Artillery Museum CFB Shilo, Manitoba

Shelldrake wrote:

We put a big wooden pole (The name escapes me) in either side of the trail, lifted it up and manoeuvred it where required - we were young and fit in those days!

Ta ! Big wooden pole seems to suffice......... Only came across a 5.5 once and that was when I was on a course at the Army MT School in Borden. We watched ........from a distance as a Gunner might have been dragged in...... when a gang of REME lads were hitching it up to a Matador. On tarmac it seemed to be easy enough to lift the trail ....( without a wooden pole) ...... when the thing was nicely balanced over the axle.

Just remembered, they were called "Handspikes" and they could have been metal!!

Shelldrake wrote:

We put a big wooden pole (The name escapes me) in either side of the trail, lifted it up and manoeuvred it where required - we were young and fit in those days!

BIG WOODEN POLE ?
Dear oh dear !
I'm pretty sure the handspikes were wooden on the 5.5 and definitely metal on the 25pdr.
It was quite common, in my old mob, that a fireplan would involve big switches. When such a thing happened bodies, from the command post and other hidey-holes around the gun position, were rushed to the guns to help drag them to point in the new direction.

It's gratifying to see that, seemingly, this site has been taken over by members of the Royal Regiment, when it was once dominated by Scaleys.......... And what has become of Gordon ?

Yes, it has gone quiet hasn't it ?
Could it be that they're observing some sort of Scaley Ramadan ?

A Regiment of 5.5in guns in straight(ish) line deployment in what could be Larkhill. Nearest to the camera, behind the first gun, is a Handspike - looks like it is wooden.

I did a short stint on them in Pembroke Dock hard work got soaked when it rained. A champ pulled up next to our gun I spied a signaler in the back all dry with headsets on and thought that's my next move. I retrospect a bad move because promotion was with the guns

All this GUNS business is new to us scaleys as we never came anywhere close to them in the field. I think you must have provided your own signals (voice) as you mentioned the 19 set and possibly the 52 set. So I am amazed.

BAOR(27CIB)
Great picture Shelldrake and I would think a rare one as well with the guns deployed in an almost wheel to wheel alignment. I tried counting the guns with great difficulty and came to ca 16. I have never witnessed anything larger than a battery shoot in Canada with the RCA(M).
Gnr Ritter

Troop Shoot
Bty. Shoot
Regt. Shoot
C.O's Shoot, his ammo was lost some where on the train system. Not a happy chappy.

Dulaigh wrote:

All this GUNS business is new to us scaleys as we never came anywhere close to them in the field. I think you must have provided your own signals (voice) as you mentioned the 19 set and possibly the 52 set. So I am amazed.

We were (are) very self sufficient, Dulaigh, bit like the Guards we had our own Signallers and Cooks (albeit a butcher). We used to have our own Gun fitters but we allowed them to transfer to the REME to allow them to expand a little!

Shelldrake wrote:

A Regiment of 5.5in guns in straight(ish) line deployment in what could be Larkhill. Nearest to the camera, behind the first gun, is a Handspike - looks like it is wooden.

Larkhill ! Here's me thinking it was "a gun position in NW Europe".
The area looks like a rubbish tip, people are standing around with their hands in their pockets and (I think), I counted 17 guns.
Absolute SHOWER !

ritter wrote:

BAOR(27CIB)
Great picture Shelldrake and I would think a rare one as well with the guns deployed in an almost wheel to wheel alignment. I tried counting the guns with great difficulty and came to ca 16. I have never witnessed anything larger than a battery shoot in Canada with the RCA(M).
Gnr Ritter

Thanks Bob, I also made it 16, wonder where the other two went (Unless they were Pistol Guns!!). I recall in the 60s and early 70s, on completion of a 6 week Practice Camp, we would have a Fire Power Demonstration comprising all the Div Arty, a stirring sight to behold! Civilian and Military (Including representatives from SOXMIS) luminaries were invited to observe. This was normally followed by a formal Lunch in the Field.

brum wrote:

Shelldrake wrote:

A Regiment of 5.5in guns in straight(ish) line deployment in what could be Larkhill. Nearest to the camera, behind the first gun, is a Handspike - looks like it is wooden.

Larkhill ! Here's me thinking it was "a gun position in NW Europe".
The area looks like a rubbish tip, people are standing around with their hands in their pockets and (I think), I counted 17 guns.
Absolute SHOWER !

Probably been there since first light waiting for the OPs to get out of their Jim Jams and empty their hot water bottles!!

Dulaigh wrote:

All this GUNS business is new to us scaleys as we never came anywhere close to them in the field. I think you must have provided your own signals (voice) as you mentioned the 19 set and possibly the 52 set. So I am amazed.

We had to "provide our own signals", they couldn't find a scaley who was fast enough to handle Fire Orders.
They even let us have C45/B47s as well !

[quote="Shelldrake"]

ritter wrote:

BAOR(27CIB)
Great picture Shelldrake and I would think a rare one as well with the guns deployed in an almost wheel to wheel alignment. I tried counting the guns with great difficulty and came to ca 16. I have never witnessed anything larger than a battery shoot in Canada with the RCA(M).
Gnr Ritter

I recall in the 60s and early 70s, on completion of a 6 week Practice Camp, we would have a Fire Power Demonstration comprising all the Div Arty, a stirring sight to behold!

You should've been at the OP end mate !

brum wrote:

Dulaigh wrote:

All this GUNS business is new to us scaleys as we never came anywhere close to them in the field. I think you must have provided your own signals (voice) as you mentioned the 19 set and possibly the 52 set. So I am amazed.

We had to "provide our own signals", they couldn't find a scaley who was fast enough to handle Fire Orders.
They even let us have C45/B47s as well !

And if you were serving with a Missile Regiment we had BID 150.

[quote="brum"]

Shelldrake wrote:

The area looks like a rubbish tip, people are standing around with their hands in their pockets and (I think), I counted 17 guns.
Absolute SHOWER !

Very scruffy ! Didn't like to mention it in case it was SOP for long range shooters. Bet there was a big bang if they let off a salvo together.

Shelldrake wrote:

We put a big wooden pole (The name escapes me) in either side of the trail, lifted it up and manoeuvred it where required - we were young and fit in those days!

Thinking about the trouble you had to traverse the 5.5 with your wooden poles had me thinking in a quiet, rainy moment. Taking my refs info of the built in traverse for the barrel as 30 degrees left or right of centre, and seeing max.range is given as 18,000 yards with 80lb projectiles, I applied some of that TARA stuff which is of limited use to me now.

60 degrees X 18 (1,000 yds) X 17 yards per degree subtended = 18,360 yds

So in theory a 5.5 could drop some hate in a triangular bit of ground 18.000 yards long with a base of 18,360 yards. That seems to limit your pole drill somewhat, but equally, if a layer was just one degree out when he traversed the thing, the shell could be 306 yards wide of target at max. range.

[quote="cartav", if a layer was just one degree out when he traversed the thing, the shell could be 306 yards wide of target at max. range.[/quote]


And that, my dear cartav, would be a very serious offence, not to mention very unprofessional on the part of the Layer which could be why we still hear apocryphal stories about "Drop shorts"!

Remembering radio procedures for fire orders back in 1964
Mike target,mike target, mike target we Americanized that became Fire mission Regiment

Clansman
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Have you not got a bigger photograph, Jack?

Shelldrake wrote:

Have you not got a bigger photograph, Jack?

I was concerned about your eyesight Brian ......I did reduce from 3.5 mb obviously not enough

There is a military day at Weybourne camp tomorrow I will see what video I can take


5.5

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C42 in a Saracen CP



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