12 inch howitzer

[Lambton]

Greetings from Canada,

I've browsed the forum looking for information, photographs depicting the Vickers MK 1 and 2 howitzers of 12 inch caliber, but as yet have not seen any.

My grandfather served as a gunner with this equipment from 1916 to the end of the great war.

He joined the R.G.A. at 34 years of age and of small stature.

This siege battery piece to my thinking is no small weapon, let alone it's shells and auxilliary equipment.

In a complement of 140+ men where would he have been utilized?

I want to thank everyone who have taken the time to assist in my quest of learning about my relatives contribution to the 85th. heavy trench mortar battery.

Pictures and an understanding of how all the pieces of this particular armament were utilized would be appreciated.

Lambton Regiment

[KennethB]

Lambton,

A bit small, but a 12" in action during the Somme. No descripton to denote if a Mk I or Mk II

Ken

[Old Tom]

A little more about the 12" how. My notes refer to the Mk 2 and the Mk 4. Both fired a 750 lb HE shell; the Mk 2 to 11,300 yds and the Mk 4 (longer barrel) to 14,300 yds. Like the 9.2 how these pieces were mounted on a platform that was stablised with a container filled with earth.

Old Tom

[centurion]

I think this is the mount in transit

[SiegeGunner]

Are you sure that isn't the mount for the COW 15" howitzer, Centurion?

[centurion]

Are you sure that isn't the mount for the COW 15" howitzer, Centurion?

Fosters who were the original source described them as towing the 12 inch mounting

[SiegeGunner]

The 'trains' of Foster Daimler 105hp tractors and special trucks designed by Admiral Bacon's team at COW were built to move the 15" howitzers and were also used on the Belgian coast to move naval guns for Bacon's RN Siege Guns unit and the associated RMA Heavy Siege Train. Does the Foster source specifically say 12" howitzers, or could this be the purpose-build land mounting for one of the 12" naval guns installed in the coastal sector? Is the presence of a sailor on the leading tractor in one of the photos significant?

[David B]

As usual I am a little confused. Could someone please explain what the abbreviation COW is, and are the photos in Centurions post Foster Daimler 105 HP tractors ?

David

[SiegeGunner]

COW = Coventry Ordnance Works, David, and yes, the tractors in Centurion's photos are 105hp Foster Daimlers.

[David B]

Thanks Mick, sometimes these abbreviations confuse the old colonial boy.

David

[Old Tom]

The mounting pictures are fine, the mount shown appears to me, I'm no expert, to be too large for siege artillery. The suggestion of a mount for a naval piece seems more likely. The use of the term 12" by Fosters might not refer to a howitzer, it could be a naval gun. It would be interesting to have a difinitive answer.

Old Tom

[SiegeGunner]

The land mountings for the 12" and 9.2" naval guns emplaced on the Belgian coast were adapted by Vickers from the mounts for the 15" COW howitzer. I think Centurion's photos may show the transportation from Dunkerque, by tractor trains borrowed from RMA 15" howitzer units, of the mountings for the 12" naval gun that was installed at St Joseph's Farm in Adinkerke. There is a photo in Admiral Bacon's 'Dover Patrol' of a train of three Foster Daimler tractors and two of the same trucks transporting the barrel of that gun.