March 27, 2008
Update to the Whatziss
It isn't often I score a brag on John, so I've gotta milk it for all it's worth.
But I'm also sure I wouldn't have gotten it anyway... because all the late model 18 pounders with the armored box have taller boxes on the recuperators.
And it sure *ain't* a late model. A bit of charm applied to my Lady Captain acquaintance, followed by a bit of cheesecloth (and a lot of spit) applied to the breech revealed the following inscription:
Q.F. 18-Pd Mk 1. M[obliterated by shell-splinter gouge] 1917 [indecipherable] 6107
I'm not positive about that 6107, because the paint's super-thick over the preceding portion -- the first number could just as easily be a 3 or a 9.
Meanwhile, that's a bit more info for the grognards...
And my Lady Captain is *not* a romantic interest. She's one-third my age and actually *likes* the M9...
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �January 27, 2008
A moment of Gunner Zen.
These Redlegs of the 10th Mountain are living the dream... Direct Fire!
U.S. soldiers from 6th Field Artillery Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, fire a round from a howitzer during training at the Warrior Range in Kirkuk, Iraq, Jan.23, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Laura M. Buchta
A larger version of that photo can be had by clicking here.
For a small discussion on the return of direct fire - click here for Strategy Page.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �January 10, 2008
Gunner Zen
Soldiers from B Battery, "Banditos," 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, "Warrior," 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, prepare to fire the M777A2 Light Weight 155 mm Howitzer, Jan. 2, at Camp Taji, Iraq. The "Banditos" made history as the first Army unit to fire the cannon system in Iraq. (U.S. Army photo/Sgt. 1st Class Christina Bhatti)
Larger version of the photo available by clicking here.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �January 4, 2008
Gunner Zen.
The eld among us will remember when the MLRS was fielded, it was intended as an area-fire weapon designed to take out acres of advancing Warsaw Pact tanks and BMPs. Now it's a precision-fire weapon taking out single point targets.
Of course, it can *still* do the acres thing.
A Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System fires a 227 mm rocket at a building that insurgents were using to store explosives and a nearby weapons cache in the open desert near the northern-Iraqi city of Bayji, Dec. 27. It was confirmed the GMLRS from, Detachment 1, Alpha Battery, 2nd Battalion, 4th Field Artillery Regiment from Fort Sill, Okla., destroyed the target. Photo by Spc. Richard Rzepka 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs
Larger version available by clicking here.
Hmmmm. Wonder if there's any legal way to get some of those spacer pads as unique Iraq war artillery souvenirs? Prolly not. And troops, don't take silly risks trying, either - I bet those things will make a TSA explosives sniffer *howl* and the residues might be toxic, anyway. Be cool to score a 155mm primer or a 105mm cartridge case, and those can cover Afstan, too. Hmmm. Have we sent MLRS over to Afghanistan? HIMARs? Time for some rooting around to find out.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �December 17, 2007
Explosive news from the Marines.
First up - some "good training" at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia.
FORT A.P. HILL, Va. -- “Back blast area all secure … Rocket,” shouts Lance Cpl. Joseph P. Adams Jr. (center) and Pfc. Robert Challener (right), assaultmen, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, before a high explosive round is fired downrange, while Staff Sgt. Jerome Owens (top), platoon sergeant, 2nd Platoon, Company I, and range safety officer, shields his ears from the blast during a firing exercise here Dec. 1. Companies I, K and L participated in a Shoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon, or SMAW, exercise mainly aimed at familiarizing the junior Marines with employing it in combat situations. Photo by: Cpl. Chris Lyttle
Larger version here, if you want some wallpaper.
Next, over in theater... HIMARS debuted with the Marines this last year.
AL ASAD, Iraq (July 31, 2007) – Marines of Battery F, 2nd Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment launch rockets during a firing exercise. The HIMARS is the first of its kind in the Marine Corps and killed 25 enemy combatants and assisted in the capture of 47 more last month.
HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) is essentially MLRS-lite. While the MLRS, which initially fielded in the 80's is a large tracked vehicle based on Bradley components, the HIMARS takes a single MLRS "six-pack" of rockets and mounts them on a truck chassis - giving up the second six-pack carried by the MLRS. The HIMARS is cheaper to operate, faster over most types of terrain, and easier to move around strategically. MLRS was built for massed fires to stop the Soviet horde, and to operate in a very hostile counter-fire environment. HIMARS was developed to provide most of the firepower, at considerably reduced overall costs, while giving a greater strategic flexibility. Heh. If I sound like an advertisement, I was involved in some of the early studies that resulted in HIMARS getting built. Just as a sim-geek, not an idea guy.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �November 27, 2007
A little gunner zen...
Private First Class Jerry Cleveland (left) and Specialist Brett Mitchell, with the International Security Assistance Force, fire a 120 mm mortar during a combat operation in the Da'udzay Valley in Zabol Province, Afghanistan. Photo by Sergeant 1st Class Jim DownenReporting As Ordered, Sir! �
November 15, 2007
We need some Gunner Zen.
A friend of mine in Australia owns this (and several others, as well) 5.5 inch gun. And numerous other guns, too.
Wouldn't that just look spiffy out by the flagpoles of Argghhh!!!?
Oh, yeah.
It would.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �October 22, 2007
I can find a cannon anywhere.
Really. Even at Fort Rucker, home of Army Aviation. I actually had a much funnier post working until this farking connection blew up. I may change hotels.
October 21, 2007
Well, I can *usually* find a cannon when I travel...
...but I don't always find one actually firing.
Especially one manned by... pirates.
On land.
Nicely maintained Brooke Rifle, made by the Naval Ordnance Works, Selma, Alabama, in January of 1865. 5lbs of black powder. Overlooking the Chattahoochee at Port Columbus, Georgia.
And the reason this is all there's going to be from me today? Due to the astonishngly optimistically labeled "high-speed internet" at this place of accomodation, it took one full hour to get this posted. Near as I can tell, they got DSL, set up 4 wireless routers, and told 70 rooms full of computer geeks to hook up to their "high speed internet." Snerk. I think it ran almost normal at 2AM one morning. I'd have given you a larger version of the pic, but I could feel my arteries hardening and my joints stiffening as I waited. That and the dust bunny that collected by my feet.
I'm afraid I've got better things to do with my time than watch the Windoze Hourglass. And it's really not that, it's the loading bar on the browser...
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �September 29, 2007
A mix of Gunner's Zen and Karma...
If you get deep enough into collecting, you eventually meet up with some of the international arms collectors and dealers - most of whom make me look like a piker, as they're wrassling over... tanks and full size artillery pieces.
Here's some Gunner Zen and a Balance of Karma story from one of my buds in the biz.
I have had it for years. I fought the army 12 years ago to sell me three and some spares. During the procress they stole some of the spare barrels. I ripped into them and got them to ship to [deleted] for free, LOL, and then stored them at that base until I was ready to move them to my place. During the progress to this Port Arthur shooting happened and they wanted to deac my guns as they were not deac and they had put them out in the weather. The engineers skilled enough to deac the guns knew they were mine and refused. During the move down I removed the locks so when an officious army Lieutenant (I think you yanks call them shavetails) form ordnance went out with me to fight over the deac of the guns as they were still on army property. The night before they had rain... I arrived with tilt trucks to remove my guns then and there and to tell them to sod off from damaging them further, the shavetail saw the locks missing (not knowing I had them) and we fought for an hour on verbal issues. The engineers came down on my side saying they were sold to me as agreed and paid for and they were my property and he had no say. As he was outnumbered and getting put in his box he tried to save face pointing out the locks were missing and then went to open the breech that was shut. Even with lock missing it seals with a greased chamber and holds about 2 pints of water. As he went for the operating handle me and the engineers stood back as we all knew what was about to happen. Out of the chamber came the night's rainwater mixed with oil preservative and grease in a nice slurry that spewed all over his nice clean uniform. He was livid and it was the best we could do not to laugh. He had to report to the General of Log Command on his war with me afterwards and was screaming if anyone had clean uniform he could change into and I could "f--k off with my crap " as he stormed away to find showers etc.When we came back later to load the guns and spares and the engineers had a great time telling me how they hated him and it was local legend how I nailed the prick. Well, that is the gun that got him. The three guns were set in for parts for other guns and out the three I would make that one complete and sold the other two off.
Ironically the fellow who bought my tank has recently bought one and then another associate has bought the other so they have changed hands twice since I sold them.
...the fellow who bought my tank has recently bought one... Someday, if my Lottery Retirment Investment Plan plays out, I'll be able to off-hand drop a line like that!
That would look *sooooooooooo* good sitting there between the Castle flagstaffs.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �September 18, 2007
Speaking of the Castle...
Kat asks up in the H&I above when I'm going to move the German WWII K5 gun (or something similar) to the Castle. All I can say is, I don't have the rail spur in yet.
That doesn't mean there hasn't been some progress.
First off, Sergeant S'mudge had her first long weekend as Acting Commander of Castle Argghhh! and did just fine. All her rekeets survived, and based on their flying capabilities they demonstrated on Sunday, she drilled them while we were gone, and based on the growth, the Mess Hall was serving adequate chow.
Equally important, the Vault Door of the Arms Room of Argghhh! was delivered last Thursday, just in time to make us almost late for the plane to DC. Work on the Arms Room itself proceeds apace, this being an update from this morning - when the contractor's guys were there before 8AM.
And lastly, in partial answer to Kat's Koncerns... there *is* some firepower resident at the New Castle, as the migration continues piece by piece. We've got the close-in and medium range fires covered - we can hit anything we can see, and drop into the ravines and crevasses we can't.
September 12, 2007
The Armorer Gets Whatziss' too...
Such as this email I got yesterday.
This picture was taken in front of a former American Legion post in Key West. I have no clue what arty piece this is. No that fat guy is not Don Vitto. Just a out of shape doggy from the 1st Cav.
To which the Armorer responded:
Daniel - that's a US Model 1902 3-inch field gun - in need of some *real* TLC.
That was our first modern field gun with a hydro-pneumatic recoil system, developed in response to out getting punched in the nose by Spanish artillery during the Span-Am War.
They never saw any combat, since they were functionally almost identical to the French 75mm, but didn't have interchangeable ammunition (3 inch is 77mm) we chose to use the 3-incher stateside for training, and the artillery troops fell in on french guns "Over There." Saved us the shipping space for both guns and ammo during the war.
The commander of that post needs to be kneed in the groin for allowing that gun to get into that condition. But that's just an old artilleryman talking.
An old artilleryman who will happily hook up his trailer and head down that way to pick that gun up and give it a good home, if the boys of the VFW aren't going to take care of it.
I was wrong in my response, too, in that I forgot they did see combat, such as it was, during the Punitive Expedition to Mexico...
Of course, it's not like we haven't been over this ground before...
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �August 18, 2007
The Whatziss, revealed!
A Laurel, and Hearty Handshake to Old Fat Sailor and Mongo for getting it right. It is, indeed, a round for the WWI 3" Stokes mortar.
This woulda been your next clue if we'd needed one.
But OFS and Mongo took care of it.
Interesting method of fuzing, eh? Right before you hang and drop the round, you pulled the ring, inserted the round, and let it go - the lever flipped free as it cleared the tube, and off it went.
The Stokes mortar is essentially the first modern mortar. I could write a learned treatise here, but heck, real weapons geek Bruce Canfield has already done so - if you'd like to know more about the Stokes - simply click here.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �July 27, 2007
Snerk!
Hey izzit me, or are these guys older than the gun?
Union Civil War re-enactors from New York fire two-gun salutes with a Parrot rifle at the 90th anniversary celebration of Fort Dix, New Jersey, July 18.
Of course, they're all younger than Bill. Even the original guns...
Of course, a gun like that would look good snuggled between the Castle flagpoles...
Hi-res available here. If you want the original (about twice the size of the higher-res one) drop me an email.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �June 26, 2007
June 23, 2007
More gunner zen
This time, the breech end of the US 155mm Howitzer, M1918, a US-built version of the French Schneider 155mm gun.
Ahhhh. Nothing like an interrupted screw breech! Somebody make Maggie an appointment with her chiropractor. That probably spun her head so fast she pulled a muscle in her neck.
This gun was our standard medium howitzer at the end of WWI, and served through to WWII, with the M1918A3 "high speed" version (which had inflatable tires, vice the hard rubber you see here) seeing combat on Guadalcanal.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �June 22, 2007
Time for some Gunner Zen.
Italian 210mm gun firing at night.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �June 2, 2007
A little gunner zen.
The Russians built themselves some interesting artillery pieces - and still do.
But the B2/B19 series of 152mm howitzers and 203mm guns have always been in my fave list.
A side view, here.
The Museum of Artillery, Engineers, and Signal Corps, in the old Arsenal in Saint Petersburg is a place I need to get to before I die.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �March 26, 2007
Did someone say battleship?
Oh, yeah, I did.
Yo, Salamander - Neener neener neener!
Heh. I might find apartment living tolerable if that was the view out of my balcony (there are apartments out of frame to the right).
I see the Marines just *had* to do some advertising. Undoubtedly, this is a turret that had a Marine crew.
She certainly does dominate her environment, doesn't she?
However, Nauticus (the overall museum that operates the Wisconsin) there is NO EXCUSE for this abuse of fine artillery pieces, even if they are just used as salute guns or decorations. None whatsoever. My inner gunner zen was seriously perturbed by this sight...
Shame!
Then there's this - funny sculpture in Cincinnati's airport...
March 10, 2007
Yesterday's Whatziss...
The Land-Locked Sailor Gun Dealer (though there is a salt-water body nearby, it simply has no outlet to the sea), John S, was correct. It is in fact the fuze train of a black-powder time fuze (in this case, French) from the 1880-1918 era. Of course, he was also wrong. Because it's been an ashtray a lot longer than it ever served as a fuze...
Anyway, a fuze much like these. In fact, the fat one on the incomplete rusty relic (second from the right) is identical.
John's description was correct - a black powder fuze train filled those grooves.
First, take a spindle. Then, add the made-from-lead spiral, like this.
Lastly, then, wrap that in a thin lead sheet or wax-paper cover (needs to be waterproof) and put a calibrated cap on it, marked with burn times, so that the cannoneer can use his awl and punch a hole corresponding to the time of flight before detonating, whether for a shrapnel shell, high-explosive air burst, or illuminating round. The way it works is - you punch the hole, load the round, fire it, and the 'blow-by' hot gases when the round exits the muzzle ignite the fuze train. usually. Not always, especially if you are firing lower charges. Lastly, wrap it in a thin lead sheet to water proof the whole shebang until needed. Yes, this would be an *added* lead sheath - like this.
Or, you could remove the powder, take off the cap and powder train, invert them, stack 'em on the spindle, put a screw through it to hold 'em in place, and you could make a souvenir of service trench art ashtray out of it.
Like the one that sits on the Militaria Bar of Argghhh!...
February 16, 2007
It's Black History Month...
...so let's note that in a typical Armorer fashion.
The history of the Armed Services relationship with African Americans is generally not one of which to be proud. We've come a long way since Truman told us to shut up and integrate, and there is always room for improvement now, as, despite protestations to the contrary, initial entry troops are reflective of society in general, if perhaps not it's most *koff* elite elements.
I remember real tensions in the Europe during the 60's and early 70's, and ghosts still rippling through when I was a Lieutenant in the 80's. And I'm not so naive as to think it doesn't still exist - but we're a pretty tough meritocracy compared to most other sub-cultures.
I have nothing but love and respect for soldiers. But I'll admit I have a smidge more for soldiers who ruck up and move out and fight while having to take fire from their own side. Theirs is a special dedication that springs from the same well the bonds of all good soldiery - but are forged in a greater heat with a heavier hammer.
Such as these 7 soldiers from WWII.
Maj. Charles L. Thomas, of Detroit
First Lt. John R. Fox, of Cincinnati, Ohio
Staff Sgt. Ruben Rivers, of Oklahoma City, Okla.
Staff Sgt. Edward A. Carter Jr., of Los Angeles
Pfc. Willy F. James Jr., of Kansas City, Mo.
Pvt. George Watson, of Birmingham, Ala.
1LT James Baker of St Maries, Idaho.
Since I know many people don't click through on the links - I'm excerpting the ARNEWs article on the awarding these soldiers Medals of Honor in the Flash Traffic/Extended Entry. It's old news, from 1997, but that doesn't matter. It's never too late to honor heroes.
A machine gun crew of Co. A, 24th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, turns its gun on Chinese Communists in a village across the Han River from Songnimbong, Korea. 21 February 1951. (Signal Corps Photo #358634)
Flash Traffic (extended entry) Follows � Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �February 13, 2007
Wrapping up that 38cm German gun.
Bill said it was a railway gun. I said it wasn't. We're both right. It was moved by rail (how else, especially back in the day?) but was assembled into a purpose-built emplacement. The emplacement was concrete, and took weeks to construct. They were substantial enough that they still exist. [Interesting article on several large german guns here.] There was a central pintle for the gun (which answers Trias' question about training the gun for direction) and, as can be seen in the picture above, used little railcars to move the projectiles and powder from the preparation site to the gun proper, where they were hoisted to the firing deck by means of the crane.
Just take a look at the number of men it took to crew these guns - and wonder if those things weren't resources better used elsewhere. And obviously, not a weapon of maneuver warfare. Of course, it's a lesson the Germans didn't take to heart, what with the Dora 80cm gun they used (for, oh, 45 rounds or so) during WWII. The one that took 2000 men to crew and 26 trainloads to move around, and two weeks to assemble. And shot 45 rounds...
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �February 12, 2007
More Gunner's Zen, Large German Cannon edition.
German 38cm gun going into position. This gun shelled Verdun and Dunkirk. It's a naval gun, one a railway carriage, which was railed into position and then emplaced in a circular pit, where it could pivot to fire on different targets.
Reporting As Ordered, Sir! �