From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1.1-inch/75-caliber gun

Field	Value
name	1.1" / 75 Caliber Gun
image	28 mm AA gun.jpg
caption	Quadruple-mount 1.1-inch (28 mm) anti-aircraft cannon aboard the battleship during World War II
origin	United States
type	Anti-aircraft gun
is_ranged	yes
is_artillery	yes
used_by	United States Navy
wars	World War II
production_date	1938–1942
number	~1000
weight	10500 lb
length	119.6 in
part_length	82.5 in bore (75 calibers)
crew	15
cartridge	28 x 199mmSR 0.917 lb contact HE.
caliber	1.1 in
rate	150 rounds per minute
velocity	2700 ft/s
max_range	7000 yd
recoil	3.25 in
elevation	-15 to 110 degrees
traverse	360 degrees

The 1.1"/75 caliber gun was an American anti-aircraft weapon of World War II, used by the United States Navy. The name means that it had a bore diameter of 1.1 in and barrel caliber of 75 (1.1 inches × 75 = 82.5 in). The gun was designed to replace the M2 Browning and four barrels were required to duplicate the rate of fire.

The first shipboard installation, in 1939, was nicknamed the Chicago Piano.

By 1941, these guns had been mounted on destroyers, cruisers, battleships, aircraft carriers, and some auxiliary ships. Nearly a thousand guns had been produced before production shifted to more reliable shipboard anti-aircraft machine guns in 1942. Quantities were minimal; one mount for a destroyer, two mounts for pre-1930s battleships, and four mounts for North Carolina–class and newer battleships. On at least some ships they were director-controlled.

The gun was very unpopular with its crews; it was said that due to its tendency to jam, the only way to fire one was to position a gunner's mate on his back underneath the mount, equipped with an assortment of wrenches and hammers to clear them. It was replaced by the 20 mm Oerlikon cannon or the 40 mm Bofors gun whenever possible, but served until the end of the war on some ships. A twin Bofors gun was about the same weight, and was a much more powerful gun. The air-cooled Oerlikon had similar effective range and rate of fire with considerably less weight. The Oerlikon could not sustain fire for as long as the water-cooled 1.1–inch, but six Oerlikons could be installed for the weight of a single 1.1–inch quad mount.

History

The gun was based on patents of Richmond, Virginia, inventor Robert Hudson, who used a complicated gas-recoil operating system adapted to .30-06 Springfield and .50 BMG. The Navy's Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) had decided the M2 Browning was inadequate for future anti-aircraft duties, and modified Hudson's design for a new, high-velocity 1.1 in cartridge. The water-cooled prototype was tested at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division in 1934:

Development proved difficult and the gun was not able to achieve its design goals in terms of accuracy and reliability. When finally available in quantity it was no longer deemed acceptable:

CV-8}}, May 1942. During the battle of Midway.

Before the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor on 7 December, five 1.1–inch quad mounts had been sent to the Cavite Navy Yard, in the Philippines, for fitting to the cruiser of the Asiatic Fleet. Four were mounted on Houston and the fifth was a spare. To the surprise of most at Cavite, the one spare left on the dock survived the Japanese bombing. Since the mount was too heavy for the few harbor patrol vessels still stationed in Manila Bay, the fifth spare mount was put on a barge, along with 25,000 rounds of 1.1–inch ammunition, taken to Corregidor and "donated" to the US Army. There is no further record of what happened to the 1.1–inch mount sent to Corregidor.

Some online articles referring to this "donated to the Army" mount exist. One states the guns were installed in a special concrete mount and used successfully against Japanese airplanes until destroyed by gunfire.

The gun first saw action during the attack on Pearl Harbor. There are no records of which planes might have been hit by the large number of 1.1–inch rounds fired, but numerous accounts exist of damage caused by the impact-fuzed projectiles missing their targets and exploding like hand grenades when they returned to earth.

Preserved

A restored 1.1–inch quad mount is installed on the museum ship and another is on the hangar deck of . The museum and park Freedom Park (Omaha, Nebraska) has a 1.1–inch quad mount on its grounds. One quad mount was at the Washington Navy Yard in the 1990s, and may still remain there. One quad mount was in storage with the battleship but it was on loan from the Navy and was returned to the Navy at an unknown date. The location of that mount is now unknown.

Notes

References

Bibliography

References

Yorktown. CV-10.
[http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_1-1-75_mk1.htm 1.1"/75 (28 mm) Mark 1 and Mark 2] NavWeaps
Schreier, Konrad F.. (1994). "The Chicago Piano". [[United States Naval Institute]].
(10 July 2020). "1.1"/75 (28 mm) Mark 1 and Mark 2".
Frank, Pat & Harrington, Joseph. ''Rendezvous at Midway'' (New York: The John Day Company), 1967. ASIN: B000K6FXAG.
''United States Naval Administration in World War II'', USN Bureau of Ordnance, Gun and Mounts, Chapter IV.
Rowland and Boyd, ''U. S. NAVY BUREAU OF ORDNANCE IN WORLD WAR II'', USN Bureau of Ordnance, p220.
Gordon, John. "Waiting for the Main Attack", ''Fighting For MacArthur'', Naval Institute Press, {{ISBN. 978-1-61251-057-6, p. 67
[http://corregidor.org/chs_moorerpt/annexf.htm "The Moore Report" Annex F 24]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

28-mm-artillery naval-anti-aircraft-guns anti-aircraft-guns-of-the-united-states naval-guns-of-the-united-states world-war-ii-artillery-of-the-united-states world-war-ii-anti-aircraft-guns military-equipment-introduced-in-the-1930s

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1.1-inch/75-caliber gun — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report