6 inch 26 cwt Howitzer

[RobL]

Entering service in late 1915 and replacing the 6 inch 30 cwt (the cwt number refers to the weight of the barrel and breech together). For anyone interested in this weapon I highly reccommend 'London Gunners', the story of the Honourable Artillery Company RGA Battery in the Great War, sold by Naval & Military Press, one of my favourite WW1 books. 1918 built example but modernised in the 1930's with pneumatic tyres and new wheels and served into WW2

[nigelfe]

Amusingly the example shown above was only used c.1930 and not in WW2 nor in WW1. As any fule no in the 1930s they were modified to have Probert pattern calibrating sights as well as pneumatic typres and vehicle towing with brakes to match. The example shown lacks the Probert sights so represnts something in service for a few years in the early 1930s. IWM needs to try harder.

[Mike_H]

Nigel

Not the IWM, they don't have a 6" 26 cwt in their collection, (As any fule no)

[RobL]

It's at the Royal Artillery Museum - I don't think they're trying to portray it as a WW2 gun, just my captioning

[Modelmaker]

Gents,

As a new member, I am going through old posts, I came across this......though over a year old I may perhaps shed some light.

The gun is indeed at the Firepower museum Woolwich, its provenance is in some doubt, as it has the revised axletree, braking system.

I understand that another example of this gun is on display in South Africa........as part of 6 that were sent to SA after WW1, as gate guardians.....at the onset of WW2, the gune were mosified to take pneumatic tyres to enable them to be towed by motorised transport.....the original artillery wheels limited road speeds to 4mph.....those fitted with pneumatic tyres could now be towed at a breathtaking 20mph. Conversion kits manufactured in the UK were sent to SA, to enable the guns to be converted.......this example was originally in SA but the museum swapped it for 4.5" howitzer. They already have a 4.5" in their collection which has the WW1 artillery wheels (I photographed it). Another 4.5" is (was) in the Muckleburgh collection, this example has the Martin Parry conversion to enable pneumatic tyred wheels to be fitted.....this adaptor was a stub axle attached to the original axle, it hung down enabling smaller diameter wheels to be fitted but kept the barrel at the same height. Larkhill has (had) another 6" 26cwt howitzer of inter-war period, also converted with the Martin Parry axle......this gun is currently undergoing restoration, it was suffering from a very bad attack of rust moth.....like most Larkhill exhibits, it was kept outside......this paticular gun a MkI PA, is as far as I know, the only one in existence.