15 cm SK L/45

The 15 cm SK L/45 was a German naval gun used in World War I and World War II.

Naval service
The 15 cm SK L/45 was a widely used naval gun on many classes of World War I dreadnoughts and cruisers in both casemates and turrets. It was constructed of an A tube and two layers of hoops with a Krupp horizontal sliding-wedge breech block. During World War I a few pre-war cruisers that were armed with 10.5 cm guns were rearmed with these weapons. In World War II the 15 cm SK L/45 was widely used as coastal artillery and as primary armament on German auxiliary cruisers.

Ship classes that carried the 15 cm SK L/45 include: • Bremen-class

• Brummer-class

• Graudenz-class

• Kolberg-class

• Magdeburg-class

• Pillau-class

Ammunition
Ammunition was of separate loading quick fire type. The projectiles were 61 cm long with a single bagged charge which weighed 13-14 kg.

The gun was able to fire:
 * Armor piercing 45.3 kg
 * High explosive base fuzed 45.3 kg
 * High explosive nose fuzed 45.3 kg
 * Common shell 45.3 kg

Coast defense gun
The same gun was used for coast defense duties in concrete emplacements after World War I. One example was 3./Marine-Artillerie Abteilung 604 ("3rd Battery of Naval Artillery Battalion 604") in Jersey. They show it using 44 kg shells with a range of 18000 m

Railroad gun
It was also used as a railroad gun during World War I.

Weapons of comparable role, performance and era

 * BL 6 inch Mk XII naval gun British equivalent