The Gearing & Sumners type DD's operated by the USN during WW2, had the ability for its rear mounts to fire ahead at long-range, for a potential 6-gun concentration of fire. Usually a DD had to open up it's A-arcs to facilitate such a concentration!
Source: Friedman, US Destroyers Pg129
Questions:
i. Was this a common ability/feature within all DD types operated by the USN?
ii. Was this ability/feature available in other DD's operated by other navies?
iii. How was the fire directed for the rear mount firing forward?
iv. I presume that there must have been a physical barrier that stopped the rear guns hitting the ships super-structure when firing forward?
v. Any examples of this ability being used in action?
Regards
Fwd firing rear mounts on US DD's & other navies DD's
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Re: Fwd firing rear mounts on US DD's & other navies DD's
iv. Stops and lock-outs were common features on gun mounts. We didn't want to shoot up our superstructure or the gun crew to our right or left. Enclosed turrets made that danger much more likely to happen, so it was a required feature. This could be done by limiting traverse or by locking out the firing mechanism when the guns were in certain attitudes. One of the advantages of a lock-out is the gun can traverse through the no-fire zone to get to a new position safely.
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Re: Fwd firing rear mounts on US DD's & other navies DD's
The most obvious case for this kind of thing was the dreadnoughts with midships turrets.