15 cm SK L/40 naval gun

The 15 cm SK L/40 was a German naval gun that was used as secondary armament on pre-dreadnought battleships, protected cruisers and armored cruisers of the Imperial German Navy in World War I. It was also used as a coast-defence gun during World Wars I and II.

Construction
The 15 cm SK L/40 gun was constructed of A tube, two layers of hoops and used a Krupp horizontal sliding-wedge breech block. It used separate loading metallic cased propellant charges and projectiles. Unlike other large naval guns of the time which used separate loading bagged charges and projectiles, this gun used charges inside of a brass cartridge case to provide obturation. The guns were often mounted in single casemates or single turrets amidships. In addition to guns produced for the Imperial German Navy comparable export models were produced for the Royal Netherlands Navy and produced under license by Škoda for the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

Naval Use
Ship classes that carried the 15 cm SK L/40 include: • German:

• * Kaiser Friedrich III-class battleship

• * Prinz Adalbert-class cruiser

• * Roon-class cruiser

• * Scharnhorst-class cruiser

• * Victoria Louise-class cruiser

• * Wittelsbach-class battleship

• * SMS Kaiserin Augusta

• * SMS Greif (1914)

• * SMS Möwe (1914)

• * SMS Wolf (1913)

• * GERMAN SUBMARINE Deutschland

• Austrian:

• * Habsburg-class battleship

• * Monarch-class coastal defense ship

• * SMS Kaiser Karl VI

• * SMS Sankt Georg

• Dutch:

• * Holland-class cruiser

• * Koningin Regentes-class coastal defense ship

• * HNLMS Marten Harpertszoon Tromp

• * HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerck

• * HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën

• Ottoman:

• * Avnillah-class ironclad

• * OTTOMAN IRONCLAD Asar-i Tevfik

• * OTTOMAN IRONCLAD Feth-i Bülend
 * China:
 * Haiyung class protected cruiser

Ammunition
Ammunition was of separate loading quick fire type. The projectiles were 39-46.5 cm long with a cartridge case and bagged charge which weighed 10 kg.

The gun was able to fire:
 * Armor Piercing 51 kg
 * High Explosive Base Fuzed 45 kg
 * High Explosive Nose Fuzed 45 kg
 * Common Shell Nose Fuzed 45 kg