Kyler’s Kaiserliche Marine Blog
Post #2: Weapon – 15cm/45 Gun
The venerable Krupp 15cm/45 guns were the principal main or secondary armament of most of the Kaiserliche Marine dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, light cruisers, destroyers classes: S113, V116, G119, B122, and Kreuzer U-Boats . The gun came in two main types, the SK L/45 used as secondary weapons in casemates on the battleships & battlecruisers of the HSF, and the TK L/45 that would be used by destroyers and U-Boats.
The obvious difference between the two types was weight. The SK weighing over an additional 1,000 kilograms. The SK had a higher muzzle velocity of 835ms vs TK 680ms. The difference in velocity is the charge of the SK 29.2/30.2 lbs vs TK18.34lbs. After the war, the RN was quite impressed with the weapon. Both models had significant weight savings over their British counterpart the 6in QF gun. Generally, the German SK gun was about 1,360 kilograms lighter than its British counterpart.
The gun’s bore was actually 149.1mm with a barrel length of 45 calibers (6710mm). Bore length 6326mm with the rifling in 33.97 calibers. The casemated guns generally had a rate of fire of 7 rounds a minute firing 99lb shell.
Sources Photos: http://www.navweaps.com/
Sources Content: http://www.navweaps.com/
“Naval Weapons of World War One” By Norman Friedman