105mm C1 howitzer

[Dan Martel]

Originally Posted by rob love

The recoil mech was Otis elevator, while the carriage was made by Sorel Industries in Quebec. Both companies had done wartime artillery work, Sorel primarily with the 25 pdr, and Otis with the 40mm bofors.

One shield showed a CFR number of 34110, while the other shows 13 field battery (Portage la Prairie, which is part of 36 field regiment). I'll have to check the CFR history and see if anything still exists on this gun. Other markings found included the FMC decal, and another artillery marking with the letters "AB"

Rob,

While I don't know anything about artillery pieces I can identify all of the tactical markings that you have mentioned.

The '13' on the red-over-blue artillery arm-of-service tactical flash is not for the 13th Field Battery. The number '13' was the number allocated for the senior Field Regiment of an Infantry Division. As all of the brigades in the Canadian Army were non-divisional independent brigade groups, every Field Regiment used the tactical number '13.'

The Mobile Command decal came into use after April 1, 1966, when Mobile Command took control of all the Army field forces in Canada after the demise of the old geographical commands.

The 'AB' refers to which Troop in the Regiment the gun belonged to. The letter 'A' refers to the senior Troop in the senior Battery. The letter 'B' refers to it being the second gun of the Troop. Example, the senior Troop had guns sequentially lettered from 'AA' to 'AD' while the second Troop had their guns lettered 'BA' to 'BD.' The junior Troop of the junior Battery would have had their guns lettered 'FA' to FD.'

As to Sorel Industries, I know that they built all of the 155mm howitzers used by the post-war Canadian artillery and I'm pretty certain they produced all of the 105mm howitzers as well.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Dan.