9.2" Siege Howitzer

[Old Tom]

I wonder if anyone can tell us about the history of this piece which has been described as one of, if not the, most effective piece of artillery in the war. I understand that in general, although, the Boer War had shown the advantages of indirect fire, the field artillery included the 4.5" howitzer, but in smaller quantities than the 18 pounder. And, when the BEF deployed there were few 'medium' howitzers, the 6". During the war some 800 9.2s were produced together with many of larger calibre. It features in the RA memorial in London.

However, as one protype 9.2 (Mother), was available in 1914 the design and presumably a requirement of some sort - as for the 18 pr and the 4.5 - must have been prepared well before the war. It was, of course, a piece of siege artillery and was certainly not suitable for the mobile warfare that was envisaged. Unless the reduction of fortifications or forts was considered a possibility. Or, as an RGA equipment was it intended to be a static defence weapon i.e part of a fortification.

Some informed thoughts would be appreciated.

Old Tom

[Hoplophile]

The 9.2-inch howitzer was, indeed, designed to be employed as a piece of seige artillery and, in particular, a replacement for the 240^mm siege howitzers purchased from the Skoda works during the Boer War. That said, the godfather of the program, Master General of the Ordnance Sir Stanley B. Von Donop, held a broad view of the definition of "siege artillery." That is, he seems to have imagined situations in which siege artillery might be used to deal with obstacles rather than fully-fledged fortress complexes, e.g. field fortifications, smaller forts, and the like.

The tale of the development of this piece can be found in the semi-annual issues of the Extracts from Proceedings of the Royal Artillery Committee. These, in turn, can be found at the National Archives at Kew, in a box marked SUPP 6/544. For a broader view of the development of heavy pieces under the supervision of Von Donop, see Sir John Headlam, The History of the Royal Artillery, Volume II (1899-1914), pp. 261-62.

[Mick D]

I thought some of these big howitzers were designed to be ship mounted for attacking coastal targets.

Mick

[jay dubaya]

For many years 9.2in had been a popular calibre with the British services, and when the Coventry Ordnance Works were approached in about 1910 to construct an experimental heavy siege howitzer for field use, they probably were not surprised to be asked to make it a 9.2in model. The prototype they delivered was a robust and well thought-out design, based on a segment shaped ground platform built up from girder sections. on top of this sat the gun carriage proper, pivoting on a roller race, and traversed by a toothed sector at the rear. The recoil system was a hydro-pneumatic type in which the liquid and compressed air were kept apart by a 'floating piston'; this was the first application of this type of recoil system, and it's success under field conditions led to its adoption for the majority of British weapons in later years. The only drawback to the equipment as a whole was that since it had been kept short, in order to ease the transport problem, there was a distinct danger of it rearing up from the ground when firing at low angles of elevation, and to prevent this a large earth box was assembled on the front end of the platform to act as an anchor. When the gun had been assembled in place, the first job of the detatchment was to shovel 9ton of earth into this box; and of course, when moving it had to be shovelled out again.

The first equipment was taken to the Siege Artillery range at Rhayader and put through its paces, with good results. The design was approved in July, 1914 but in fact manufacture had begun before then since guns with the engraving' RGF' (Royal Gun Factory) 1913' on the breech ring have been seen. In November 1914 the prototype was sent to France, where it saw its first major action at Neuve Chapelle, and was christened 'Mother'. Manufacture was speeded up, and by the end of 1916 no less than 233 of these equipments had been delivered.

For transport, the equipment was broken down into three sections and each was carried on a wagon. The barrel and breech formed one unit weighing 5ton 5cwt; the cradle and recoil system were the second, weighing 5ton 10cwt; and the ground platform or bedplate formed the third unit, weighing 4ton 5cwt. With the ground platform removed piecemeal and assembled, the carriage section was then drawn across and lowered from its wheels into the pivot, and then the barrel transport wagon could be winched up and locked in place to allow the barrel to be winched into the cradle.

Although an effective weapon, it was soon seen that more range would be an asset; there was no hope of improving its performance, and so a fresh design had to be started. But later versions did not surpplant the Mk I, which remained in service throughout the war.

edit; extracted from Hogg's 'British Artillery Weapons 1914-1918

[rflory]

An article entitled "British Heavy and Siege Batteries in France - August 1914 to November 1914" by Major A. F. Becke in the Journal of the Royal Artillery, volume 50, p 161-181 discusses "Mother" and its service with 8th Siege Battery, RGA.

The 9.2" Howitzer known as "Mother" was approved in July 914 and during the same month she carried out firing trials at Rhayader. After the trials "Mother' was left at Rhayader railway station in care of the local police until eventually being sent by rail to Woolwich. The howitzer went to France with 8th Siege Battery, RGA which embarked at Avonmouth on 14 October 1914 and disembarked at Havre on 19 October 1914. She fired her first round at 12.45 pm on 1 November 1914 behind an orchard east of Lacouture, hitting an enemy heavy battery with two rounds of the eight fired at a range of 7,500 yards using aerial observation. The enemy battery was put out of action.

According to the same article by November 1918, 512 howitzers of the "Mother' class were issued and in France they fired 3,100,000 rounds.

[Ian Riley]

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060022631

This IWM footage may be of interest showing UK range firing of the 9.2" Howitzer at Chapperton Down The film did not show up straight away but runs for about 13 minutes

When the link opens, there is a screen saying ‘No playable resources found’ or similar. Just below the bottom right hand corner of the ‘screen’ there is a pair of red ‘forward/right’ and ‘back/left’ arrows. Click on the right arrow and it seems to take you to a screen with and image on it and a ‘play’ button in the centre. It had me fooled for a while

I think three were deployed at Neuve Chapelle in March 1915 on 'deep' targets.

Ian.

[Old Tom]

Very many thanks.

Old Tom

[nigelfe]

The Skodas went to S Africa, the intent being to attack the forts around Pretoria, but the Boers surrendered before they were needed. They were then shipped to China for the war there, but in the event were not needed. However, they provided the model for 9.2, although the bedding arrangements were somewhat deeper with the Skoda M98 24cm. Of course they the original desing was improved in subsequent Mks. AFAIK there was never any intention to mount them on ships for shore bombardment. IIRC the Monitor (which is I think the correct title for such a ship) didn't appear in the RN until after the war. Of course some naval heavy guns were adopted for land service, and same style mounting was also used for 12 and 15 inch How.

[SiegeGunner]

IIRC the Monitor (which is I think the correct title for such a ship) didn't appear in the RN until after the war.

The Navy, and in particular the Dover Patrol, used monitors for coastal bombardment throughout the war, Nigel. They were armed with obsolete/surplus/spare naval guns in a variety of calibres, right up to 18". The only instance I can think of, off hand, where howitzers were mounted on a ship was HMS Vindictive, in preparation for the raid on Zeebrugge in 1918. Two 6-inch hows were mounted on her foredeck to bombard the lock gates and other targets of opportunity around the landward end of the Mole.

[RobL]

There was a 6 inch howitzer mounted on one of the ships that attempted to force the Dardanelles straits, too. There's an account of it by one of the men (Sgt I believe) in Peter Hart's book 'Gallipoli'