NEW BRITISH ARTILLERY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 79, 27 December 1940, Page 2

NEW BRITISH ARTILLERY

The 25 Pounder and the 4.5 in.

our artillery which are not on the "secret" list are the 25pounder and the 4.5-inch guns, says the military correspondent of the "Observer." The former is familiarly known as the "gun-how," for it is capable of doing both the work of the flat trajectory gun and the high trajectory howitzer. The gun is a weapon that fires a high velocity shell which describes a flat curve in the air before it reaches its target. The howitzer is used for firing over high obstacles and its shell is projected high in the air so that it falls at a steep angle. A Dual Weapon A dual weapon is also the 4.5-inch gun which now takes the place of the old 60-pounders in the medium artillery regiments. Like the 25-pounder it can be used either as a gun or a howitzer by altering the weight of the charge of powder that is put behind the shell. Many old gunners say good-bye to the 60-pounder with regret, for it is a weapon for which those who worked it had a considerable affection. But all who have used the new 4.5-inch gun say it is remarkably good value. The new drill, which aims at opening fire rapidly and covering an area with the maximum weight of metal in the ‘shortest possible time, is often referred to as a German idea. As a matter of fact the School of Gunnery has been insisting on the value of opening fire very quickly for a number of years past. Its ideal has been rapidity and accuracy combined. Long-range guns partake of the nature of howitzers, though they are true guns. They throw their projectiles very high in the air in order to make use of the low air resistance in the upper strata of the atmosphere. The lower the air resistance the farther the projectile will travel before it strikes the earth. Air resistance can also be cut down by sharpening the nose of the shell and by tapering its tail to give it a "streamline" shape. most recent additions to Firing by Prediction Gunners can seldom see their targets, and usually work by " prediction." That is, they know exactly where their targets are, and lay their guns by reference to the map, taking into account such important matters as wind and atmospheric conditions-that is, whether it is hot or cold or the barometer is high or low. Firing by prediction has reached its highest form in the work of the antiaircraft guns. With these important weapons the whole art is to project your shell in such a direction and set its fuse for such a rate of burning that the enemy ’plane will meet the shell just as it bursts in the air. Since no human brain can work swiftly enough to do the several complicated mathematical sums in time to

get the shot away before the enemy has departed, all the calculations are performed instantaneously by gears and cog-wheels contained within a big btack metal box. All that is necessary is to keep the telescopic sights of the " predictor" on the enemy ’plane and the correct answer is given to the guns. Though the " predictor" does most of the work, the crews of the guns and the predictors have to be highly trained. The weak link used to be the instrument and crew responsible for measuring the height at which the target was flying. Recently, however, there have been big improvements. The Barrage Anti-aircraft fire can be used to try to score direct hits, or to put up a "barrage "’-a wall of bursting shell at many different heights through which the enemy will find great difficulty in flying unharmed. A combination of the two methods is frequently used with considerable effect, A recent addition to the family of guns used in our Army is the twopounder anti-tank gun. This did great work in France and Belgium, and proved its value over and over again. Crews working these guns are now constantly at practice improving their technique, so that they will be ready for either defence or attack. They, and all gunners, hope it will be attack.