The Model 1927 was developed from the German 15 cm (5.9") gun used on the destroyer S113, which was taken over by France at the end of World War I and renamed Amiral Sénès. Like the German weapon, the Model 1927 was fitted with a horizontal sliding wedge breech-block of semi-automatic operation. The barrel was autofretted and used the same shells and cartridge cases as in the Model 1929, but with a smaller propellant charge.
These guns were used to arm the first French capital ships built since World War I. These weapons had a high muzzle velocity which gave them long range and good vertical armor penetration at the cost of having poor deck penetration. They were mounted in quad turrets, which were really more of a dual-twin arrangement. The design of the turret was taken from the Normandie class. Although equipped with RPC, the Sautter-Harlé-Blondel gear for these turrets was apparently far from satisfactory. As the guns were closely spaced together, these ships also suffered from problems with excessive dispersion. The dual quad-gun turret arrangement was calculated to be 27.6% lighter than a quad twin-gun arrangement, but it did mean that a single hit could eliminate half of the main battery.
Aviso A69 d'Estienne d'Orves
Corvette Aconit (FFL)
Frégate Aconit
Croiseur Lourd Algérie 1942
Sous-marin Ariane
Porte-avions Arromanches (ex-HMS Colossus)
Chasseur de sous-marins Bayonne
Torpilleur Bombarde
Porte-avions Béarn
Canot impérial
Sous-marin Casabianca (1500 tonnes)
Colonnes rostrales
Frégate La Combattante (FFL) (Classe Hunt III)
Croix de Lorraine (DE)
Aviso colonial d'Entrecasteaux
Frégate De Grasse (D612)
Cuirassé Dunkerque
Cuirassé Duperré
Croiseur Duquesne
