Guns of the Queen Mary

[The Loggie]

G'Day Guys. I've a Revell 570-scale RMS Queen Mary that I wish to build in her wartime troop-carrier role. I have an overhead diagram of her, and some info. OK - she had a 6" stern-chaser.

The diagram shows gun-tubs of several sizes. As she could out-run almost anything that could sink her - except aircraft, I surmise that most of her guns were for air-defence.

So, what would she have carried? Is there any firm information?

I'm guessing that she woulda had some 3" AA guns in the few larger tubs, and in the smaller tubs, 40mm (Bofors? or pom-poms?) 20mm (singles? or multi?) and 50Cal machineguns (singles? quads? or 8's?).

Any idea what colour I should use? As she was known as the Grey Ghost, I reckon that she was a pale grey.

TIA. George, out...................

[Chris D]

Hi George,

If you can get hold of a copy of the Anatomy of the Ship Queen Mary there is a drawing there showing position and type of armament.

Armament consisted of 20mm Oerlikon (photos show these to be single mounts), 3in HA gun, 6in positioned on the stern, 40mm Bofors Mk 1 (twin), and rocket launchers (not sure what). Also fitted were Mk 51 directors and Type 273 radar.

Unfortunately I do not have a scanner at the moment so can't do the honours. Other than that, if I can help more, please pm me.

Interesting project, look forward to seeing the progress.

Regards

Chris

[The Loggie]

G'Day ChrisD.

Your info seems to confirm much of what I suspect about what guns she carried. Rockets (I suspect) would have been PAC Projectors - Parachute-and-cable projectors. PACs were rockets that were launched into the path of an aircraft attacking at low-level. The rocket towed a steel cable that was fitted with 3 small parachutes of different sizes, and a small bomb. The cable could become tangled in the aircraft's propeller, or it could snag on a wing. If it hit a wing, the parachutes would cause the explosive charge to be pulled-down against the wing, where it would explode on contact.

3" guns were the biggest AA guns that the Brits had. 40mm Bofors guns were in use by the Army. 20mm were in widespread use by the RN. So I'm guessing that the Queen Mary had a detachment of soldiers (or Marines?) specifically to man the guns. Because of the importance of the passengers, I would NOT have trusted the ships crew to man the guns, nor would I have trained the embarked passengers to man the guns. Plus, the detachment could have manned the guns when she had no passengers, because she was a significant asset.

Thanks for sharing, and I'll certainly seek-out the book. George, out..................

Edited July 11, 2012 by The Loggie