GUN EXPLOSION ON DEVONSHIRE
ATTRIBUTED TO HANGFIRE RELOADING OPERATION COMMENCED (British Official Wireless.) London, July 30. The Admiralty announces that it has been ascertained that the cause of the recent gun accident on the cruiser Devonshire is attributed to a hangfire of a very short duration in one gun of an 8-inch turret. Owing to the simultaneous discharge of other guns in the same turret, it was probably momentarily thought that the gun in question had also fired, and the operation of reloading was therefore commenced. It appears probable that the mistake was immediately discovered, but before it could be rectified the charge in the gun exploded and blew out the partially unlocked breech block. The great force of the explosion also ignited cordite charges waiting in their containers to be loaded for the next round.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19290801.2.71
Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 262, 1 August 1929, Page 9
Word Count
136GUN EXPLOSION ON DEVONSHIRE Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 262, 1 August 1929, Page 9
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.