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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Siege Gun Platforms.


jasmor58

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A friend in Belgium has come across a concrete platform 3 x 3 meters and 50cm thick. This is on a site where it is known that 154 Siege Battery were located in 1918. Question is....could this be a platform to support a 9.2 inch howitzer? How common was it to construct such platforms? Any assistance or information would be greatly appreciated.

Jasmor58

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There's an Osprey Book by Dale Clark on British Artillery 1914-1919 which I've spotted as a Google Book - ie a preview and therefore not complete, but it does talk about an idea of mounting some siege howitzers on quick-drying concrete platforms - although I had always assumed that wooden platforms were used

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If you could give me an exact date and place I could check the unit history, but I doubt that it was a mount for a 9.2" howitzer. The photo of a 9.2 howitzer in the unit history definitely shows it on a wooden mounting and in discussing the battery's position at Zillebeke it is mentioned that the battery misappropriated a large amount of cement from their reserve position to build a concrete pill-box near the firing battery for protection of the gunners during enemy bombardments. In this discussion it is mentioned that "the fact that cement was available in large quantities for building dugouts behind the lines, while we in the battery were forbidden to use it, was a source of continual 'grouse.'"

Regards, Dick Flory

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Dick,

I have a copy of M.C. Walker's history. On page 53, he also states "We overcame this difficulty by removing each night to the battery a large proportion of the cement dumped at the reserve position by the sappers in the daytime. This enabled work to be carried out on both places"

I too have always believed that the mounting for the guns was of wood. However, this concrete platform, I am told , has the remains of duckboard leading up to it. Seems very strange, if not a platform, what could it be?

Jasmor58

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Yes, that statement is on the same page as my quote, but it appears to relate only to building a 'pill-box.' Regards, Dick Flory

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Hi all

Forgive my ignorance, where were 154 Siege Battery in Belgium in 1918?. I've recently seen a photo of a "30,5cm/M11" (the other side) Mortar mounted on a concrete base with similar size. I think this was near Liege.

Regards Barry

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Might it be the top of a pill-box/dugout used for protection of either the personnel or their ammunition against counter-battery fire?

Ron

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The same Osprey book mentioned actually uses diagrams and photographs of an actual 9.2 How OF 154 SB to illustrate their platforms and camouflage during 1917. I cannot see how 3 metres length would be long enough for a 9.2; you only have to look at the illustration on your commemorative plaque to judge.

Rgds Paul

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