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Old 07-07-2009, 01:15 PM
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Default 8inch Howitzer Mk VI-VIII



During the Boer War the British found themselves hampered by lack of heavy artillery, and in order to fix the problem they mated naval guns to gun carriages, locally made down there in South Africa. These guns were quite effective, and so when again facing the same problem in WW1, the British military again tried this improvisation. The first 8inch guns were simply a matter of converting whatever could be found of old 150mm guns, guns that were cut down in length and bored out to take a 90.8kg 203mm – i.e. 8inch - shell. The carriages were also very varied; some were old siege gun mountings, others assembled from parts of old siege gun carriages and naval gun mountings. Eventually this resulted in five marks of 8inch howitzer and five marks of carriage, all simple box-trail types with two large tell-tale “traction engine” wheels. As these guns wore out, they were simply discarded, although some lasted all the way to 1918.

This video comes courtesy of Philtydirtyanimal:





Once the most pressing needs had been filled by the Marks I to V 8inch howitzers attention was turned to making a more efficient design, and in August 1915 Vickers were requested to produce a new 8inch design. The first 8inch Mark VI howitzer came off the assembly line on 1 March 1916. The design was quite simple: a box trail with a top carriage permitting 4 degrees of traverse to each side, a cradle with a hydro­pneumatic recoil system, and permitting 50 degrees of elevation, traction-engine wheels. The breech was also faster and more modern. This combi­nation resulted in a maximum range of 9.825m, plus a total weight five tons less than the previous designs. When compared to earlier versions it had better recoil system, but still needed under its wheels ramps for controlling the rest of its considerable recoil.



The problem with the Mark VI was its pretty mediocre range, and soon it became obvious that range was a crucial factor. This prompted a redesign, resulting in Juny 1916 in the Mk VII, which was pretty much identical to as the predecessor, except for the fact that the barrel had been length­ened to 17.3 calibres. Several small re-designs followed, eventually resulting in Mark VIII 8inch howitzer, which could hurl a 90.8kg shell up to a range of 11,240m.



The breech system was of the Asbury interrupted screw type. The howitzers could be towed both by Tractors or horse. (A limber needed to be used for both towing methods.) The tractor wheels were 30-cm wide and had 170-cm diameter. It was indeed a heavy howitzer: the weight of the barrel and breech together was 2,9tons and just the screw part of the breech weighted 174kg. Rate of fire was only about 1 shot per, due to the weight of the barrel, which demanded lowering the barrel to zero for reloading. The 8inch Howitzer used bagged ammunition: projectile, propellant bags and primer were loaded separately - no cartridge case was used. There were four sizes of propellant charge, resulting in different ranges. This type was used by the British in the early years of WW2, and it was not declared obsolete until 1943.



The gun was also used by the French Army, and the US Army, and also produced in the USA. Just eight days after the American declaration of war with Germany, 80 8inch howitzers were ordered from the Midvale Steel and Ordnance Co., at Nicetown, Pennsylvania, a firm that was already manufacturing them under British contracts at the time. Production rolled so fast that the first completed unit was test fired on December 13, 1917. The total order was eventually increased to 195; 146 were completed and accepted by November 14, 1918; 96 of these were shipped overseas.



During Winter War 1939-40 Finland in its desperation bought 32 8inch Howitzers from USA, but they arrived too late for that war. They came cheap, but were in desperate need of maintenance before they could be deployed. They came to good use in the Continuation War 1941-44, though. The Finns liked the howitzer, which they found very reliable. After WW2 the remaining howitzers were stored in case of war until the late 60-ies.

The gun below is an American-made Mk VI, one of those sold by the USA to Finland, and used by the Finns in the War 1941-44. It is displayed outside the War Museum in Helsinki, Finland:





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