The 8.8 cm SK C/31 was a German naval gun that was used in World War II.
== Description == The 8.8 cm SK C/31 gun weighed 4,255 kilograms (9,381 lb), had an overall length of 6.87 meters (22 ft 6 in) and its bore length was 6.341 meters (20 ft 9.6 in). It used a vertical sliding-block breech design. The gun was normally on the twin gun carriage (German: Doppel Lafette or abbreviated Dopp. L) C/31, the mount plus guns weighed 27,300 kilograms (27.3 t). The C/31 mount was later modified to carry the 10.5 cm SK C/33 naval gun. Useful life expectancy was fairly short 1,500 effective full charges (EFC) per barrel. Only the heavy cruiser (Panzerschiff) Deutschland received the gun, six 8.8 cm SK C/31 were briefly installed, replacing its three obsolete 8.8 cm SK L/45 naval guns, though in 1940 these were again replaced with six 10.5 cm C/33 L/65 guns. Other German capital ships were equipped with a new version of the 8.8 cm gun, the 8.8 cm SK C/32 naval gun which used a shorter shell and were also mounted in a slightly modified carriage, the C/32 which had a slightly larger pivot mount.
=== Ammunition === Fixed type ammunition with and without tracer, which weighed 18.5 kg (41 lb), with a projectile length of 1,227.5 mm (48.33 in) was fired. Ammunition Types Available:
High Explosive (HE) - 9 kg (20 lb) Illumination (ILLUM) - 9.4 kg (21 lb)
== See also == List of naval guns
Footnotes
Notes
Citations
== References == Campbell, John (2002). Naval Weapons of World War Two. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-87021-459-4. Gröner, Erich (1990). German Warships: 1815–1945. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-790-6. Stehr, Werner F.G.; Breyer, Siegfried (1999). Leichte und mitlere Artillerie auf deutschen Kriegsschiffen. Marine-Arsenal (in German). Vol. Sonderheft band 18. Wölfersheim-Berstadt: Podzun Pallas. ISBN 3-7909-0664-6.
== Further reading == Gander, Terry; Chamberlain, Peter (1979). Weapons of the Third Reich: An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms, Artillery and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939–1945. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-15090-3. Hogg, Ian V. (1997). German Artillery of World War Two (2nd corrected ed.). Mechanicsville, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 1-85367-480-X. Rolf, Rudi (1998). Der Atlantikwall: Bauten der deutschen Küstenbefestigungen 1940-1945. Osnabrück: Biblio. ISBN 3-7648-2469-7. Rolf, Rudi (2004). A Dictionary on Modern Fortification: An Illustrated Lexicon on European Fortification in the Period 1800-1945. Middleburg, Netherlands: PRAK.
== External links == SK C/31 at Navweaps.com
