175mm cannon

[colmurph]

The 175mm is a HOWITZER not a Gun. It is designed for High Angle Fire. Guns are designed for direct fire (Like the Gun Tube in a Tank Turret) It has a "Tube Life" of about 90 rounds at Maximum Charge, which means that the barrel has to be replaced after that many shots are fired because it isn't 175 mm any more. More like 178mm because the heat and pressure cause teriffic erosion in the barrel just in front of the powder chamber. After 90 rounds at max range the Howitzer is no longer accurate. At reduced charges the barrel lasts a little longer. I think that 5 charge 5 shots equal one charge 7 shot. So if you fired all your rounds at charge 5 you should be able to get 600 shots off before it's time for a tube change.

[catman]

Col...thanks for setting that straight. I was think the 175 was our last field gun. Like I said, I never trained on it, just read about it some.

Trav

[BLUEHAWK]

Trav - they were GIVEN to Middle East countries, fer cryin' out loud?

Murph - If a howitzer is intended for high angle fire, then what is the difference between it and a mortar, other than the obvious? And, what actually IS a cannon?

Bill - Did we have anything resembling the bore of a 175 back in them thar olden days of which you are expert?

[catman]

I think we "sold" many of them to the middle east. When was the last time Isreal or Iran paid for anything from us.

COL...seems like the range probable error was something like 1000 meters on the 175's? Tube had a droop of 3mils was it?

Trav

[Tamaroa]

Blue 11 ' Dalgren Cannon was about the largest naval cannon there was in the CW.You also had 11 inch seige cannon in use battering Confederate forts. As far as land light artillery the Napolean had a 4.5 inch bore. It was a smoothbore that when projectiles were scarce they would fire everything from broken glass and twisted bayonets, bolts you name it. There were some very large mortars during the Civil War.

The "Dictator" had a 13 inch projectile. It was perhaps the most famous mortar used during the war. "This weapon was a 13-inch Model 1861 seacoast mortar which was mounted on a specially reinforced railroad car to accommodate its weight of 17,000 pounds. Company G of the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, served the "Dictator" at the siege of Petersburg, Virginia in 1864. The mortar could lob a 200-pound explosive shell about 2 ? miles."

Bill

[colmurph]

A Cannon is a muzzloading smooth bore gun. A mortar is usually not rifled (With the exception of the 4.2") and is designed to be loaded from the muzzle. They are usually "Drop Fire" meaning they have a fixed firing pin in the center of the base of the tube that strikes the primer on the round when it drops on it. The exception to the rule is the 60mm mortar which has a selector switch and can be either fired with a trigger or drop fired. Howitzers all load from the breech and have either an interrupted step-screw or sliding wedge type breech. I think the last US Howitzer with a sliding wedge was the 105 mm. The 155, 175 and the 8" all have an interrupted step-screw type breech and are "Separate Loading" meaning that the projectile and and the propellant are loaded separately. The Projectile is first rammed into the forcing cone and then powder bags are placed in behind it. (There is no cartridge case in Howitzers like there is in a 5" 38 Cal. Naval Gun) The breech is closed and a separate initiator holding a primer about the size of a 45-70 blank is screwed onto the breech. This item has an inertia type hammer that strikes the primer when the lanyard is pulled sharply. The flame from the primer goes through the breech and ignites a thick pad of black powder at the base of the first charge. This in turn ignites the cordite which is the main propellant.

[BLUEHAWK]

Dang Trav, now that you mention it...

Bill - Guess there wasn't any rifling on that Napoleon

[Tamaroa]

Nope, it was a favorite of both armies though. The standard guns were either the 3" Parrot rifle named after its designer from the Cold spring armory. He welded a reinforcing band around the breech to prevent it from splitting. Then there was the the light weight 3" U.S. rifle both the Parrot and the U.S. Rifle had range of just about a mile, they were both rifled. There were a few Whitworth rifles as well which were well made English tubes and were very accurate.

The Napoleon while a smooth bore was prized by both armies for close in fighting. It would fire rounds of canister which typically consisted of 10 to 12 iron balls about an inch in diameter. At about 700 yards the cannoneers would open up on advancing infantry and mow down the ranks with these giant shot guns. However, artillerymen also liked to fire solid shot from Napoleons at an angle on an approaching column because the iron balls would bounce through the ranks dismembering men until it rolled to a stop. When the infantry got real close sometimes the cannons were loaded with double canister. On a monument in gettysburg is inscribed the last command a cannoneer gave "Double canister at ten yards". The command was obeyed and the Confederates in front of tha battery (4th U.S. Light Artillery I believe) simply evaporated.

If you want to read about Civil war artillery I suggest biography's of Henry Hunt the premier Union artillerist and his pupil and antagonist E. Porter Alexander on the Confederate side. also John D. Billings Hard Tack and Coffee gives some good accounts of Artillery life as does Alfred Bellard's Gone for a Soldier (2nd New Jersey Light Artillery) or Carlton McArthy's Minutae of soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia also an artillerist. Sorry, I just realized I was running off at the mouth, but you get my drift. There are a lot of sources about American Artillery out there.

Bill

[BLUEHAWK]

Bill -

Guess that pretty well defines the meaning of "withering fire", eh?

[drone_pilot]

getting back to the weight

weigh= 66.7 kg or lb 147.22.

Top Speed
56 km/h or 34.8 Mph