Big guns for battleships
Two 15 inch guns
Outside the Imperial War Museum stand the last 2 15 inch guns. Guns of this type were first fired by a battleships in 1915. The last firing was in 1954. So these guns were in service for an exceptionally long time.
Long service weapons 
The left-hand gun of the pair situated outside the Imperial War Museum was mounted in HMS Ramillies in 1916. It was first fired in action in 1920.
The right-hand gun was mounted in HMS Resolution from 1915 to 1938. It was transferred to another ship, the monitor Roberts which played an important part in the D-Day landings.
The 15-inch gun was not cast in one piece, but was built up as a series of tubes. These tubes were heated until they expanded and were then shrunk over each other.
Twenty-two ships of the Royal Navy were armed with 15-inch guns. HMS Warspite scored an extraordinary long range hit when it struck an Italian battleship with a shell from one of its 15 inch guns at a range of 23 800 metres.
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 16 January 2007
