Name/Title
USS Texas (BB 35) 14" Gun [Postcard}Description
September 1914 real photo postcard of the "No 1 TURRET FIRING".
Written on back of postcard: "First 14 inch gun fired aboard a ship. U.S.S. Texas at Hampton Roads. Sept 1914."Context
Texas was the first ever battleship to be outfitted with 14-inch guns. The design of the 14-inch/45-caliber dates to about 1910 and they were intended to fire 1,400 lb (640 kg) armor-piercing (AP) projectiles containing a bursting charge of explosive D. Propellant charge was four silk bags of smokeless powder, each of which weighed 105 lb (48 kg). At a 15-degree angle, the guns could fire a shell out to 23,000 yd (21,000 m). Each individual gun weighed 142,492 lb (64,633 kg) with the breech and measured 53 ft 6.5 in (16.32 m) in length. Each of the original Mark 1 built-up guns consisted of a tube without liner, jacket, eight hoops and a screw box liner. To compensate for the problem of gun drooping, four hoop-locking rings were added to the guns.
USS Texas has 9 out of 10 of her original 14-inch gun barrels that served on her from 1914 to 1923. These nine guns served with Pennsylvania from 1925 to 1940. They were refurbished, relined, and reinstalled on Texas in late 1944. The serial numbers for these 10 guns on Texas are 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 25.
These guns saw service in World War II in the role of shore bombardment; bombarding North Africa during landings in 1942, shelling Normandy during Operation Overlord in 1944, and supporting the invasion of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945.