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NavSource Online: Battleship Photo Archive

Gun Director MK 44


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Description of Gun Directors Mk.40 Mods.0 and 1
Gun Director MK 45
Gun Fire Control System Mark 60


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MK44 262k This director had no provision for automatic determination of leads and was essentially merely a means of controlling the elevation and train of the gun mount from a location more advantageous than at the mount itself.
The absence of automatic lead determination was a limitation chiefly with respect to fire against attacks on other than the firing ship, and hence, made this director unsuitable especially for ships likely to be employed largely in escort duty, such as destroyers.
Since the limitations of this type of director would be further magnified by a platform as unstable as that provided by a destroyer, it had been considered advisable to install these directors only in the larger ships until the lead-computing type of director became available.
It included a 5-foot stereo spotting glass by means of which the effectiveness of tracer control was greatly enhanced.
This director had been designed as a stop-gap pending the development and production of a lead-computing type director.
it was estimated at the time when the MK 44 program had been undertaken, that 85 of these directors would fulfill the stop-gap needs.
Although originally designed for use with the 1’1 mount the Mk44 could, by locking out traverse and making an appropriate conversion of spots from the traverse plane to the training plane, be used with the 40mm mounts.
Photos & text courtesy of Pieter Bakels.

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