8.8 cm SK L/35 naval gun

8.8 cm SK L/35
8.8 cm SK L/35
Type	Naval gun
Place of origin	German Empire
Service history
In service	1904—45
Used by	German Empire; Nazi Germany
Wars	World War I ; World War II
Production history
Designed	1900–04
Specifications
Length	about 3.08 meters (10 ft 1 in)
Shell	Fixed
Shell weight	9.65–9.8 kilograms (21.3–21.6 lb) [1]
Caliber	88 millimeters (3.46 in)
Breech	horizontal sliding-wedge
Rate of fire	12 RPM
Muzzle velocity	620 m/s (2,000 ft/s)
Maximum firing range	8,790 metres (9,610 yd) at 25°

Last updated March 05, 2019

The 8.8 cm SK L/35 (SK - Schnelladekanone (quick loading cannon) L - Länge (with a 35-caliber barrel) was a German naval gun that was used in World War I on a variety of mounts.

World War I 1914–1918 global war originating in Europe

World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.

Description

The 8.8 cm SK L/35 gun had an overall length of about 3.08 m (10 ft 1 in). It used the Krupp horizontal sliding block, or "wedge", as it is sometimes referred to, breech design.

Naval service

The 8.8 cm SK L/35 was a widely used naval gun on many classes of World War I battleships, cruisers and torpedo boats in both casemates and turrets. Its primary use on battleships and cruisers was as an anti-torpedo boat gun, while on torpedo boats it was their secondary armament.

The dreadnought was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of its kind, the Royal Navy's Dreadnought, made such a strong impression on people's minds when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built subsequently were referred to generically as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as "pre-dreadnoughts". Dreadnought's design had two revolutionary features: an "all-big-gun" armament scheme, with more heavy-calibre guns than previous ships, and steam turbine propulsion. As dreadnoughts became a symbol of national power, the arrival of these new warships was a crucial catalyst in the intensifying naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Germany. With the launch of a single ship, Dreadnought, the scales of naval power were reset overnight. As a result, dreadnought races sprang up around the world, including in South America, during the lead up to World War I. Successive designs increased rapidly in size and made use of improvements in armament, armour, and propulsion throughout the dreadnought era. Within five years, new battleships had outclassed Dreadnought. These more powerful vessels were known as "super-dreadnoughts". Most of the original dreadnoughts were scrapped after the end of World War I under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, but many of the newer super-dreadnoughts continued to be used throughout World War II. The only surviving dreadnought is USS Texas, located near the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site.

Torpedo boat small and fast naval vessel armed with torpedoes

A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other slow and heavily armed ships by using speed, agility, and the power of their torpedo weapons. A number of inexpensive torpedo boats attacking en masse could overwhelm a larger ship's ability to fight them off using its large but cumbersome guns. An inexpensive fleet of torpedo boats could pose a threat to much larger and more expensive fleets of capital ships, albeit only in the coastal areas to which their small size and limited fuel load restricted them.

Gun turret protective weapon mount or firing position

A gun turret is a location from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility, and some cone of fire. A modern gun turret is generally a weapon mount that houses the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in some degree of azimuth and elevation.

Ship classes that carried the 8.8 cm SK L/35 include:

The Braunschweig-class battleships were a group of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the German Kaiserliche Marine built in the early 1900s. They were the first class of battleships authorized under the Second Naval Law, a major naval expansion program. The class comprised five ships—Braunschweig, Elsass, Hessen, Preussen, and Lothringen—and they were an improvement over the preceding Wittelsbach class. The Braunschweigs mounted a more powerful armament of 28 cm (11 in) and 17 cm (6.7 in) guns. Less than two years after the first members of the class entered service, the ships were rendered obsolescent by the all-big-gun battleship Dreadnought, which curtailed their careers.

The Deutschland class was a group of five pre-dreadnought battleships built for the German Kaiserliche Marine. The class comprised Deutschland, Hannover, Pommern, Schlesien, and Schleswig-Holstein. Built between 1903 and 1908, the ships closely resembled those of the preceding Braunschweig class, though they had stronger armor protection. They were made obsolete before they were even completed by the launch of the revolutionary Royal Navy battleship HMS Dreadnought in 1906. As a result, they were the last ships of that type built for the German Navy. They were followed by the Nassau-class battleships, Germany's first dreadnought battleships.

The Prinz Adalbert class was a group of two armored cruisers built for the German Kaiserliche Marine under the terms of the Second Naval Law. Two ships of the class were built, Prinz Adalbert and Friedrich Carl, between 1900 and 1904. The two ships were heavily based on the previous armored cruiser, Prinz Heinrich, with a series of incremental improvements. Their armor layout was revised slightly to improve internal protection and their main battery consisted of four 21 cm (8.3 in) guns instead of the two 24 cm (9.4 in) carried by Prinz Heinrich. The new ships also received more powerful propulsion systems, making them slightly faster. Prinz Adalbert spent her peacetime career as a gunnery training ship while Friedrich Carl initially served as the flagship of the fleet's reconnaissance forces. By 1909, she had been replaced by more modern cruisers and joined Prinz Adalbert as a training vessel.

Notes

↑ Friedman, N. (2011). Naval weapons of World War One. p. 276

Related Research Articles

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5.2 cm SK L/55 naval gun German naval gun designed in the early 1900s used during WW1 in torpedo boats.

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The 10.5 cm SK L/35 (SK - SchnelladekanoneL - Länge was a German naval gun developed in the years before World War I that armed a variety of warships of the Imperial German Navy during World War I. In addition to the Imperial German Navy the 10.5 cm SK L/35 was used by the Royal Netherlands Navy, Ottoman Navy and Spanish Navy.

References

Reichs-Marine-Amt, ed. (1908). Bedienungsvorschrift für die 8,8 cm Schnellade-Kanone L/35 in Mittel-Pivot-Lafette C/1901. Berlin: E. S. Mittler. OCLC 252060650.
Reichs-Marine-Amt, ed. (1907). Bedienungsvorschrift für die 8,8 cm Schnellade-Kanone L/35 in Mittel-Pivot-Lafette C/1901 auf Torpedobooten. Berlin: E. S. Mittler. OCLC 252061398.
Campbell, John (2002). Naval Weapons of World War Two. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-87021-459-4.
Gander, Terry; Chamberlain, Peter (1979). Weapons of the Third Reich: An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms, Artillery and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939–1945. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-15090-3.
Hogg, Ian V. (1997). German Artillery of World War Two (2nd corrected ed.). Mechanicsville, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 1-85367-480-X.
Rolf, Rudi (1998). Der Atlantikwall: Bauten der deutschen Küstenbefestigungen 1940-1945. Osnabrück: Biblio. ISBN 3-7648-2469-7.
Rolf, Rudi (2004). A Dictionary on Modern Fortification: An Illustrated Lexicon on European Fortification in the Period 1800-1945. Middleburg, Netherlands: PRAK.

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International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

External links

SK L/35 at Navweaps.com

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[1] Friedman, N. (2011). Naval weapons of World War One. p. 276