page_title: QF 4.7-inch Mk I – IV naval gun
section_title: Western Front (1914–1917)
hierarchical_section_title: QF 4.7-inch Mk I – IV naval gun / United Kingdom service / First World War / Western Front (1914–1917)
caption_attribution_description: British QF 4.7 inch Gun on 1900 Mk I "Woolwich" carriage, Western Front, World War I. AWM caption&#160;: "Picardie, Somme Pozieres. Australian transport limbers returning down Sausage Valley gallop past a battery of British 4.7 inch quick firing (QF) field guns."
context_page_description: The QF 4.7-inch Gun Mks I, II, III, and IV were a family of British quick-firing 4.724-inch naval and coast defence guns of the late 1880s and 1890s that served with the navies of various countries. They were also mounted on various wheeled carriages to provide the British Army with a long range gun. They all had a barrel of 40 calibres length.
  The gun was originally designed to replace the older BL 5-inch naval guns. It was optimised for the modern smokeless propellants, such as Cordite, and could be loaded and fired far more rapidly than the BL 5-inch gun while firing a shell only slightly lighter.
context_section_description: Up to 92 QF 4.7-inch guns on more modern Mk I "Woolwich" carriages dating from June 1900 with partially effective (12-inch) recoil buffers, and on heavier "converted" carriages from old RML 40 pounder guns, went to France with Royal Garrison Artillery units, mostly of the Territorial Force, in 1914–1917.
  They figured prominently in the early battles, such as at Neuve Chapelle in March 1915 where there were 32, and only 12 60-pounders, assigned to counter-battery fire. General Farndale reports that counter-battery fire there failed to deal with the German artillery, but ascribes the failure to the as yet imprecise nature of long range map shooting, and the difficulty of maintaining forward observers on the flat terrain.
  By the Battle of Aubers Ridge on 9 May 1915, the barrels of the 28 guns of the 3rd and 8th Heavy Brigades and the 1st West Riding and 1st Highland Heavy Batteries engaged were now so worn that driving bands were stripped off shells at the muzzle, limiting accuracy. In addition, two guns in the armoured train "Churchill" were in action at Aubers Ridge. Thirty-three 60-pounders were available. Counter-battery fire again failed due to the inaccuracy of the worn-out guns and also because the army still lacked accurate means of locating enemy guns, as air observation and reporting and use of radio was only beginning.
  The inaccuracy through wear and the relatively light shell diminished their usefulness in the developing trench warfare, and they were replaced by the modern 60-pounder guns as they became available. At the Battle of the Somme in June–July 1916, there were 32 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns and 128 60-pounders engaged. However, the last were not withdrawn until April 1917. Guns withdrawn from the Western Front were redeployed to other fronts, such as Italy and Serbia.
caption: A gun on a Mk I "Woolwich" carriage, Sausage Valley, Somme 1916
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