List of disappearing gun installations


This is a list of disappearing gun installations. These are artillery installed behind fortification walls with mechanisms that lift the gun for firing and then retract it to protection. These were installed, especially in coastal defenses, from the 1860s until as late as 1923, and were in service as late as the beginning of World War II.

Guns in retractable turrets within the Maginot Line and the Atlantic Wall that are sometimes termed "disappearing guns",[1] are not included.

Listed here are ships having guns with mechanisms active with firing; not listed are gunboats where guns could be lowered merely to lower the ships' center of gravity.


Armstrong BL 6-inch Mk V disappearing gun at Taiaroa Head, New Zealand
10-inch disappearing gun at Fort Casey, Washington State, USA