Main Armament of RN Peterel and Tern Gunboats

[Fatboy Coxy]

Hi all, I just want to confirm the main armament of both the two Peterel class gunboats, Peterel and Gannet, and the two, similar class Terns boats, Tern and Seamew. Many entries just show 2x1 3-inch guns, but the Wikipedia entry for HMS Tern lists them as QF 3-inch 20 cwt, which was the RN standard AA gun at the time of construction. Were these guns capable of both surface and AA fire, or just a LA modified version. I can understand why the gunboats only mounted two 3-inch guns, their displacement was a mere 310 tons (Peterel class) or 266 tons (Tern class). The ships also list 8 Lewis machine guns, would these have all been single mounted, or could some or all have been twin mounted.

[wadinga]

Hi Fatboy,

H T Lenton's mammoth effort British and Empire Warships of the Second World War says they were HA weapons, which could obviously be used for low angle fire as well. It says nothing about the disposition of the Lewis guns. Naval Weapons of WWII by Campbell mentions both 3" and 12 pdr guns separately (later has same bore but different barrel length) but notes a mount variant allowing the former to elevate to 90 degrees! Don't know how you load that!

With steep cliffs on the banks of some Chinese rivers HA firing might have been desirable.

All the best

wadinga

[Fatboy Coxy]

Hi Wadinga, thank you for your reply, I hadn't thought about high banks, but adopting a multi purpose gun, reflecting concerns over Japanese aviation threats seemed extremely far sighted to me, given the design and construction required, so your suggestion is much more likely.