QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss

The QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss or in French use Canon Hotchkiss à tir rapide de 47 mm (47mm / L40) was a light 47-mm naval gun introduced in 1886 to defend against new small fast vessels such as torpedo boats, and later submarines. It was also used ashore as a coast defence gun and later occasionally as an anti-aircraft gun.

French service

Model of gun in French service on "elastic frame" mounting (affût-crinoline), at the Musée national de la Marine Paris

United Kingdom service

United Kingdom History

HMS Majestic showing 7 guns mounted in crow's nests circa. 1897

In 1886 this gun was the first of the modern QF artillery to be adopted by the Royal Navy as the "Ordnance QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss",^[2] built under licence by Elswick Ordnance Company.

By the middle of World War I the Hotchkiss gun had become obsolescent, and was gradually replaced in its class by the more powerful Ordnance QF 3 pounder Vickers gun. The gun's availability, simplicity and light weight resulted in its continued use in small vessels, and many were later brought back into service on merchant vessels used for auxiliary duties in World War II, or as subcalibre guns for gunnery practice until the 1950s. Early in WWII it was also pressed into service in ports around the British Empire, to defend against possible incursions by motor torpedo boats until the modern QF 6 pounder 10 cwt gun became available in numbers for that purpose.

United Kingdom ammunition

Steel shell round circa. 1898	Mk IV base percussion fuze	Mk V N.T. lyddite shell, 1914

Australian service

A 3-pounder Hotchkiss was used on an improvised mounting in a battle that resulted in Australia's first prisoners of World War 2 being captured in 1940 near Berbera.^[3]

The guns are now used in a Three Pound Saluting Gun Battery at the Garden Island Naval Base.^[4]

Russian service

Russia adopted the Hotchkiss 5-barrel Gatling-type 3-pounder revolver cannon in the 1880s, and later adopted the less complicated single-barrel quick-firing weapon. The 5-barrel guns were equipped on the Ekaterina II-class battleships commissioned in 1889, but by 1892 the battleship Dvenadsat Apostolov and her successors had single-barrel weapons. 47 mm Hotchkiss guns were used during the Russo-Japanese war and were ineffective against Japanese torpedo boats, so they were removed from first-line warships following that war. New Russian battleships ceased carrying the weapon with the Evstafi class, commissioned in 1910. However, they were subsequently fitted to patrol vessels and river craft during World War I, and at least 62 weapons were converted to anti-aircraft guns by 1917.^[5]

US service

The US Navy used several types of 3-pounder guns, and it is difficult to determine from references which type a particular ship had. Hotchkiss 5-barrel Gatling-type 3-pounder revolving cannon were used, along with single-barrel quick-firing single-shot Hotchkiss 3-pounders. Both are called rapid-firing (RF) in references. Other manufacturers included Driggs-Schroeder, Maxim-Nordenfelt, and Vickers-Maxim. By 1910 the US was building the dreadnought-type South Carolina class, with a secondary armament composed entirely of 3 inch (76 mm) guns. Although removed from first-line warships by World War I, some 3-pounders were fitted on patrol vessels of that war, with a few weapons serving on those ships through World War II.^[6][7]

Polish service

47 mm Hotchkiss guns, designated as wz.1885 gun, were used on first ships of the Polish Navy, received after World War I, like ex-German torpedo boats and minesweepers. By the time of World War II they were mostly phased out of service on naval ships, but several stored guns were used in combat on improvised stationary mounts by Land Coastal Defence units in the Battle of Kępa Oksywska in September 1939.^[8]

Surviving examples

• The Jardines Noonday gun at Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.
• A gun at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, Manly, Queensland, Australia^[9]
• Two guns on "elastic frame" mounting in the Casemate de l'Aschenbach, Uffheim, Haut-Alsace, France^[10]
• A Saluting Battery of mutipule guns at Fort Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia

• Four guns on the tall ship Libertad, which serves as a school ship in the Argentine Navy; all fully operational as saluting battery or multipurpose defense.^[11]

3 Guns used for ceremonial purposes at HMS Drake.

See also

Weapons of comparable role, performance and era

• QF 3 pounder Nordenfelt : Nordenfelt equivalent

Notes

References

• I.V. Hogg & L.F. Thurston, British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914-1918. London: Ian Allan, 1972.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss.

• Handbook of the 3 pounder Hotchkiss quick-firing gun Land service 1892, 1900 at State Library of Victoria
• Handbook for Hotchkiss 6-pr and 3-pr. quick-firing guns 1896 at State Library of Victoria
• Tony DiGiulian, British Hotchkiss 3-pdr (1.4 kg) (1.85"/40 (47 mm)) QF Marks I and II
• DiGiulian, Tony, US 3-pounders
• DiGiulian, Tony, Russian Hotchkiss 3-pounders

See also

• List of naval guns

British Empire naval weapons of the Victorian era
Smoothbore muzzle-loading cannons	18-pounder 24-pounder 32-pounder 58 cwt 68-pounder Somerset cannon
Smoothbore muzzle-loading shell guns	8 inch 10-inch 86 cwt
Mortars	10-inch Blomefield 13-inch Blomefield
Howitzers	12-pounder Millar 24-pounder Millar
Rifled breechloaders (Armstrong)	RBL 9 pounder RBL 20 pounder RBL 40 pounder RBL 7 inch 110 pounder
Rifled muzzle-loaders (Lancaster)	68-Pounder Lancaster gun
Rifled muzzle-loaders (converted)	RML 64 pounder 71 cwt
Rifled muzzle-loaders (Woolwich)	RML 9 pounder 8 cwt RML 64 pounder 64 cwt RML 7 inch RML 8 inch RML 9 inch RML 10 inch RML 11 inch RML 12 inch 25 ton RML 12 inch 35 ton RML 12.5 inch RML 16 inch
Quick-firing guns	QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt QF 12-pounder 12 cwt Mk I QF 4 inch QF 4.7 inch QF 6 inch
Breech-loaders (new pattern)	BL 4 inch BL 5 inch BL 6 inch 80 pounder BL 6 inch Mk II – VI BL 8 inch BL 9.2 inch Mk I – VII BL 9.2 inch Mk VIII BL 10 inch BL 12 inch Mk I – VII BL 12 inch Mk VIII BL 13.5 inch BL 16.25 inch
Light weapons	Gatling gun Gardner gun Nordenfelt gun 1-inch Nordenfelt gun
Torpedoes	Whitehead torpedo