Artillery Museum CFB Shilo, Manitoba

My old Regiment firing a Feu de joi at Hopton Barracks, Devizes, 1969/1970.

"Look this way and I will give you a complete demonstration of the movement".

Dee Z wrote:

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


5.5

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A drop of Brasso wouldn't go amiss on those handwheels, etc.

(see "Feu de joie" below).

The thing is, that when ear defenders are essential when using those
piddling 5.56mm shooters they have now, nobody gave a toss about the effect
of the big stuff in the '50s. All we got was "Don't flinch lad, it's only a bang ! "
and some plastic plugs which stayed in the bottom of the kit bag.

Dee Z wrote:

C42 in a Saracen CP



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That's an ordinary Saracen, Dee Z. The Armoured Command post RA had a different setup for the commander.

That radio setup is a bit unorthodox, I wonder how the driver felt, having a bleedin' great ATU stuffed into his R/H hatch ?

cartav wrote:

The thing is, that when ear defenders are essential when using those
piddling 5.56mm shooters they have now, nobody gave a toss about the effect
of the big stuff in the '50s. All we got was "Don't flinch lad, it's only a bang ! "
and some plastic plugs which stayed in the bottom of the kit bag.

Eh?

I heard that ! (Pardon ?)

Shelldrake wrote:

My old Regiment firing a Feu de joi at Hopton Barracks, Devizes, 1969/1970.

(Whew ! I'm not saying this picture's gone wide but I had to stand in next door's garden to find the "quote" button !).

Anyroad up.
Shelldrake old top, can you think of a reason why each of the guns depicted has its dial sight box placed neatly by the l/h wheel ?

brum wrote:

Shelldrake wrote:

My old Regiment firing a Feu de joi at Hopton Barracks, Devizes, 1969/1970.

(Whew ! I'm not saying this picture's gone wide but I had to stand in next door's garden to find the "quote" button !).

Anyroad up.
Shelldrake old top, can you think of a reason why each of the guns depicted has its dial sight box placed neatly by the l/h wheel ?

Presumably to let the Inspecting Officer see that they had all been painted and were lined up in a Smart, Soldierlike and Uniform manner!! C'mon, you know how the Gunners work.

brum wrote:

(Whew ! I'm not saying this picture's gone wide but I had to stand in next door's garden to find the "quote" button !).

Gott sei dank ! Thought the PC was on the blink.......... Must be some Scaley trick
to disrupt comms & block the most enthralling thread in yonks...........

Was it difficult to clean those barrels after firing ?

Loads of "four by two" and a great big pull through did the trick !

Dulaigh wrote:

Was it difficult to clean those barrels after firing ?

Blood, sweat and tears!!

brum wrote:

Loads of "four by two" and a great big pull through did the trick !

Don't be cruel ! It's a serious question !

War service lads I was with in a 25pdr TA regt used to collect up bits of silver paper and the like
from fag packets, choccy bars etc. A wad shoved in between the last shot of the day & the propellant scooped some of the muck from the barrel they said, then it was boiling water from the cauldron which had been simmering away on the firing point. I never got involved......too busy with arty boards & stuff in the CP,

Did the barrel come up nice and silver when you finished ?

Don't remember any silver paper just plenty of boiling water and cotton waste.

Dulaigh wrote:

Did the barrel come up nice and silver when you finished ?

It had to be ! But for "you" in your query read "they"........... I never went the things. Heavy, noisy & hard work . It had been different with the Bofors, The BC wanted all classified marksmen, whatever their trade, to have some experience as layers. With a Bren clipped on the barrel we shot at balloons and radio controlled targets and could see what you were hitting. Or missing which was mpre often the case.

Thank you.

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.

Not too obvious from the picture, but each of those 80/100lb rounds came with a Drive Band Protector. A creation of rope and canvas, there was also, as part of it, a brass buckle of the same dimensions as the ones found on the '38 pattern webbing.
To use the jargon of the day, it was really "sweaty" to have a belt, threaded with as many as possible of the aforementioned buckles.
Apart from looking good, (probably "cool" in today's patois), this also became a very nasty weapon.
It was not a wise move to call the Gunners "Planks" in those days !

[Quote] Shelldrake

Don't remember any silver paper just plenty of boiling water & cotton waste.
[quote]

Maybe when the old & bold had been in the desert water for boiling and chucking down 25 pdr barrels might have been in short supply and some clever sod dreamed up the silver paper dodge. Anyway, the Nos.1 collected silver paper from the first day of firing camp until all had a big ball of the stuff. Go on ! Tell me there'd be a shortage of silver paper in the desert too........ I only tell it like I saw it, every No1, war service and later entrants, had a wad of silver paper. Whether it worked or not, they though it did. But I'm also reminded of another incident.......

The town were putting on some sort of pageant, the TA gunners were to have a slot in proceedings. In a dark recess of the drill hall there were two 6 pdr brass cannon from the mid 17 hundreds, it was decided to dress up in some old kit & fire them once more at the display. A dummy run was arranged, they'd be stuffed with a thunderflash hooked up to some det cord which could be ignited through the touch hole in the back end. Everybody watched expectantly on the drill night, he who had nicked the det cord applied a match. Go off, it certainly did, and being inside the bang was better than expected. What hadn't been foreseen was that the barrel had been a handy place for depositing all the sweeping ups from 70 years back. Shredded paper, bits of Pt. One orders going back to when the place was built in 1890s floated down in an artificial snow storm. Cheers and giggles all round until someone dictated cleaning would replace trg that night.