The 12 cm/45 gun designed in 1895 was an indigenous variant of an
Elswick Ordnance Company export design known as the Pattern Y. The Japanese designation was the "Type 41". Later in 1921 the 12 cm/45 gun was used as the basis for a high-angle
anti-aircraft gun, designated the
12 cm/45 10th Year Type. The "Third Year Type" refers to the
Welin breech block used and this should not be confused with the later
Type 3 12 cm AA Gun developed by the
Imperial Japanese Army in 1943. In the Japanese Army artillery naming system, "Type 3" refers to the year of introduction, rather than the type of breech block used. When used in naval applications, it was mounted in a shielded barbette, as shown. A redesign in 1922 called the
12 cm 11th Year Type naval gun (Model 1922) with a shorter gun barrel and a horizontal
sliding breech-block was used on submarines and torpedo boats. The 12 cm/45 was manually loaded and fired a
high-explosive, an
illumination shell or after 1943 an anti-submarine shell. In addition to its shipboard role it was widely deployed as a coastal defense gun for Japanese bases in the Pacific and was one of the more common types found by Allied forces. ==Naval Use==