Numbers

[Bob McNeill]

Dad started his gunner experience on 18Pr,s of several Marks and when they went to the Middle East the 2-9th had 4.5 howitsers and the British 25,s. On return to Australia, once in Nth Qld they prepared for New Guinea. After using one of the best Field Guns ever made to be given a Short 25 which had 48" off the barrel, 16" off recoil cylinders, no shield, had to be relaid after every shot, regularly cracked the trail welds, did not sit well with the gunners. The fact that the Short 25 was scrapped out in 1946 says something.

[David Dunlop]

Wow! Sounds like something designed by a civil servant and not a gunner!

Thank you both for the explanation.


David

[Bob McNeill]

David , don,t get us wrong, the chaps who worked on building the Short knew what they wanted. The Aust Short 25pr was designed to pull apart into 14 manable loads, and as such was dropped into the Markam valley at Nabziab in support of the U. S. 105th, the First time Australian Artillery had been dropped into action, most of the gunners had never jumped before. It took 3 minutes to pull down and 4 minutes to reassemble, it did its job. Mike Cecils book on 25s list the weights of individual parts, well worth a read.