[List of Posts]

Battleship Guns in Sydney Harbour

Do you remember the little flotilla of rusty, grey-painted retired naval ships that once used to occupy Athol Bight near Taronga Park ferry wharf? What about the battleship guns on Clark Island? If you do, you’re showing your age. What follows is the story of the battleship guns.

Here’s a photo to jog your memory.

Arrival – 15-inch Guns

On 7 May 1943 the Armament Supply Officer (ASO) of the RAN Armament Depot (RANAD) Sydney penned a confidential note titled Ammunition Storage at Sydney for Eastern Fleet Reserves. It starts:

“At the request of Admiralty in February 1942, arrangements were made to store at Sydney approximately 5,000 tons of explosives as a reserve for the Eastern Fleet.”

It then goes on in considerable detail to describe the ammunition stocks and their disposition, which included 14-inch and 15-inch battleship ammunition that was held at the Newington armament depot on the Parramatta River. There is a later section on Gunwharf stores, which recorded that:

“The 9-No. 15 inch gun bodies which were sent from England are stored on selected sites on the harbour front, the two spare 15-inch breech mechanisms being at Spectacle Island.”

The nine 15-inch Mk I guns were received in Sydney during the period August 1942 to January 1943, according to the RANAD Sydney war diary. There was, however, a tenth gun which was received during the period February to April 1942. The origin and subsequent disposition of this gun is unclear.

In May 1943 RANAD Sydney produced a Scorched Earth Denial Plan which listed all the depot’s assets and how they were to be destroyed in the event of a Japanese invasion of mainland Australia. This shows that the 9 guns were located at Admiralty House (2 guns), Clark Island (6 guns) and Snapper Island (1 gun). These dispositions may have changed later. The destruction method was to comprise one 25-lb demolition charge per gun.

The war diary records that 2 guns were issued between November 1944 and January 1945 and a further 4 between February and April 1945.

These guns were officially known as Ordnance Breech Loading (OBL) 15-inch Mk I. They were mounted by the Queen Elizabeth, Royal Sovereign and Vanguard class battleships and Admiral class battlecruisers. Reputed to be the best large calibre gun ever developed by the Royal Navy, it served in both world wars. In 1940 HMS Warspite with one of these guns made one of the longest hits ever on a moving enemy warship when she struck the Italian battleship Guilio Cesare at approximately 26,000 yards (23,770 m.) during the Battle of Calabria.

No, they didn’t clean the guns on Clark Island using the technique illustrated above!

Arrival – 14-inch Guns

The 14-inch Mk VII guns did not arrive until much later, as part of the logistic support of the British Pacific Fleet. 4 arrived between February and April 1945, and the remaining 6 between May and July 1945, when the war was almost over.

In the war diary for the period February to April 1945 the depot reported that:

“The altered constitution of the Pacific Fleet necessitated the despatch of O.B.L 15″ elsewhere and the receipt of O.B.L 14″ in lieu. These latter had to be stored at Clark Island.”

These guns were officially known as Ordnance Breech Loading (OBL) 14-inch Mk VII and were mounted by King George V class battleships.

There are a number of files in the National Archives relating to Clark Island and file titles show that the Commonwealth held a licence from the Maritime Services Board for “storage of gun bodies” at Clark Island.

Maintenance

The guns were not just placed into field storage and forgotten, but, as a precision instrument of war, were subject to regular inspection and maintenance, which was to prove a considerable burden on depot operations.

The Armament Supply Newsletter of November 1948 commented that:

“The ten 14-inch guns at Clark Island are being degreased for examination and this job presents more wrinkles than washing an elephant. One of the major problems in examining these very long bores is the difficulty of directing the light ray steadily on to a specific area. This must of course be done by a sun reflecting mirror and we think we have now solved the problem by using an ordinary signalling heliograph with extension legs fitted to the tripod. We hope to have more to say about this in a subsequent letter. Meanwhile, has anybody got a really good bore telescope surplus to their requirements?”

The very long bores referred to were 14-inches in internal diameter by 52 feet 6 inches long (or 16 metres).

In the following Newsletter (February 1949) mention was made of the cleaning of the guns:

“The job of degreasing the ten 14-inch guns is still in hand and our earlier remarks concerning elephants were entirely apropos. When it is appreciated that in the ten guns there is a total of about 2,000 square feet with 720 grooves to be cleaned and scrubbed and something like 4,000 lbs. of grease to be removed and replaced the magnitude of the job begins to make an impression. We have an excellent gang of four men on the work and they have done a first class job which should be completed in the course of a few days.”

During the inspection of the bores on this occasion it was necessary to apply some ingenuity to the cleaning process:

"… several of the guns had a hard coating of what is presumed to be burnt carbon in the bottom of the grooves. ASO decided that this must be removed as there was a possibility that rust might be active underneath and as it defied all attempts at scrubbing with kerosene, hot caustic and chromic acid, a scraper was devised which did the job. Details are as follows: – Two discs of wood, a sliding fit in the bore, spaced about twelve inches apart and connected together with spacers and a central eyebolt on each side for the hauling ropes. On one disc a device is fitted similar in construction to an ordinary cupboard lock. The bolt of the lock is a spring loaded mild steel scraper made to fit the groove. The apparatus is inserted into the gun with the scraper in the particular groove to be cleaned and hauled backwards and forwards by men at each end of the gun. The scraper is fairly soft so as not to damage the bore and the results are entirely satisfactory. Incidentally, there was no trace of rust under the fouling.”

In October 1951 the Newsletter reported that:

“The wooden bearers under the 14″ guns at Clark Island are deteriorating and arrangements have been made to replace them. The floating crane “TITAN” is necessary for this job, but unfortunately is held up by a strike which has dragged on for months. The white ants have no such industrial scruples and the state of the bearers is causing concern.”

Frustration with the guns was growing. This is from the February 1952 Newsletter:

“The floating crane “TITAN” has at last become available and half the 14″ guns at Clark Island have had the wooden bearers replaced. It has been found that even some of the externally sound timbers were infested with white ants….. The maintenance of these guns at a position remote from the Depot and with no facilities for electricity, water, or telephone, is an expensive and laborious matter.”

Disposal

In the Newsletter for May 1951 came the first hint of progress with the disposal of the guns:

“There is a possibility of disposing of the 15″ guns at Clark Island. With the present shortage of steel, a customer is interested. Cutting the guns on the site has been investigated by them and found practicable. Whether the expense will be too great is another matter, and their decision is now awaited.”

The November Newsletter had bad news:

“The 15″ guns are still with us. The firm who was interested found that the cost of cutting them up on site was prohibitive. In years to come, perhaps the term “white elephant” in Armament Depot circles may be replaced by “15” gun”.”

It wasn’t until 1954 that another buyer was found:

“The three 15″ guns on Clark Island – 100 tons in weight, wire wound, and metal nearly two feet thick at the breech – are with us no longer. The contractors descended on them with blow torches, making a cut right along the tops, cutting each gun into 5 units of twenty tons and transporting the pieces by rail to Newcastle. The job was done in a week and excited considerable interest, the daily newspapers published a photograph and a comment.”

In 1957 further news on disposal was reported, in this case relating to the 14-inch guns. These had been approved for disposal, presumably by the Admiralty. By March 1958 a contract had been placed for disposal and in September it was reported that the contractor, L. M. Edwards & Co. of Mascot, had mutilated and removed the guns and that the area had been restored.

So ended the saga of the battleship guns in Sydney Harbour. Picnics on Clark Island, suspended since the war, could now resume.

[List of Posts]

[Rob's Shed Home]