page_title: BL 15-inch Mk I naval gun
section_title: In battle
hierarchical_section_title: BL 15-inch Mk I naval gun / In service employment / In battle
caption_attribution_description: English: The 15-inch guns of British battleship HMS Valiant firing.
context_page_description: The BL 15-inch Mark I succeeded the BL 13.5 inch /45 naval gun. It was the first British 15-inch gun design and the most widely used and longest lasting of any British designs, and arguably the most efficient heavy gun ever developed by the Royal Navy. It was deployed on capital ships from 1915 until 1959, and was a key Royal Navy gun in both World Wars.
context_section_description: The BL 15-inch Mark I gun proved its effectiveness at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, scoring hits out to 19,500 yards (17,800 m), a record for naval gunnery at that time.
  In World War II the gun was responsible for the longest range shell-hit ever scored by one battleship on another in combat. At the  Battle of Calabria on 9 July 1940, HMS Warspite gained a hit on the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare  with her first salvo at 26,400 yards (24,100 m). In the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir, when the French fleet was largely neutralised following the fall of France to the Germans, the BL 15-inch Mark I gun (arming HMS Hood, HMS Valiant and HMS Resolution) was responsible for the destruction by a magazine explosion of the old battleship Bretagne, and the disabling and beaching (deliberate running aground in shallow water) of the old battleship Provence and the new battleship Dunkerque. Dunkerque's main 225mm armour belt was twice penetrated by 15-inch shells, which destroyed its fighting and steaming abilities.
caption: BL 15-inch Mk I naval guns firing, interwar view of a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship - the right-hand gun in each turret has just fired and the degree of recoil is evident
exif: {}