The first photo shows Wagner lathe No.15299 introduced to Kure Naval Yard in 1938. “Wagner” was Wagner Tooling Systems Baublies GmbH located at Dortmund, Germany and “No.15299” was the production number for this lathe. Unfortunately Japan did not have the technical ability to manufacture such machine tools, so there was no choice but to enter from Europe or the United States. Imports from the United States and Britain were avoided as it provided clues to estimate shipbuilding capacity of Japan. “No.15299” was a monster machine of 5 m Width, 5 m Height, 215 ton Weight and Length was stretched to 40 m. “No.15299” carved a 160 ton Yamato's 46 cm main barrel from a 200 ton iron block. “No.15299” made 27 46 cm (18.11 inch) main barrels these were 9 for Yamato, 9 for Musashi and 9 for Shinano. The 3rd ship of Yamato class battleship Shinano was under construction at Yokosuka Naval Yard. So it had been planned that Kashino transports 9 barrels for Shinano from Kure Naval Yard to Yokosuka Naval Yard. This plan was canceled when it was decided that Shinano would be converted into an aircraft carrier. After the war, among 9 barrels for Shinano, 7 were discarded and 2 were transported to the United States for U.S. Navy’s evaluation. “No.15299” was sold to 神戸製鋼高砂製作所 Kobe Steel Takasago Works without being destroyed after the war, and continued to be used as a machine tool until 1996. In the same year, “No.15299” was sold to きしろ株式会社播磨工場 Harima Factory / Kishiro Co. Ltd. and used until 2013. Yamato Museu had proposed to keep the “No.15299” in the museum, and recently it was officially agreed. It was decided to raise funds for the movement and installation etc. of "No.15299" by crowdfunding (CF). The CF started at 9:00 Am on August 3, with a deadline of September 30, this year, with target amounts of 48 million yen for the first, 72 million yen for the second, and 100 million yen for the third. The status of donations far exceeded the expectations of those involved. 21 hours after the start, the third target of 100 million yen was exceeded, and on August 29, it exceeded 200 million yen. "No.15299" is too big to enter the museum building, and it had been planned to be exhibited in the open area of the museum after rust prevention treatment, but it is said now that a roof covering "15299" can be installed with excess of the target. All work related to " No.15299" will be completed by April next year, and the unveiling ceremony will be held on April 23.
The second photo shows barrel materials at Kure naval Distinct Artillery Factory.
We can see two types of barrel materials.
(1) Materials for 45口径(3年式)41糎砲 45 caliber (Type 3rd year = 1914) 41 cm (16.1 inch) gun (for Nagato and Mutsu)
Nagato was completed in 1920. Perhaps the main gun caliber of Nagato class battleships had been announced to be 16 inch for secrecy. So this gun became to violate the Washington Naval Treaty restriction, 16 inch. After the Washington Naval Treaty Conference, this gun was renamed into 45口径(3年式)40糎砲 45 caliber (Type 3rd year) 40 cm (16.1 inch) gun. From the above, it can be seen that this photo was taken before 1921.
(2) Materials for 50口径(3年式)14糎砲 50 caliber (Type 3rd year)14 cm (5.5 inch) gun (for 5,500 ton type light cruisers)
Usually the caliber of a light cruiser main gun were 15 cm, but it was downsized to 14 cm because the continued manual loading of 15 cm gun bullets was difficult for the Japanese, who were inferior in size.
The third is the photo of famous Yamato at the outfit pier taken on 20 September 1941. Compare the size of the main gun and a man. The weight of a main gun turret was 2,500 ton heaver than a IJN destroyer. At this time point Yamato had four secondary gun turrets and two of them were located on the side. We can see the rear doorways of the secondary turret on the left side of the funnel.
The forth photo shows Ymamato 1 / 10 Scale-model at Kure Yamato Museum. The secondary gun turrets both sides of funnel were replaced with many AA-guns and AA machine canons with the refurbishment held in February - March 1944.
The fifth photo shows a 46 cm gun barrel for Shinao under the inspection by U.S. Navy at 亀が首射場 Kamegakubi range after the war. Japanese military researcher Hara Katsuhiro 原勝洋 says that the US Navy learned at this time that Yamato's caliber was 18.11 inch instead of 16 inch for the first time in his book 戦艦大和建造記録 Battleshop Yamato Construction Record. Yamato's main gun caliber was strictly concealed. IJN called it “特40糎砲 Special 40 cm gun”, and even in IJN only a few knew the true caliber.
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- 46cm砲.jpg (79.4 KiB) Viewed 4189 times
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