60 Pounder, Technicalities

[RodB]

Hi Tom,

Regards the quick release of the recuperator piston rods from the breach-ring, as stated in post #7, this allowed the barrel to be drawn back into the battery position for transport, distributing the weight of the gun over both the gun wheels and the limber wheels.

Attached is a photo of a 60pr on MkII carriage in 1916 on the Somme using 12 horse draught. This has the entire gun load on the gun wheels increasing the bogging problem and also needing extra sandbags on the end of the trail as a precaution against the gun over balancing and lifting the limber.

For the technical purist – the manuals call the wheeled vehicle lifting the trail a “Carriage” not a limber. It only has accommodation for 2 projectiles and 2 cartridges and the 1921 manual has an instruction that it is not to carry any ammunition. Ammunition is actually carried in a “limbered wagon”, that is a limber that looks a bit like an 18pr limber and a 2-wheeled towed wagon that looks like the 4.5-inch howitzer ammunition wagon.

Regards

Ross T

Going by the 18-pounder manual, I think the formal term for the two-wheeled device that supported the trail was "Limber, carriage" (Carriage limber in normal English), and forward part of the two-wheel ammo wagon was "Limber, wagon". Dunno what a driver under fire called them.

Rod