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Gratuitous Gun Pic.

By The Armorer on February 13, 2004 | | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (1)

The late model 25-pounder howitzer in front of the Royal School of Artillery, Larkhill. Beautiful gun - not just this one, but from a gunner's perspective.

Here's a shot (from the website above) of a full up nicely kitted out howitzer on it's azimuth platform, caisson, and tractor. For you non-technical types: gun thingy on gizmo that makes it easy to spin around, ammo-holding thingy, and towing thingy. 8^D

25lbder.jpg

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8 Comments

By triticale on February 13, 2004 4:45 PM
Doesn't everyone know that caissons go rolling along?
 
By John of Argghhh! on February 13, 2004 4:54 PM
Nope. And I'm really sure that "Ready Front! Come About" would confuse 'em, too!
   
By gunner on February 14, 2004 1:56 PM
The device on the end of the barrel. Is it a flash-hider or something else. I thought i had posted this question last night but I do not see it.
 
By John of Argghhh! on February 14, 2004 5:22 PM
Don't feel bad, Gunner. There's a problem somewhere - you aren't the first to have trouble making comments. It's a muzzle break. Designed to divert some of the gases and reduce the amount of recoil of the tube. Lets you build the carriage lighter, and the recoil system fails less often. It also allows you to fire more high charge (most powder) rounds before the system fails if you need to under combat conditions. Rarely, if ever, do you fire full charge in peacetimm training. Partially because very few firing ranges will support the distance - but mostly because you wear out the tubes much faster and increase the risk of projectile failure - where you literally blow-in the baseplate of the projectile (if it's the larger-caliber rounds that are built that way.
 
By J.M. Heinrichs on February 14, 2004 6:14 PM
1. I remember reading about the development of the 25lbr: the gun was a new design but the carriage was taken from the upgrade to the 1WW 18lbr. By adding the muzzle brake, the 25lbr could be safely fired on the 18lbr carriage. The carriage was strengthened/improved for the 25 lbr, but the muzzle brake was retained because it reduced stress on the carriage, and I think it a small but noticable improvement on grouping at long range. 2. As for firing long ranges, we have a firing point at the south boundary of Gagetown which allows for 45km+ shoots. I think the longest shot line measured 52km. However shooting at that range requires clearance from the Air Traffic Control Centre. Cheers JMH
 
By John of Argghhh! on February 14, 2004 6:33 PM
The muzzle break was added during WWII. See the gun in the pic below (the one with the Bren Carrier in it), and I've got a pic of the Keren Gun around here somewhere... The Gagetown story reminds me of the Pershing Missile. Those test shots were fired from Camp Blanding (now defunct) Utah into White Sands missile range. Those required clearance from NASA and notification to the Soviets! We can shoot the long shots at Yuma Proving Ground, AZ and White Sands, where most cannon testing takes place. But nobody (not even you crazy Canadians) shoot that far very often. The effects of EFC on tube life is dramatic. Standard shooting in training will wear the average 155mm barrel out in 50 years and a breechblock in 150 years. Combat will wear them out in days. But a full discussion of EFC will cause readers to flee to porn sites or something.
 
By J.M. Heinrichs on February 14, 2004 7:42 PM
EFCs? I was lucky because the Couger fired two rounds: HESH/SH-Prac and Smoke BE; the barrel was found to have a life of 5000+ EFCs (but parts of the cradle showed stress cracks after 500 rds: NDT time!); and I had a Gunnery Sgt whose job was to track EFCs on my four C/Ss. The Leopard had four rounds: APDS/TPDS, HESH/SH Prac, Smoke WP, and Smoke BE. Tracking EFCs was 'exciting' as the primary countwas the grease pencil notes made by the loader on the turret wall. My gunner qual course had 18 students, 6 tanks, and about 110 rds per student; I forget the distribution of rounds. APDS = 1 EFC, HESH = .2 EFC, Smoke WP same, and Smoke BE = .05 EFC (or thereabouts). For what it's worth, when I was in the Regt, we had two gun camps per year; each primary gunner fired 75 - 90 rds, other qualified gunners fired 10 - 20 rds each. With proper gunnery trainers/simulators the above numbers have probably been reduced. Cheers JMH