Armament
The main armament consisted of ten 12-inch (305mm) 45 calibre Mark X guns, with Mark VIII mountings, arranged in five double turrets. The forward turret, or "A" turret, was positioned on the forecastle. It had an unobstructed arc of fire of 270 degrees over the bow. A pair of turrets ("P" and "Q") were positioned, one on either beam, on the maindeck, level with a point between the fore and aft funnels. They had a nominal arc of fire of 180 degrees, from directly forward to directly aft, but in practice firing too close to the superstructure caused unacceptable damage to it. There was no possibility of firing across the deck on the opposite beam. "X" turret was placed at maindeck level between the after funnel and the after superstructure. It had an arc of fire of some 120 degrees on either beam but could not fire either directly aft or forward. "Y" turret was situated on the quarterdeck, also at maindeck level, and had an arc of fire over the stern of some 300 degrees. Eighty rounds per gun were carried.
For defence against small craft attacking with torpedoes Dreadnought was armed with guns of 3-inch calibre, usually referred to as 12-pounders. This was at the insistence of Admiral Fisher, at that time the First Sea Lord. This was generally regarded as being too small, and Superb and her sisters received sixteen 4-inch (102mm) 50-calibre Mark III guns, eight mounted singly in the superstructure and eight disposed in pairs on the roofs of "A", "P", "Q" and "Y" turrets. During a refit in 1916 the guns on the turret roofs were removed, and relocated in the superstructure to form eight double-decked units of two guns each. In 1917 three guns were removed for distribution to small warcraft to be used for commerce protection, and one four-inch anti-aircraft gun and one three-inch anti-aircraft gun were installed right aft.
As built Superb carried three torpedo tubes of 18-inch calibre, one discharging on either beam and one astern. The stern torpedo tube was removed at the 1916 refit.
Four 3-pounder saluting guns were also carried.
Read more about this topic: HMS Superb (1907)