Gun Turret Operation

This animation shows how shells and powder are transferred from a magazine at the bottom of a ship, to a gun turret.

The shells and powder are not combined in a cartridge, the powder is held is sacks. This saves weight on the ship, and also means that there is no cartridge to dispose of after firing the shell.

A series of interlinked flash-proof doors divides the paths from magazine to turret. These doors prevents an explosion in the turret from travelling down to the magazine and endangering the entire ship.

The German Navy learned the danger of a turret explosion leading to a magazine explosion after the First Battle of Heligoland Bight, where they lost several ships.

Although flashproof doors were fitted to British ships, they were often disengaged, to increase the rate of fire from the guns. This had disastrous consequences at the Battle of Jutland when the Royal Navy lost several ships through strikes on gun turrets triggering magazine explosions.