Editing Barbette

{{short description|Type of gun emplacement}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:FortDuvallM191901.jpg|thumb|right| US Army 16-inch gun M1919 on barbette mount M1919; this was a high-angle mount with elevation to 65°.]]

'''Barbettes''' are several types of [[gun emplacement]] in terrestrial fortifications or on naval [[ship]]s.

In recent{{when|date=April 2019}} naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protection that eventually led to the [[pre-dreadnought]]. The name ''barbette'' ultimately comes from [[fortification]]: it originally meant a raised platform or mound,<ref>{{harvnb|Robertson|1754|pp=619–640}}.</ref> as in the French phrase ''en barbette'', which refers to the practice of firing a [[cannon]] over a [[parapet]] rather than through an [[embrasure]] in a fortification's [[casemate]]. The former gives better angles of fire but less protection than the latter. The [[disappearing gun]] was a variation on the barbette gun; it consisted of a heavy gun on a [[carriage]] that would retract behind a [[parapet]] or into a gunpit for reloading. Barbettes were primarily used in coastal defences, but saw some use in a handful of warships, and some inland fortifications.  The term is also used for certain aircraft gun mounts.

Shipboard barbettes were primarily used in armoured warships, starting in the 1860s during a period of intense experimentation with other mounting systems for heavy guns at sea. In these, gun barrels usually protruded over the barbette edge, so barbettes provided only partial protection, mainly for the [[ammunition]] supply. Alternatives included the heavily-armoured [[gun turret]] and an armoured, fixed [[central battery ship|central gun battery]]. By the late 1880s, all three systems were replaced with a hybrid barbette-turret system that combined the benefits of both types. The armoured vertical tube that supported the new gun mount was referred to as a barbette.

Guns with restricted arcs of fire mounted in heavy bombers during World War II—such those in the tail of the aircraft, as opposed to fully revolving turrets—were also sometimes referred to as having barbette mounts, though usage of the term is primarily restricted to British publications. American authors generally refer to such mounts  as tail guns or as tail gun turrets.

==Use in fortifications==
[[File:Casemate.png|thumb|Cross-section of a 19th-century fortification; a gun at position "C" would be firing from a barbette position]]
The use of barbette mountings originated in ground fortifications. The term originally referred to a raised platform on a [[rampart (fortification)|rampart]] for one or more guns, enabling them to be fired over a [[parapet]].<ref>[[Ian V. Hogg|Hogg, Ian V]] (1975), ''Fortress: A History of Military Defence'', Macdonald and Jane's, {{ISBN|0-356-08122-2}} (p. 155)</ref> This gave rise to the phrase ''en barbette'', which referred to a gun placed to fire over a parapet, rather than through an [[embrasure]], an opening in a fortification wall. While an ''en barbette'' emplacement offered wider arcs of fire, it also exposed the gun's crew to greater danger from hostile fire.<ref>Wilson 1896, pp. 340–341.</ref> In addition, since the barbette position would be higher than a [[casemate]] position—that is, a gun firing through an embrasure—it would generally have a greater field of fire.

The American military theorist [[Dennis Hart Mahan]] suggested that light guns, particularly [[howitzer]]s, were best suited for barbette emplacements since they could fire explosive [[Shell (projectile)|shells]] and could be easily withdrawn when they came under enemy fire.<ref>Mahan 1867, p. 45.</ref> Fortifications in the 19th century typically employed both casemate and barbette emplacements. For example, the Russian [[Constantine Battery]] outside [[Sevastopol]] was equipped with 43 heavy guns in its seaward side during the [[Crimean War]] in the mid-1850s; of these, 27 were barbette mounted, with the rest in casemates.<ref>Brown 1979, 78.</ref>

A modified version of the barbette type was the [[disappearing gun]], which placed a heavy gun on a carriage that retracted behind a parapet for reloading; this better protected the crew, and made the gun harder to target, since it was only visible while it was firing.<ref>"The Moncrieff System of Disappearing Gun Carriages, p. 122</ref> The type was usually used for coastal defence guns.  As naval gun turrets improved to allow greater elevation and range, many disappearing guns, most of which were limited in elevation, were seen as obsolescent; with aircraft becoming prominent in the First World War, they were largely seen as obsolete. However, they remained in use through the early Second World War, at least by the United States, due to limited funding for replacement weapons between the wars.{{sfn|Berhow|2015|pp=201–226}}<ref>[https://cdsg.org/fort-and-battery-list/ List of US forts and batteries at CDSG.org]</ref>

Later heavy coastal guns were often protected in hybrid installations, in wide casemates with cantilevered overhead cover partially covering a barbette or [[gunhouse]] mount.{{sfn|Berhow|2015|p=176}}

==Use in warships==
[[File:Meyers b12 s0661a.jpg|thumb|Illustration of several armored ships from the 1880s, showing the degree of experimentation with armament arrangements]]
{{main|Barbette ship}}

Following the introduction of [[ironclad warship]]s in the early 1860s, naval designers grappled with the problem of mounting heavy guns in the most efficient way possible, beginning with [[Broadside (naval)|broadside]] [[box battery|box batteries]] and quickly moving to rotating [[gun turret]]s, since these afforded the ability to fire directly ahead, which was deemed important due to the adoption of [[naval ram|ramming]] tactic after the [[Battle of Lissa (1866)|Battle of Lissa]] in 1866. But early turrets were very heavy, which necessitated a low [[freeboard (nautical)|freeboard]] to reduce topweight and a corresponding tendency to [[capsize]].<ref>Beeler 2001, p. 91</ref><ref>Sondhaus 2001, pp. 79–80</ref><ref>Beeler 1997, p. 114</ref> By the 1870s, designers had shifted to the rotating barbette mount, which eschewed armor protection to reduce weight; this would permit the use of heavy guns in high-freeboard ships. This new type of vessel was referred to as a [[barbette ship]], to differentiate them from [[turret ship]]s and [[central battery ship]]s.<ref>Beeler 2001, pp. 139–164</ref><ref>Hodges 1981, p. 10</ref>

In the late 1880s, the British [[Royal Navy]] adopted a new mounting that combined the benefits of both kinds of mounts in the {{sclass|Majestic|battleship|4}}. A heavily armoured, rotating gun house was added to the revolving platform, which kept the guns and their crews protected. The gun house was  smaller and lighter than the old-style turrets, which still permitted placement higher in the ship and the corresponding benefits to stability and seakeeping. This innovation gradually became known simply as a turret, though the armored tube that held the turret substructure, which included the shell and propellant handling rooms and the ammunition hoists, was still referred to as a barbette. These ships were the prototype of the so-called [[pre-dreadnought battleship]]s, which proved to be broadly influential in all major navies over the next fifteen years.<ref>Hodges 1981, p. 33.</ref><ref>Burt 1988, p. 85.</ref>

==Use in bomber aircraft==
[[File:B17 tail turret.jpg|thumb|Rear "Cheyenne"-pattern gun position on a [[Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress|B-17G Flying Fortress]] ]]

When applied to military aircraft, largely in aviation history books written by British historians{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}, a barbette is a position on an [[aircraft]] where a gun is in a mounting which has a restricted [[arc of fire]] when compared to a turret, or which is remotely mounted away from the gunner. As such it is frequently used to describe the [[tail gunner]] position on bombers such as the [[Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress]],<ref>"B-29s Over Britain", p. 573.</ref> with American aviation books frequently describing the position as a tail gun turret,<ref>Forsyth 2009, p. 32.</ref> or simply as a tail gun.<ref>Reuter 1999, p. 39.</ref>

The term "barbette" is also used by some, again primarily British historians, to describe a remotely aimed and operated gun turret emplacement<ref>"Bristol Armament Development", p. 232.</ref> on almost any non-American military aircraft of World War II, but it is ''not'' usable in a direct translation for the varying German language terms used on ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' aircraft of that era for such emplacements. As just one example, the German [[Heinkel He 177]]A heavy bomber had such a remotely operated twin-[[MG 131 machine gun]] ''Fernbedienbare Drehlafette'' FDL 131Z ''(Z – "zwilling"''/twin) powered forward dorsal gun turret, with the full translation of the German term comprising the prefix as "Remotely controlled rotating gun mount".{{sfn|Griehl|Dressel|1998|pp=243–245}} The term ''"lafette"'' in German actually refers to a [[gun carriage]] of nearly any type, with its original use as being for the mounting design for [[Bombard (weapon)|bombard]]-style siege guns of the Middle Ages.

{{Clear}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==

{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite journal |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1947/1947%20-%200989.html|title=B-29s Over Britain|journal=Flight|date=19 June 1947|pages=572–574|access-date=25 March 2014}}
* {{cite book |last=Beeler |first=John |year=2001 |title=Birth of the Battleship: British Capital Ship Design, 1870–1881 |location=London |publisher=Chatham |isbn=1-86176-167-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Beeler |first=John |year=1997 |title=British Naval Policy in the Gladstone-Disraeli Era, 1866–1880 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=0-8047-2981-6}}
* {{cite book | editor-last1 = Berhow | editor-first1 = Mark A. | title = American Seacoast Defenses, A Reference Guide |edition=Third | location = McLean| publisher = CDSG Press | year = 2015 | isbn = 978-0-9748167-3-9 }}
* {{cite journal|url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1950/1950%20-%200342.html|title=Bristol Armament Development|journal=Flight|date=16 February 1950|page=232|access-date=25 March 2014}}
* {{cite journal|last=Brown|first=D. K.|title=Shells at Sevastopol|journal=Warship|volume=III|year=1979|pages=74–79|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=London|editor-last=Roberts|editor-first=John}}
* {{cite book |last=Burt |first=R.A. |year=1988 |title=British Battleships 1889–1904 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis, Maryland |isbn=0-87021-061-0}}
* {{cite journal |last=Feron |first=Luc |year=1985 |title=French Battleship Marceau|journal=Warship International |publisher=International Naval Research Organization|location=Toledo|volume=XXII|issue=1|pages=68–78|issn=0043-0374}}
* {{cite book|last=Forsyth|first=Robert|title=Fw 190 Sturmböcke Vs B-17 Flying Fortress: Europe 1944–45|year=2009|publisher=Osprey Publishing|location=Oxford|isbn=9781846039416}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Gardiner |editor-first=Robert |year=1979 |title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905 |publisher=Conway Maritime Press |location=Greenwich |isbn=0-8317-0302-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/conwaysallworlds0000unse_l2e2 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Griehl |first1=Manfred |last2=Dressel |first2=Joachim |title=Heinkel He 177 - 277 - 274 |year=1998 |publisher=Airlife Publishing |location=Shrewsbury|isbn=1-85310-364-0 }}
* {{cite book|last=Gröner|first=Erich|title=German Warships 1815–1945|year=1990|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis|isbn=0-87021-790-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Hodges |first=Peter |year=1981 |title=The Big Gun: Battleship Main Armament, 1860–1945 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis|isbn=0870219170}}
* {{cite book|last=Mahan|first=Dennis Hart|title=An Elementary Course on Military Engineering [covering] Field Fortifications, Military Mining, and Siege Operations|year=1867|publisher= J. Wiley|location=New York|oclc=3157043}}
* {{cite book|last=Reuter|first=Claus|title=Development of Aircraft Turrets in the AAF, 1917–1944|year=1999|publisher=German-Canadian Museum of Applied History|oclc=499763163}}
*{{cite book |last1=Robertson |first1=John|title=The Elements Of Navigation; Containing The Theory and Practice: With All the Necessary Tables : To which is Added, A Treatise of Marine Fortification ; For the Use of the Royal Mathematical School at Christ's Hospital, and the Gentlemen of the Navy ; In Two Volumes|date=1754|publisher=Nourse|pages=619–640|url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=shpWAAAAYAAJ&rdid=book-shpWAAAAYAAJ&rdot=1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sondhaus|first=Lawrence|title=Naval Warfare, 1815–1914|year=2001|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=9780415214780}}
* {{cite journal |title=The Moncrieff System of Disappearing Gun Carriages |journal=The Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine |volume=III |pages=120–124 |publisher=W. H. Allen & Co.|location=London |date=1886 |oclc=220760873}}
* {{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Herbert Wrigley|title=Ironclads in Action: A Sketch of Naval Warfare from 1855 to 1895, Volume 1|url=https://archive.org/details/ironcladsinacti00wilsgoog|year=1896|location=London|publisher=S. Low, Marston and Co.|oclc=1111061}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Gun barbettes}}
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Barbette |volume=3 |short=x}}

{{Fortifications}}

[[Category:Weapons platforms]]
[[Category:Naval warfare]]
[[Category:Fortification (architectural elements)]]
[[Category:Castle architecture]]