Description

A light weight gun for submarines. Developed too late for service during World War II.

Constructed with a monobloc loose barrel and breech ring. The bore and external parallel section were nickel plated and zinc protective plates were on the breech ring and horizontal sliding breech block. A total of thirty-one guns were manufactured. Actual bore length was 33.04 calibers.

Gun Characteristics

Designation 4"/33 (10.2 cm) QF Mark XXIII
Ship Class Used On A class and a few T class submarines
Date Of Design about 1944
Date In Service 1946
Gun Weight 0.7 tons (0.76 mt)
Gun Length oa 137.6 in (3.495 m)
Bore Length 132.2 in (3.358 m)
Rifling Length N/A
Grooves N/A
Lands N/A
Twist N/A
Chamber Volume 183 in3 (3.00 dm3)
Rate Of Fire about 15 rounds per minute

Ammunition

Type Fixed
Projectile Types and Weights HE: 35 lbs. (15.9 kg)
HE: 38.5 lbs. (17.5 kg)
Bursting Charge N/A
Projectile Length N/A
Propellant Charge 3.75 lbs. (1.7 kg) NF052
3.88 lbs. (1.8 kg) NF052
Muzzle Velocity For 35 lbs. (15.9 kg): 1,791 fps (546 mps)
For 38.5 lbs. (17.5 kg): 1,745 fps (532 mps)
Working Pressure N/A
Approximate Barrel Life N/A
Ammunition stowage per gun N/A

Range

Range with 35 lbs. (15.9 kg) HE
Elevation Distance
30 degrees 12,080 yards (11,050 m)

Mount/Turret Data

Designation
  • Single Mounting
    • Submarines (1): SII
Weight N/A
Elevation -5 (?) / +30 degrees
(may have later been altered to +20 degrees)
Elevation Rate Manually operated, only
Train 360 degrees
Train Rate Manually operated, only
Gun recoil N/A

External Pictures

The Vickers Photographic Archive
See XXIII

Sources

Data from:

  • "British Naval Guns 1880-1945 No 18" article by John Campbell in "Warship Volume X"

Special help by Rod Butcher

Page History

22 October 2008
Benchmark
12 February 2012
Updated to latest template
29 November 2015
Changed Vickers Photographic Archive links to point at Wayback Archive