{{Short description|Royal Navy appointment during World War II}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}} {{Use British English|date=March 2017}} [[File:The Royal Navy during the Second World War A3651.jpg|thumbnail|right|Mark IV Directors on ''HMS King George V''. The large rectangular box centred above the director contains the gyro rate unit. This image was taken early in ''King George V'''s career before the addition of Type 282 radar.]] '''"Pom-Pom" director''' was a director for British anti-aircraft guns on British warships of the 1930s into the Second World War.
==Development== The Vickers 40 mm QF 2 pounder "Pom-Pom" gun anti-aircraft mounting was introduced to the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. The multi-barrel mounting was capable of a tremendous volume of fire but the crew had great difficulty in aiming the mounting due to the smoke and vibration created by the guns. It was, therefore, essential to aim the mount from a remote location, using a director that had a clear view, free from smoke and vibration. The director crew would aim at the target aircraft and, in the early versions of the director, cause the layer (altitude) and trainer (azimuth) pointers to rotate on the gun mount. The gun crew would then move the mount to match the pointers rather than having to try and aim at the target aircraft.
==Mark I - III directors==
Directors I to III controlled the gun mounting through "follow the pointer" control and aimed at aircraft using eye shooting techniques through a simple ring sight.<ref>Raven and Roberts, 1976, p429</ref> These directors began to appear on Royal Navy cruisers, battleships and aircraft carriers in 1930. They were universally fitted, one per pom-pom gun mounting, by the late 1930s.<ref>Raven and Roberts, 1976, p159</ref> Most destroyers and smaller ships that carried 2-pounder guns continued to rely on aiming the guns with the on-mount gunsights due to the lack of space on these ships to site a director.<ref>Campbell, ''Naval Weapons of WW2''</ref>
==Director Mark IV==
The Mk IV director was a considerable improvement and used gyroscopes in a gyro rate unit coupled to an optical rangefinder and Type 282 radar to determine the range, speed and direction of enemy aircraft and then used an on-director computer to produce an accurate fire control solution to hit the target. Later versions of the Mk IV director introduced remote power control (RPC) and could control the gun mounting by remote control from the director.<ref>Campbell, ''Naval Weapons of World War Two'', p20</ref> The Mk IV director was fully tachymetric, but performance suffered as the director was not stabilized against the movement of the ship. It consequently required a carefully trained crew (a total of eight including the radar operator in the radar office) to achieve good results.<ref>Campbell, ''Naval Weapons of World War Two'',p20</ref> Even so, the Mk IV director was highly advanced and placed the Royal Navy in the forefront of naval anti-aircraft fire control<ref>Campbell, ''Naval Weapons of World War Two'', pages 113, 178, 226 and 319. Campbell notes that the first USN tachymetric 40mm gun directors did not appear until 1942, while neither the Italian, German nor the Japanese navy had comparable close range AA directors.</ref> when it was introduced to the Royal Navy on {{HMS|King George V|41|6}} in 1940.<ref>Raven and Roberts'', 1976'', p429</ref> Later versions were upgraded with Type 282 radar and RPC beginning in 1941, with HMS ''Prince of Wales'' being one of the first ships to receive the radar upgrade, which she first used in action during Operation Halberd.<ref>Tarrant, ''King George V class Battleships'', p88</ref>
==See also==
* List of anti-aircraft guns ==Notes and references== {{reflist}}
*{{cite book|last1=Raven|first1=Alan|last2=Roberts|first2=John|title=British Battleships of World War Two|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis|year=1976|isbn=0-87021-817-4}}
==External links== {{Commonscat-inline|QF 2 pounder pom-pom}} * [http://maritime.org/doc/br224/part4.htm#par471 The Pom-Pom Director, Mark IV] in ''The Gunnery Pocket Book'', B.R. 224/45, 1945 placed online courtesy of Historic Naval Ships Association * [http://maritime.org/doc/br224/img/dia33.jpg Illustration of the Pom-Pom Director, Mark IV in ''The Gunnery Pocket Book'', B.R. 224/45, 1945] placed online courtesy of Historic Naval Ships Association
Category:Artillery operation Category:Naval guns of the United Kingdom Category:Military computers Category:Fire-control computers of World War II
de:Ordnance QF 2-Pfünder-Marinegeschütz it:2 libbre navale ja:ポンポン砲 pl:Armata przeciwlotnicza 40 mm Mark VIII