Used on pre-dreadnoughts of the Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm class. The mixture of both L/35 and L/40 guns on these ships shows how centralized fire control was not yet available for these ships, even though they had a "uniform" main battery.
Guns were built from hoops and had a horizontal wedge breech mechanism.
These mountings used hydraulic power with steam pumps as prime movers. The breech mechanisms were hand-worked as was the ramming.
When these battleships were disarmed, four of their 28 cm/35 guns were to have been used to protect the Dardanelles, but these fortifications were not completed at the time of the Armistice. Three guns were purchased by Norway for a coastal defense battery located at Oscarsborg Fortress, protecting Oslo. Two of these guns saw action in 1940 when they helped to sink the German cruiser Blücher.
All German 28 cm guns had an actual bore diameter of 28.3 cm (11.1").
| Designation | 28 cm/35 (11") SK L/35 |
|---|---|
| Ship Class Used On | Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm class |
| Date Of Design | 1890 |
| Date In Service | 1893 |
| Gun Weight | 96,790 lbs. (43,900 kg) including BM |
| Gun Length oa | 386 in (9.800 m) |
| Bore Length | 349 in (8.876 m) |
| Rifling Length | N/A |
| Grooves | N/A |
| Lands | N/A |
| Twist | N/A |
| Chamber Volume | 8,723 in3 (142.9 dm3) |
| Rate Of Fire | about 0.5 rounds per minute |
| Type | Bag |
|---|---|
| Projectile Types and Weights 1 | AP L/2,6 2: 529 lbs. (240 kg)
HE L/2,8 base fuze: 529 lbs. (240 kg) |
| Bursting Charge | N/A |
| Projectile Length | AP L/2,6: 29.0 in (73.6 cm)
HE L/2,8 base fuze: 32.3 in (82.1 cm) |
| Propellant Charge 3 | 211.6 lbs. (96.0 kg) Brown Powder
124.8 lbs. (56.6 kg) RP C/12 |
| Muzzle Velocity | 2,247 fps (685 mps) |
| Working Pressure | N/A |
| Approximate Barrel Life | N/A |
| Ammunition stowage per gun | 60 rounds |
| Elevation | Distance |
|---|---|
| 25 degrees
(Max elevation of turret) |
15,800 yards (14,400 m) |
"Die Geschichte der deutschen Schiffsartillerie" says that the effective range of this gun when introduced was 12,030 yards (11,000 m).
| Designation | Two-gun turrets
Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm (1) 1a : Drh.L. C/92 |
|---|---|
| Weight | N/A |
| Elevation | Drh.L. C/92: -5 / +25 degrees |
| Elevation Rate | N/A |
| Train | about +150 / -150 degrees |
| Train Rate | N/A |
| Gun recoil | N/A |
| Loading Angle | N/A 2a |
- ^This mounting with 28 cm/35 guns was only used amidships. Bow and stern mountings used 28 cm/40 guns.
- ^C/92 mounts were a barbette type with ammunition coming up from the magazines into the rear of the pear-shaped barbette. The shells were then transferred into a cart which ran on a circular track that was in a narrow passageway around the outside of the stalk. The cart was moved by hand. Each of the two propellant bags appear to have been transported in a carrier held by two men. Ammunition was lifted into the gunhouse via two cranes, one for each gun. This was a clumsy arrangement and it may have been faster and easier to only load ammunition into the gunhouse when it was trained to the centerline. See sketch above for details and also the photographs on the 24 cm/40 SK L/40 datapage for a very similar mounting. As the guns were hand worked, they could be loaded at any angle of train once the ammunition was in the gunhouse.
"Naval Weapons of World War One" by Norman Friedman
"Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906-1922" by Randal Gray and Robert Gardiner (Editor)
"German Warships 1815-1945" by Erich Gröner
"The Big Gun: Battleship Main Armament 1860-1945" by Peter Hodges
"Die deutsche Flotte, Zweibrücken 1901" by Ernst Graf Reventlow
"Die Geschichte der deutschen Schiffsartillerie" by Paul Schmalenbach
"German Warships of World War I" by John C. Taylor
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Special help from Rainer Troendle
05 February 2011 - New datapage
21 November 2012 - Added turret sketch and gun details
31 January 2021 - Converted to HTML 5 format
26 March 2024 - Added comment about Norwegian use
24 April 2024 - Expanded comment regarding ammunition supply
05 August 2024 - More on the ammunition supply