203 mm/53 Ansaldo mod.1927 (203 mm)
Contents
Description
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Vehicles equipped with this weapon
General info
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Available ammunition
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Comparison with analogues
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Usage in battles
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Pros and cons
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Cons:
History
The best cruiser guns available to the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) during World War II, the 203 mm/53 Ansaldo mod. 1927 was the main armament for the Zara-class heavy cruisers. Built under the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty, these 8-inch guns, in addition to being 3 calibres longer than the preceding 203 mm/50 Ansaldo mod.1924 guns used on the Trento-class, fired more powerful 276-pound shells, could reload at the maximum 45-degree angle of elevation (the mod. 1924 guns could only load at 15 degrees or less) and had a removable liner instead of a fixed one. The 276-pound shells had a muzzle velocity of 3,080 feet per second and a range of 34,400 yards. These guns were some of the best 8-inch cannons in the world at the time. The only weapons of the same calibre to beat them out in range were the German 20.3 cm/60 SK C/34 and the bursting shells had some of the best hitting power in the class. However, these guns were not perfect. The high operating pressure meant the liners quickly wore out though this did mean the guns were designed with removable liners and the dispersion problems, while not as bad as on the earlier Ansaldo mod. 1924 guns, were still present due to the same issues of shell tolerance and cradle mounting. As a result, the Ansaldo mod. 1927 guns were similarly downgraded to shells that had a reduced muzzle velocity of 3,000 feet per second, but the performance was still better than the mod. 1924s. A variant of this design called the Ansaldo mod. 1929 was also built with a thinner faceplate liner to reduce and was mounted on the one-off heavy cruiser RN Bolzano.
Media
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See also
- 203 mm/50 Ansaldo mod.1924 (203 mm) - Earlier Italian 203 mm gun.
External links
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- topic on the official game forum;
- encyclopedia page on the weapon;
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