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Contarini's avatar

Manhandling 120 lb shells must have been no fun. Back injuries, much?

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Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson's avatar

These days, gunners who fire 155mm howitzers use a device that allows two men to share the burden of lifting the 100-pound shells. I suspect that these were in use early in the twentieth century, but have yet to find a picture or explicit mention.

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Harald Gormsson's avatar

Good summary and great links. I find it interesting that the maximum elevation of the systems discussed are restricted to quite low numbers - 15 degrees for the guns, 27 degrees for the Mountain Howitzer (!?!) and 40 degrees for the other howitzers. The hazards of box trail construction and lack of firing platforms I suppose. Also, it is extremely odd that the 3.8 inch Howitzer has a max range of 6,338 yards at 45 degrees (page 11), which is 5 more than the listed system maximum of 40 (page 38).

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Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson's avatar

I wonder if the gunners obtained 5 additional degrees of elevation by digging in the trail.

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