18 Pounder Field Guns

[SOMMESOLDIER]

Hi Everyone,

I was told on a Trip to the Somme that one of the main problems with breaking the German wire before the Somme Offensive was, that our many 18 pounders, only used Shrapnel Shells ! Is this true? Also what kind of Artillery did we use in the build up to the Somme, and in what numbers, using what type of shells ?

Cheers

Tim.

[Robert Dunlop]

From Farndale:

"The following guns were used:

Field Artillery

18-pounders 808

4.5-inch howitzers 202

Heavy Guns

4.7-inch 32

60-pounders 128

6-inch 20

9.2-inch 1

12-inch 1

Heavy Howitzers

6-inch 104

8-inch 64

9.2-inch 60

12-inch 11

15-inch 6

French

75mm guns 60 (gas only)

120mm long guns 24

220mm howitzer 16"

It should be noted that Stokes mortars were used to help cut wire.

The instantaneous fuse was not in use for HE 18-pounder shells. Shrapnel was therefore used to cut wire. The effect of shrapnel used in this way on July 1 1916 was documented by Major General John Headlam, who produced a report entitled 'Notes on Atillery Material in the Battle of the Somme', reproduced in 'Battlefront: Somme' (ISBN 1 903365 25 2). The report was dated 6 July and covered his analysis of the effects of the preliminary artillery bombardment before July 1. I quote:

"7. Wire cutting

The German defences on this front were known to be very carefully wired and the specimens attached will show the formidable character of the wire itself. In most cases, it was on iron uprights though in some cases wooden stakes were used.

Wherever it had been possible to obtain direct observation [my emphasis] it had been destroyed as an obstacle by artillery fire, and many infantry officers and men told me that they had never been in any way retarded by the wire or ever had to use the cutters on their rifles. The difference in the effect of the different natures of shell was, however, very marked. There is no doubt whatever in my mind that 18-pdr shrapnel is far the most generally effective projectile for this purpose. It sweeps the wire away completely with damaging the surface of the ground and so substituting another obstacle. This was very marked in front of the second line where 18-pdr fire had been used exclusively.

Next to the 18-pdr comes the 2" trench mortar with the Newton fuse. This is also very effective, but not so much as the 18-pdr for the wire is heaped up. In some cases 18-pdr had been employed to sweep away the wire which had been so heaped up by the 2", and this combination is extremely effective.

But the 18-pdr is not effective against wire on a forward slope (there was a very marked case of this near Fricourt where the fire had been very accurate, but little or no damage had been done to the wire), and there will also be those places where it cannot be reached by a flat trajectory gun and which are beyond the range of a trench mortar. Against such howitzers must be employed, and I was

able to examine the effect of this in several places. The 6" howitzer is quite effective in removing the wire, but the craters left are a considerable obstacle to movement. The 4.5" does not appear to have a sufficiently violent explosion for the purpose, the wire being only blown away for a very small radius around the crater, so that there is considerable danger of the result being to increase the obstacle rather than the opposite. But this appears to be due to the effect of the explosion being confined to the crater. With the new instantaneous fuse (No. 106) I imagine that the effect will resemble that of the 2" trench mortar with the Newton fuse, and if so the power of the artillery to deal with wire will be materially increased.

As regards the nature of wire, it had been anticipated that iron uprights would render the task of the artillery more difficult. I am inclined to think that this is not so. Certainly in several cases the wire was cut away more cleanly and completely from the iron than from wooden stakes - possibly on account of the greater rigidity of the former. I am inclined to think that the most difficult wire to deal with is that on the iron knife rests as these are simply blown aside by the explosion without being broken up. Gaps can of course be made, but that is all."

FWIIW, I think the relative ineffectiveness of shrapnel against wire on a forward slope may be something to do with the way shrapnel is projected from the shell. Shrapnel shells burst in the air, with the contents projected forward in a cone. Thus, shrapnel would strike wire on flat ground at an angle, cutting across it. On a forward slope, the shrapnel would tend to come down directly onto the wire from above.

Robert