Hoplophile Posted 27 March , 2011 Share Posted 27 March , 2011 Research into the phenomenon of the "mobile heavy gun" in the years before 1914 has led to contemplation of the 30-pounder BL gun. This, in turn, has led to the question of the effectiveness of the recoil system of the piece. Developed at a time when guns that were slightly larger were invariably anchored to platforms, the 30-pounder BL seems to have been free of such encumbrance. This suggests that the recoil system that connected the gun to its carriage was pretty good. Can anyone provide any evidence that this was the case? Or, was the failure of the recoil system to live up to expectations one of the reasons that the 30-pounder BL was never produced in large numbers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnreed Posted 27 March , 2011 Share Posted 27 March , 2011 Which country developed this Gun, I can find no reference to this type of gun. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoplophile Posted 27 March , 2011 Author Share Posted 27 March , 2011 The "30-Pounder BL" was a British gun, developed in the 1890s in response to a request from the Indian Army. It's described on pages 92 and 93 of Hogg and Thurston's British Artillery Weapons and Ammunition, 1914-1918 (London: Ian Allen, 1972) and p. 336 of the Ordnance College Textbook on Gunnery (London: HMSO, 1902) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete1052 Posted 27 March , 2011 Share Posted 27 March , 2011 Bruce, that was a very professional citation of your sources. You know what, you ought to consider writing a book one of these days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoplophile Posted 28 March , 2011 Author Share Posted 28 March , 2011 Thank you! As for the writing of books, it is a form of madness! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelfe Posted 29 March , 2011 Share Posted 29 March , 2011 Couldn't find a mention in Hogg, but Callwell and Headlam in Vol 1 of the RA History give it a brief mention. Basically it originated with Roberts when he was CinC as a result of his experience in Afghanistan and the need to knock down solid mud walls. It replaced the 40-pr RML. Given that we're talking c. 1890 then I don't think a travelling carriage would have had a recoil system, at this time these were still big and limited to seige and coast mountings. Perhaps some sort of spade arrangements. Gun technology, particularly carriages was improving fast at this time so by 1905 it would have been well and truly obsolete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoplophile Posted 29 March , 2011 Author Share Posted 29 March , 2011 Many thanks for the information. In "it's a small world department", I was reading Headlam's History of the Royal Artillery, but volume II rather than volume I. Now, for the pièce de résistance ... Can anyone tell me how much the carriage weighed? Hogg and Thurston provide a weight for the gun, but not the combination of gun and carriage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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