barbette

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Barbette of the Redoutable (1876).

Illustration of the barbette in relation to other parts of a battleship turret.

A barbette is a protective circular armour feature around a cannon or heavy artillery gun. The name comes from the French phrase en barbette referring to the practice of firing a field gun over a parapet (defensive wall) rather than through an opening (embrasure). The former gives better angles of fire but less protection.

Before the complete introduction of the fully enclosed armoured gun turrets, a barbette was a fixed armoured enclosure protecting the gun. The barbette could take the form of a ring of armour around the gun mount over which the guns (possibly fitted with a gun shield) fired.

In warships from the age of the dreadnought forward, the barbette is the non-rotating drum beneath the rotating gun turret (properly known as the "gunhouse") and above the armoured deck on a warship. It forms the protection for the upper ends of the hoists that lift shells and their propelling charges (e.g. cordite) from the magazines below.

When applied to military aircraft, a barbette is a position on an aircraft where a gun, or guns, are in a mounting which has a restricted arc of fire when compared to a turret. The word is frequently used to describe the tail gunner position on bombers such as the B-17 Flying Fortress.

The term "barbette" is often used with military aircraft of World War II, to name a remotely aimed and operated gun turret, which itself has no human presence directly within its mechanics-the German Messerschmitt Me 210 and Me 410 Hornisse had twin remote turrets, one per side, for rearwards defense, the Heinkel He 177 had such a turret for its forward dorsal defense, and the famous American B-29 Superfortress had four such remote turrets, two dorsal and two ventral, each with twin M2 Browning guns, with only the tail gun position being "directly" manned.

See also

• Disappearing gun#Naval application, a failed intermediate step between barbettes and gun turrets

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