15 cm/50 Type 41 (152 mm)

Description

The 15 cm/50 Type 41 is a Japanese high caliber gun found as a primary weapon in a twin-turrets on Agano and a secondary single-mount casemate gun on Kongo-class battleships. Historically it was a family of weapons originally designed by British Vickers in 1910, then redesigned for production in Japan in 1912. Aside from the aforementioned ships, the guns were also used on the Fusō-class battleships and as a coastal defenses on Guam.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• IJN Agano
• IJN Kongo
• IJN Haruna

General info

Type 41 is a typical weapon for a cruiser, featuring a good mix of caliber, fire rate and the overall physical dimensions of the gun. It makes it suitable for engaging targets at a long range and directly countering destroyers. The key highlight are its SAP shells.

Available ammunition

Both HE and SAP shells are sufficient to defeat armor on any destroyer or a coastal unit, while SAP shells will struggle only with some of the reinforced points on the Heavy Cruisers or larger warships. The key advantage of SAP shells is its explosion after 8.5 meters, making it suitable for dealing with enemy destroyers without switching shells to HE. Given that SAP shells have nearly the same explosive filler as HE - using HE is extremely situational and SAP are superior in nearly all circumstances.

HE-TF shells are available only on the twin-gun turrets of IJN Agano, as these turrets have a significantly increased vertical guidance and targetting speed, making it possible to engage aerial targets.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		1,000 m	2,500 m	5,000 m	7,500 m	10,000 m	15,000 m
Type 0 HE	HE	35	35	35	35	35	35
Type 4 SAP	SAP	81	68	52	40	34	34
Type 0 HE-TF	HE-TF	35	35	35	35	35	35

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (s)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
Type 0 HE	HE	850	45.26	0	0.1	3,170	79°	80°	81°
Type 4 SAP	SAP	850	45.26	0.01	7	2,920	47°	60°	65°
Type 0 HE-TF	HE-TF	850	45.26	0	0.1	3,170	79°	80°	81°

Comparison with analogues

The gun is featured in two configurations: Single and dual-mount, with single-mount having much higher fire-rate, increasing from 6.2/minute to 10/minute, a 60% increase.

The biggest pain point are its dated shells. HE have one of the lowest amount of explosive fillers. SAP has the lowest penetration among the shells of the type, its explosive filler is relatively large, but in both statistics its worse than the Soviet 152 mm/57 B-38 (152 mm).

And while the single-mount weapon trades these disadvantages for a high rate of fire, the same cannot be said for the dual-mount. Still, it does have some key advantages: high elevation angles, the best-in-the-class horizontal guidance speed and an added HE-FT shell (even if it's with one of the smallest explosive fillers).

It's also worth mentioning that the muzzle velocity is relatively low comparing to its peers, however it's perfectly adequate, and both: lower and higher caliber guns commonly feature lower muzzle velocities.

HE

Cannon		Sample Ship	Ammo	Calibre (mm)	Muzzle Velocity (m/s)	Sustained rate of fire (rounds/min)	Targeting speed (°/s)		TNT Equivalent (kg)	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
							Horizontal	Vertical		1,000 m	5,000 m	10,000 m
	15 cm/50 Type 41 (152 mm)	IJN Agano	HE	152	850	6.2	10	6	3.17	35	35	35
	15 cm/50 Type 41 (152 mm)	IJN Kongo	HE	152	850	10	4.2	4.2	3.17	35	35	35
	6-inch/45 Type 41 (152 mm)	IJN Settsu	HE	152	825	5	4.2	4.2	5.28	43	43	43
	6 inch/53 Mk.12 (152 mm)	USS Raleigh	HE	152	914	6	6.8	6	5.88	49	49	49
	6 inch/50 BL Mark XXIII (152 mm)	HMNZS Leander	HE	152	841	8	6.0	8.5	3.96	37	37	37
	152/53 mm O.T.O. Mod.1929 (152 mm)	RN Raimondo Montecuccoli	HE	152	935	8	5.1	4.2	2.39	29	29	29
	152 mm/57 B-38 (152 mm)	Sverdlov	HE	152	950	7.5	6.1	11	6	50	50	50

SAP

Cannon		Sample Ship	Ammo	Calibre (mm)	Muzzle Velocity (m/s)	Sustained rate of fire (rounds/min)	Targeting speed (°/s)		TNT Equivalent (kg)	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
							Horizontal	Vertical		1,000 m	5,000 m	10,000 m
	15 cm/50 Type 41 (152 mm)	IJN Agano	SAP	152	850	6.2	10	6	2.92	81	52	34
	15 cm/50 Type 41 (152 mm)	IJN Kongo	SAP	152	850	10	4.2	4.2	2.92	81	52	34
	6 inch/53 Mk.12 (152 mm)	USS Raleigh	SAP	152	914	6	6.8	6	0.997	210	138	85
	6 inch/50 BL Mark XXIII (152 mm)	HMNZS Leander	SAPBC	152	841	8	6.0	8.5	1.7	197	137	90
	152 mm/57 B-38 (152 mm)	Sverdlov	SAP	152	950	7.5	6.1	11	5.9	172	117	74

HE-FT

Cannon		Sample Ship	Ammo	Calibre (mm)	Muzzle Velocity (m/s)	Sustained rate of fire (rounds/min)	Targeting speed (°/s)		TNT Equivalent (kg)	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
							Horizontal	Vertical		1,000 m	5,000 m	10,000 m
	15 cm/50 Type 41 (152 mm)	IJN Agano	HE-TF	152	850	6.2	10	6	3.17	35	35	35
	6 inch/50 BL Mark XXIII (152 mm)	HMNZS Leander	HE-TF	152	841	8	6.0	8.5	3.96	37	37	37
	152/53 mm O.T.O. Mod.1929 (152 mm)	RN Raimondo Montecuccoli	HE-FT	152	935	8	5.1	4.2	2.39	29	29	29
	152 mm/57 B-38 (152 mm)	Sverdlov	HE-FT	152	950	7.5	6.1	11	6.56	53	53	53

Usage in battles

The weapon can be found as both: Primary weapon on IJN Agano (firing 6 shells broadside every 9.7sec) and a secondary weapon on the Kongo-class (firing 4 shells every 6 seconds). In terms of TNT equivalent per minute for the HE shells this translates to 117,9 kg in Agano vs 126.8 kg in Kongo (or 95,1 kg/minute for the arcs where only Kongo's 3 guns can fire). So while at a first glance it might seem that the Type 41 as a secondary weapon is mostly just a filler, in reality it can output as much damage as a cruiser.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Excellent SAP shell able to engage everything from a light cruiser to a motorboat
• Single-mount version has an excellent fire rate for the caliber, making it relatively easy to engage coastal units at range

Cons:

• No dedicated armor-piercing shells make it difficult if not impossible to respond to the enemy heavy cruisers or battleships
• Low explosive filler in the HE and HE-TF shells comparing to the contemporary shells
• Dual-mount version has a relatively slow fire rate and its not compensated with more guns a platform

History

Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

• 6-inch/45 Type 41 (152 mm)
• 6 inch/45 BL Mark VII (152 mm)
• 6 inch/45 BL Mark XII (152 mm)
• 6 inch/47 Mk.16 (152 mm)
• 6 inch/50 BL Mark XXIII (152 mm)
• 6 inch/50 QF Mark N5 (152 mm)
• 6 inch/53 Mk.12 (152 mm)
• 152 mm/57 B-38 (152 mm)
• 152/53 mm Ansaldo mod.1926 (152 mm)
• 152/53 mm O.T.O. Mod.1929 (152 mm)

External links

• [Wikipedia] 15 cm/50 41st Year Type
• [NavWeaps] 50 caliber 41st Year Type 15 cm Gun
• [Combined Fleet] Japanese Naval Ordnance - 6"/50 caliber

Japan naval cannons
20 mm	JM61 · Type 98
25 mm	25 mm/60 Type 96
37 mm	Type 4 · Type 11 pattern 1922
40 mm	40 mm/62 Vickers
57 mm	Type 97
75 mm	Type 88 AA
76 mm	3-inch/40 Type 41 · 8 cm/40 3rd Year Type · 8 cm/60 Type 98
100 mm	100/65 mm Type 98 mod A
120 mm	120 mm/45 3rd Year Type · 120 mm/45 10th year type
127 mm	5 inch/40 Type 89 · 127 mm/50 3rd Year Type
140 mm	140 mm/50 3rd Year Type
152 mm	6-inch/45 Type 41 · 15 cm/50 Type 41
155 mm	155 mm/60 3rd Year Type
200 mm	20 cm 3rd year type No.1
203 mm	20 cm/45 Type 41 · 20 cm/50 3rd year type No.2
356 mm	36 cm/45 Type 41
410 mm	410 mm/45 Type 3
	Foreign:
20 mm	20 mm/70 Oerlikon Mk.II (USA/Britain)
40 mm	Bofors L/60 Mark 1 (USA) · Bofors L/60 Mark 2 (USA) · Bofors L/60 Mark 3 (USA)
47 mm	3 pdr QF Hotchkiss (Britain)
76 mm	3-inch Mark 10 (USA) · 3 inch Mk.33 (USA) · 3-inch Mk.34 (USA)
120 mm	4,7-inch/40 Armstrong (Britain)
127 mm	5 inch/38 Mk.12 (USA)
305 mm	12-inch/45 Vickers (Britain) · 12-inch/50 Vickers (Britain)