12 cm/45 No.8

These guns were most likely based on the Swedish 12 cm SK M 24 and M 24 C, which were mounted on the Van Galen-class destroyers. They were built under license by the ordnance office of the Wilton-Feijenoord Dockyard in Rotterdam, which produced 17 for the ships, and an additional 22 for six coastal batteries in the Netherlands. The double mounts for the K-boats and ZH 1 were identical, but I cannot say in howfar these mounts resembled the ones proposed for the Battlecruiser design 1047 of 1939/1930.

Click to enlarge
The sloop K 3 in service with the Kriegsmarine

Gun specs
Gun type 12 cm L/45 No. 8
Purpose Seatargets and low-level aircraft *
Bore 120 mm (4.724 inch)
Classes used on ZH-1 (ex-Gerard Callenburgh) (single and double)
K-class (double)
Date of design 1938
Date in service 1941
Length 45 calibres (about 5.4 metres)
Gunweight (barrel + breech) 3,4 metric tons
Initial velocity 800 m/sec
Rate of fire 10-12 rounds/min
Shell specs
Shell types Fixed HE only
Projectile weight 20,5 kg
Charge 5 kg
Shell total weight 32 kg
Range 19500 metres @ 45 degrees*
Mount specs
Mount designation Single mount  
Double mount  
Mount armor 60 mm (on K-class sloops)
Mount weight Single mount 8,7 tons
Double mount 57 tons
Elevation -5 / +45 degrees (estimate)
Train +155 / -155 (for K-class sloops)
Train method Electrical
* There are also sources which give the maximum range as app. 16.000 metres

Thanks to Peter Kreuzer for providing many details

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