Some older photos from the 70's

[Glider]

I found these photos that may be of interest. In the 70's I served on HMS Tiger the last heavy Gun Cruiser in the RN.

On what we thought at the time was to be her last voyage we took part in some firing exercises. As it was the 'last voyage' and no other ship in the RN had these guns the Captain decided to let rip and fire the guns at the max rate of fire. It was pretty impressive.

For those who doubt the accuracy of the guns as AA weapons the Gunnery Officer lost a bet. He said the 6in would hit the aerial target (being towed by a Canberra) with the first shot. He didn't, but he did hit with the second shell. The exercise took some time as the plane had to keep replacing the target.

The photo's were taken many years ago with an instamatic camera, so don't expect them to be of the latest standard.

 

[Gnomey]

Good shots Glider!

 

[evangilder]

Interesting stuff.

 

[syscom3]

Yes, interesting pics.

 

[lesofprimus]

Have to agree, pretty cool stuff...

 

[Aggie08]

Good shots! Boy, that would be a nasty surprise... gettin hit by the big guns and not the little ones!

 

[Glider]

Appreciate the comments and will try to dig out some more. You might be nterested to know that the time between weapons free and the target being destroyed by the 6in was around 9 seconds.

The 3in Turret tracked the target as it passed down our port side firing all the way and as the plane went behind us the gun kept tracking hence the gun pointing at us in the Admirals Bridge. We all ducked as if that would have made any difference.

When the Falklands campaign was on there were more than a few of us who woundered how well the Tiger would have done.