreciated!
Somebody should warn these fellows that they are firing with the tompions still in the muzzles.
Its not like thats gonna do anything, arent tompions designed to be shot through?
@@jace8785well it its HE shells it might explode…
And the gunhouse roof missing. And a gun breech sectioned so they can see the chain rammer...
I think that's how HMS Incombustable combusted.
😂🤣
I want to make some comments after looking animation again. I am curious about the date of this design. Assuming that some version of it was used on HMS Elizabeth, the animation works well when comparing the very different approaches to turrets and handling systems between early British and U.S. turrets. The U.S. Mk1 14" turret, as used on Battleship Texas, was a contemporary of Elizabeth and was extremely primitive compared to the British design. That can be seen in a recent video shot in Texas' turret system. What is even worse in Texas was that until the addition of power hoists around 1919-20, powder was lifted by hand up a series of platforms manned by passers from the lower handling room to the powder flat located immediately below the turret gun pit. While U.S. shell and powder handling systems improved until the Washington treaty was enacted, it wasn't until the later U.S. 16" treaty and fast battleship designs that systems began to approach the sophistication found here. There is a well written report and critique submitted on 27 June 1917 by RN Commander Richard T. Down to his superiors, that was the result of his detailed inspection of some U.S. battleships and their turret systems. He was rightfully critical of the primitive nature of the U.S. designs, but he also said that their inferiority was largely offset by the high level of training of their gun crews. The only statement that I disagree with is a very small point. Commander Down stated that threads on U.S. breech plugs could be damaged if not carefully aligned before closing. I have directly operated one of the manual, horizontally hinged plugs on Texas and found that to not be correct. I first swung the plug very slowly to see what touched first before I put any force on it. Once satisfied that nothing would be damaged, I pulled the plug back to its fully open position, then swung it closed with considerable force. I could see and hear a cam mounted on the plug strike a channel on the screw box that serves as a guide. I could also feel the operating handle pivot up slightly as the cam struck the channel and rotate the plug to its proper position before the two sets of threads made contact with one another. Having said that, gun drills of the period required that the plug man inspect threads for burrs between shots, so there may have been some concern with this by the U.S. Navy.
I believe that it shows the quality of this video when a gentleman of Tom’s deep technical knowledge comments on it AND adds additional insight!
Thank you. I just read Commander Down's report - very interesting.
American's have been "extremely primitive" to the British since we became an independent country, so whatever helps you sleep at night.
@@johnolive3425 My comments were limited to comparisons of two very different breech and loading systems for two guns having almost equal size and power. Even the most casual comparison of both designs should make it obvious to anyone that the U.S. Mk. 1 design required much more physical effort to load and operate, was easier to make mistakes with and was slower in overall operation. That being said, it had advantages over the British design. It was far simpler to fabricate and maintain. There were vastly fewer parts to wear and break. It was almost intuitive and easy to teach operation, maintenance and repair to practically anyone. As a whole, U.S. designers were very smart engineers and were certainly aware of powered designs. They were undoubtedly competent enough to create them, but decision makers, including Navy ordnance experts, apparently decided that simpler was better. So, yes, the U.S. design was more primitive, but it is easy to see that the decision to use it was likely based upon solid logic. It is also reasonable to say that British decisions followed equally strong logic, so the two very different approaches were almost certainly due to different values and design goals. That is not an insult to Yankee ingenuity. Lastly, my opinion is formed by close reading of early U.S. Navy ordnance manual descriptions of the Mk.1 turret and literally hundreds of hours climbing through and studying the turrets on Battleship Texas. If you've made it this far in my reply, you can go to my video and see the difference between the system in this video and one on Texas. By the way, I relish its simplicity and practicality. th-cam.com/video/LoljOzJ6HQE/w-d-xo.html
@@tomscotttheolderone364 my sincere apologies. I misunderstood your comments as a harsh critique of our designs! And yes, the ammo handling procedures on the USS Texas were a ball-buster.
Now I know what that lad was screaming in "Sink The Bismarck" during the loading scenes.
RIGHT GUN SHELL!
RIGHT GUN FIRST HALF CHARGE!
RIGHT GUN SECOND HALF CHARGE!
I've been wondering what he was screaming for 50 years. Thank you!
My sincerest appreciation for the work and time that must be involved producing this detailed animation. Congratulations.
Especially interesting (and poignant) for me as my father was Royal Navy throughout WWII, serving and surviving some of the most dreadful theatres of naval warfare.
Thank you and best wishes.
Thanks for watching and commenting - much appreciated!
Wow! This is the best video I have ever seen, explaining the workings of a RN 15” turret. Now I know what’s going on in the loading sequence shown on “Sink the Bismarck”, which shows one of HMS Vanguard’s turrets representing HMS Hood. Liked and subscribed!
I though exactly the same. I've always wondered what the loader was calling out when the guns were being loaded in that movie.
I googled, "loading sequence, Sink the Bismark" and was NOT disappointed. These two videos together made my morning coffee! Thanks!
When i saw the loading procedure, i thought, you saw that somewhere... And then, boom, "Sink the Bismarck" :)
Great animation
And now all you have to do is push a button and the computer does all that for you. What took 63 men in WWII now takes a single computer and a single sailor pushing a button.
Much respect, an incredible amount of time and talent has been put into this video… it should be recommended for an award
This animation was brilliant and explained a lot about the workings of these big guns. I always knew that it took a lot of crew to man these brutes, but I was never sure about the process involved.
Your animation shows just how intricate and complicated the process of firing these guns is, even though the a lot of the work is done by hydraulics. The crew would need to be well trained and alert during the process, to ensure safe operation. A stressful job I think.
Thanks for all your hard work in putting this together and uploading!
Thanks - much appreciated!
Amazing animation. I knew the workings of the MK 1 gun and turret well from books. But those were afterall words. Needed to picture them in my mind. This clip gives me visual representation. No words beat that. The CG quality excellent!
Thank you, I now have a much better understanding of my fathers experience as gun crew 4 in Warspite's X turret in WW2 👍 I have watched it 10 times already😊
Thanks for watching. No.4 had all the "interesting" jobs - especially in the event of a misfire. He would have to stand behind the gun to replace the vent tube and hope that the gun wouldn't suddenly fire, An officer would assist with a stick (from a safer distance of course)
@@rnbreech4194 He was a coal miner working on the coal face before and after his service. He was a Ripper and that entailed using explosives to bring the rock down from above the coal seem. So his life was full of explosions.
What can I say, but wow! Absolutely beautiful animation as always, thank you so much!
Thanks a lot. Much appreciated.
This is so great to visualize the engineering master piece of the guns. The interceptor switch and related action is so elegant and simple. -- I also like how the sailors are dressed as imperial guards!
One of the most complex engineering setups of the time! Truly amazing how they got this all to work correctly!
This Channel is So Awesome - I Do Not Understand Why You Tube is Not Promoting you Guys .As a 3d Animation Channel (Blender) We understand the Amount of Time ,Work, Skills and Maybe Money that is put into this .
We Wish you all the Best !
Thanks a lot. Yes, at times I though I'd never finish the video - rendering took a long time. All the best to you too!
My father watched one of these turrets in action, taking pics, with his stood down AA gun crew off Utah beach on D-Day aboard the monitor HMS Erebus. Still got the photos.
At 16.40 a shell exploded while exiting the left barrel. Turret doors flew open and the marines in flash gear piled out along with a lot of smoke. At maximum run in it burst the jacket fortunately the breach held no one killed. Distorted the cradle and trunnion supports. After 2 days at anchor back to Devonport for temporary repairs. Inquiry traced it to faulty shell fuse. Returned to service 22 June with one barrel, not the only ship on D-Day to have this happen to.
Great animation, lots of work !!! It would be lovely to see a final run of the full cycle repeating 2 or 3 times especially in real time so one can get an idea of that
Thanks - much appreciated!
This is really SOMETHING! Great stuff for a technical history guy like me. Would be really cool to see an 8-barreled 2pdr mount in action--if possible in this format, that is.....
Thanks a lot!
Strangely... Fascinating. Incredible detail. While watching I thought how clever such design is, but also tainted with a sadness about the end game of such human design efforts.
What a terrific video. Would love to see this done with other navies gun systems. Well done and thanks for the insight and detail!!!
As far as I know, there's not a huge difference. These big naval guns all operate in much the same way.
Funny I just saw a movie clip a couple of weeks ago inside the turret. was thinking that they were being repetitive on their commands, but after watching this I can understand what was going on and why. I never thought there was that many crewmen, but I can understand why there were large crews on Ships now. Many thanks for all your hard work.
I had the same turret/naval rifles on my 20" bicycle when I was a young buck. Got them for Christmas. Alittle unwieldy when biking through the woods but you learn to lean into the corners.
I guess it's just a benefit of growing up in 'Merica
A wonderful addition to the series. Nice one.
This unique and (now a lot less) secretive engineering could still be around, had we saved HMS Roberts, but there it is - we didn't. They sold her for scrap twice; just after the war, then she was bought back by the navy for training and accommodation, then she was sold again in 1965 in a parlous and neglected state and turned into razor blades.
Another 10 minutes of incredible skill and meticulous research. well done, you.
Thanks a lot! Maybe someday, a British billionaire will find HMS Terror and brings its turret home - its probably in a bad state after 80 odd years though.
Just a quick note. HMS Roberts has always been of interest to me, as the main guns fired as a landing craft (LCM) my father was crewing during D-Day, passed along the side of it. He was always a bit deaf in the left ear afterwards. There was a big fuss over it afterwards and I think the gunnery officer in charge took the blame for not ensuring the 'field of fire' was clear. The landing craft was blown sideways, clear out of the water for a number of yards. What a great video showing just what had to happen, before my father and his mates took to the air. Luckily noone was blown overboard.
Incredible work putting this together. I had no idea how this process it worked, or how much coordination was involved.
WOW! I have been waiting for this all my life!
That was amazing! I finally think I understand the entire process. Excellent work!
Thanks a lot - much appreciated!
Can I ask why there are shells in storage in the Working Chamber? Is that the ready use ammunition and if so, wouldn't they load and fire those shells first at the beginning of the engagement? Or perhaps they were held in reserve in case the lift from the magazine was damaged?
Yes, if there is a failure with the gun loading or shaft cages, the crew switch to secondary loading. The secondary method of getting shells to the working chamber takes a longer time (and requires shell room crew to come up to the working chamber to assist). The readily available shells speeds up the process.
Although not shown in the animation , there is also storage for shells in the gunhouse itself.
excellent , well detailed video. I have always wanted to know how these guns worked and this was a great demonstration.
You won`t find a better example of Teamwork than what it took to operate one of those Guns and it would have been done in a matter of seconds too, amazing.
Absolutely amazing animation. Great job.
Amazing piece of engineering. Thank you for this animation!
Thanks - much appreciated!
Incredable. Thank you for doing this!
This is absolutely mental. Well done!
Outstanding! Thank you very much for this incredible animation.
Thanks a lot - much appreciated!
And with guns like that and men to operate them the Royal Navy very frequently won battles at sea. Amazing.
fantastic! could this be turned into 3D printable scale model kit? I would love one on my desk.
Thanks! Its not something I've looked into but it sounds interesting.
question: what are the shells seen lying about in the working chamber? "ready use" ammo? was powder for them available? and is their a crane to handle the 2,000 pound/880kg shells that has been ommited for clarity?
Yes, there is an overhead rail or radial crane on either side of the working chamber. They were in my model originally but cluttered up the renders.
According to the handbook, there is stowage for 9 shells per gun in the Working Chamber and 3 per gun at the rear of the Gunhouse. I only modelled what I could see in available drawings. These shells would be used in the event of secondary loading i.e. the main hoist or the gunloading cage had failed. Secondary loading arrangements for Cordite would be direct from the magazine to the rear of the gunhouse via a dedicated shaft.
Cordite was never "stored" outside of the magazine as far as I'm aware.
Fantastic animation, every rivet modelled. One thing that puzzles though, does the Working Chamber rotate with the gun, or is it (and the shaft down to the magazine) fixed and there is a separation somewhere, like inner/outer rings? The final scene shows the big hoist rails for the shells down in the shell room and they must be fixed in position, surely? Yet the gun housing on top deck must rotate to traverse onto target? How was that resolved? Or do the entire magazines traverse?
Thanks a lot - much appreciated. Yes, the Working Chamber and shaft rotates/trains with the turret. Everything shown in the animation intro is part of the turret rotating structure with the exception of the overhead rails in the Shell Room at the bottom of the shaft.
@@rnbreech4194 Ahha, I see - that’s neatly scratched the brain itch it was giving me lol. Thankyou for the response. Gonna subscribe & watch your other ones now :D
@@rnbreech4194 I have an additional to that question, is there a reason why there are spare shells in the working room as there seems to be without opening the flash chamber no way to lift them to the gunhouse, and even then you'd still need to lift the cordite up via the elevator anyway. Also even if you did that, 2 men lifting one of those shells would rapidly (if they could even do it) exhaust both men.
@@cgi2002 There is an overhead rail in the working chamber that is omitted from the animation (it cluttered up the scenes). This overhead rail would be used to move shells around the working chamber.
There are also radial cranes in the gunhouse used to raise shells from the working chamber during secondary loading.
The flash enclosure doors can be opened to traverse the shell bogie into the working chamber. There is also another method of raising shells directly from the shell room. There is a crane/shaft between the flash enclosures in the working chamber with a crane to lift shells in case the main shell room cages fail.
An elegant weapon for a more mechanical time. Now the missile knows where it is at all times.
A truly spectacular rendering of a spectacular handling system!
Thanks! Much appreciated.
Technically this is very good and very great 3D animation. Impressioning !!
Thanks for all that and Happy New Year 2022 !!!
Amazing video! I always find it weird that british WW1 era guns were far more automated than the 16 inch guns on the Iowa class. Basically everything but ramming occurs far below decks. No manual handling of charge packs in the gun house at all.
Great piece of work! My late father actually did this kind of thing for real! Somewhere, I think I still have his notes for how it all fitted together....
As others have commented now the scene from Sink the Bismarck is explained. I first saw the movie back in the 60s when I was barely a teenager. I couldn't help but think about the poor guys in the HMS Hood down in the depths as she exploded. I cannot even imagine what happened as the ship broke open and sink. They had no chance.
Fantastic lesson from this movie. Thanks! Bismarck fire was every 20 seconds.
WOOOOWWWW!!! That is an absolutely incredible animation 😳😳😳😳👍😁
Navy guy i knew, one of the last to use cordite guns, said it got very exciting on miss fires, you never saw so many run so quick. One guy left to empty the breach and turf cordite out of turret, to be thrown overboard.
Stunning piece of graphics work
why they sprayed water in there? so not only, where you hot sweaty oily but also wet
To cool the barrel of the gun, or else it would become so hot that it could ignite the cordite charge that fires the shells.
👍🏻🏴❤️ My father served on two 15 inch gunned battleships; Malaya, and Valiant. Unlike both Nelson and Rodney on both of which he also served the 15 inch gun was not plagued with any problems. The definitive book on British Battleships of W.W.11, Raven and Roberts rated it the best battleship gun of any nation due to it’s evolution and updated range and efficiency.
My father was on Malaya and Valliant, he was a Royal Marine and his job was to operate the turrets range finder.
@@keithgotch1546 I have my Father’s framed Crossing the Line colour certificate dated 12/04/42. 80 years ago!. “Hateful Hund, Worthless Wops, and Nasty Nips. Etcetera
The 13.5-inch gun was a good design, they got two working guns out of it by scaling it up: the BL 15-inch Mk I and the BL 18-inch Mk I. The turret of the 13.5 inch was also scaled up for these guns, as well as for the Japanese 14-inch guns. If you look at pictures of the Japanese ship Kongo, its turrets are very similar to the British 15-inch turrets.
@@5000mahmud Well as you will know the Kongo was designed and built in England as the lead ship of the subsequent Class of battlecruisers . With the interwar improvements to the 15 inch the elevation and range were improved . Vid., Roberts and Ravens huge tomb on the subject which has all the information required.
My father was on the Malaya as a signaler. At first he was stationed down at the keel level in the code room but when he realised that there was really no escape from there he "lost" his fear of heights and volunteered for duty on the aft mast spotting top. One of his jobs was to repair arial wires that had been brought down. This was done during action and in all weathers, hanging on to 3" angle iron spreaders way above the deck and the roaring guns.
He passed away in 2015, God bless him, and all his mates.
Extremely well done.
My only wish is if these graphics could be converted(?) into a 360deg VR video, as seeing this in my VR headset would be awesome.
Better still, if you could walk around the decks as an observer, in first person view in VR. Watching an animated crew performing their functions and also seeing the machinery in operation through cutaways.
Oh I can but dream.
This was amazing! Well done.
Thanks a lot. Much appreciated!
When rammed, why was there a gap between the base of the shell and the first half charge?
Hi.
See below quote from RN gunnery handbook maritime.org/doc/br224/part2.htm
"B.L. cartridges must be put into the gun with the red igniter end to the rear and as close as possible to the breech block of the gun."
This is to ensure that the cordite is ignited by the Vent Tube when it is fired.
@@rnbreech4194 The link didn't work for me but I found it anyway, I think the bracket at the end was the issue.
Thanks - I've edited the link so that it works now.
Lovely job. Fascinating and strangely relaxing.
You made a perfect explination. Thank you for uploading.
Wow great Video!Always wondered what it all looked like at one time.
Brilliant video. Well done and thanks for this upload
Wonderful work and presentation, glad to admire such a masterpiece!👍👍
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Good one RNbreech.
I'm still amazed at this kind of animation. I don't have the first clue how it's done.
Wonderful video, congratulations!
This was very interesting! Well done!
I wonder why they store the cordite, the most explosive and vulnerable to secondary detonation, part of the system higher up in the ship and why they put it higher up in the ramming mechanism...
1:49 The idea of numbering the members of a gun crew goes back to Nelson's day. The idea was to make it easier to give orders during a battle. All the gun captain (Number 1, back then) had to do was yell the number of whoever he wanted to give an order to.
Impressive. I had no idea that it took so many men to operate one gun turret.
Thanks! It can get even more crowded if a gunloading cage fails and a gun switches to secondary loading - 2 numbers from the magazine come up to the gunhouse and become gun crew numbers 7 and 8. 2 numbers from the shell room come up to the working chamber and become gun crew numbers 9 and 10.
Fantastic insight to the men needed to operate one of these guns. Is it just me I could listen to this music all day long very hypnotic 😀👍
an excellent video. Where / why / what caused the powder bags to be stored out of their secure spaces? How did this system prevent the timely transfer of the powder bags? Where were these powder bags kept to increase the loading speed of the rifle?
Thanks a lot!
Powder bags were never stored anywhere except in the magazine.
If the main shaft cages failed, there was an Auxiliary Cordite Hoist in the main trunk that could deliver charges directly to the gunhouse.
This method would require 2 Magazine crew to come up the gunhouse and become gun crew numbers 7 and 8. They would carry the bags from the Auxiliary Cordite Hoist to the guns for loading.
Very intresting and informative! Thanks for sharing, appreciate it a lot.
Greets from the Netherlands 🌷, T.
This is fantastic! So, when are we going to see the RNbreech/Drachnifel/Alexander Clarke/Stefan Draminski collaboration crossover!?? 😁
Thanks a lot- much appreciated!
@@rnbreech4194 is there any chance you would do a similar animation on the Japanese 18.1inch guns? I realise design details for them are somewhat sketchy though so appreciate this might not be possible.
Its down to having the time and the plans /drawings. There is a an animation of the 18 inch gun on youtube but I'm not sure what it is based on.
You did good video there mate couldn't off did it any better well done explained it perfectly 👍
Thanks - much appreciated!
Astonishing detail. I checked your other video titles, will have to watch them out soon, but wondering if you had any interest in showing what current understanding is of the Royal Navy's "flash fire" problem with Battlecruisers at Jutland (apparently German ships also had faults but were better corrected following Dogger Bank?). Obviously it was 12" and 13.5" turrets that exploded, none of the 15" gunned ships were affected, but since you say in comments that the tech was pretty much the same for all calibers, you could perhaps even use your existing models to at least demonstrate where the problems lay. Seeing which doors were actually opened, where extra shells or cordite were stashed, etc. could help our understanding of how exactly the explosions occurred and perhaps what was done in later designs or fixes that reduced the problem. Thanks for a beautiful video!
Amazing animation of even more amazing machinery.
Thanks - much appreciated!
Superb animation and rendering with grate detail of a complicated structure. Enjoyed it, thanks for the time and effort in making and posting,
Thanks a lot - much appreciated!
Excellent job, could you add the shell room and magazine sequence in the future to see the whole process?
Where could I find Royal Navy guides on how to load guns during WW2
Very well done. 👏
A fantastic animation and I dread to think how many hours that took to decide what to include and exclude, design it, draw it and then render! I had no real appreciation of how these worked and whilst an animation of the whole process would be fantastic, that's me wanting to be spoon fed.
6:30 What's the purpose of having a space between the propellant charges and the shell?
Can you do the first process, ie removing shells and propellant from storage in their respective magazines to the hoists
That was the plan originally but it would have taken a long time to produce - maybe in the future though
Wow! Now that's a quality animation and video. Really interesting and informative. One does have to wonder why more of the process is not automated. Really interesting though - thanks
Beautifull presentation, soothing and meditating music... the perfect ingredients for a like and a subscribe :) . Hope you will make more of these in the future.
Thanks a lot. Working on a new one just now.
@@rnbreech4194 Appreciate it man, I m looking forward to it. Much respect to you my friend!!
A superb animation. Incredibly detailed.
These gun crew have legend level psychokinesis powers!!😆
Could you load enough point defense systems on a battleship to make it a valid threat again? ...
Awesome. Nice to at last actually understand how this worked. Thanks for sharing
Amazing, i always wondered how navy guns worked in detail
Thanks - much appreciated!
So intensely procedural - because safety is job #1!
Appreciate your work & graphics! I don't think American BBs sprayed water in after firing - nitrogen gas, but I've not seen water used(?)
Thanks a lot!
There is actual footage of the water squirts in action aboard HMS Repulse in the video below at the 1 minute 30 mark. Its quite a fine spray rather than a torrent of water
th-cam.com/video/mrQDRVWuYoQ/w-d-xo.html
For the first time in a very, VERY long time, TH-cam has suggested a video to me that i actually ended up LOVING enough for me to subscribe. Shocking... Well, I suppose that even a broken clock is right twice a day...
Thanks a lot - much appreciated!
@@rnbreech4194 No way, you're the one deserving of thanks, dude. This animation really plays to my OCD side because you've detailed this thing down to even the smallest minutia. I mean, those plates on the side of the breach at #2's head level (not to mention EVERY damn switch and lever) are fuckin actually accurately labeled... I mean... Jesus... Lol
My paternal grandfather served on the battleship Dreadnought in WW1. By 1916 she was 10 years old and obsolete and too slow to keep up with the fleet.
Great animation! Such different mechanisms from the US ones - I wonder which system was quicker or more reliable?
Well I don’t know about quicker but the British 15 inch gun were much more reliable since they used them for over 40 years.
Absolutely stunning, what a technical marvel you have re-created, thank you. I have and emotional attachment to this subject as my Granddad was 'Gun loader, A-turret' on HMS Barham. I now am no longer sure of his specific capacity or duty since you've shown so much detail and personnel? Cheers RNbreech✌
Edit; On reflection after several multiple viewings I think Granddad must have been Gun crew no.1?
Thanks a lot - much appreciated! Your Grandad would have been number 1 or 4.