| Notes:
1) Gun crew was about 11 men.
2) Mountings used electro-hydraulic power.
Power was supplied by a 15 hp electric motor operating from 220 Vdc and
which ran at 600 rpm.
3) Akizuki class used two dredger hoists
to supply ammunition to the working chamber. From here, rounds were
manhandled to loading positions for pusher hoists, one for each gun.
At the top of the hoists, rounds automatically rolled to waiting positions
where shell passers handed them to loaders standing on the gun platform,
which moved with the guns. Fuze-setting machines were attached to
the breech faces of the guns. Loading trays were manually operated.
4) The Oyodo class used four bucket hoists
which delivered ammunition from the magazines to a working chamber abaft
the No. 2 15.5 cm (6.1") gun barbette.
The maximum rate of supply was 20 to 22 shells per minute per hoist.
The ammunition was then carried by hand to the 10 cm (3.9") gun mounts,
which were 77 and 135 feet (22 and 41 m) further aft. There were
ready-use ammunition storage lockers near the weapon mountings which allowed
for a higher rate of fire for a period of time. The fuze setting
on this class was done by a separate machine before the shells were loaded
into the gun.
5) Ramming was via a spring-powered mechanism
that was cocked by the recoil force when the gun fired. The mechanism
had a removable pulley arrangement where the gun was depressed to cock
the rammer for the first round. A misfire meant that the subsequent
round needed to be rammed by hand, unless there was time to reattach the
pulley and cycle the gun elevation. The rammer was similar to that
in the earlier 12.7 cm/40 Type 89, but
embodied some improvements, mainly in the tripper gear which had an improved
type of tumbler release mechanism. Early production rammers suffered
frequent failures due to fracturing of the rammer heads, but this problem
was overcome and they gave good service during most of the war.
6) Distance between gun axes was 26.0 inches
(66 cm). |
