BL 5 inch Howitzer

Infobox Weapon
name= Ordnance BL 5 inch Howitzer


caption=Territorial Force gunners with howitzer in camp pre-WWI
origin= UK
type= Field howitzer
is_artillery=yes
is_ranged=yes
is_bladed=
is_explosive=yes
is_UK=yes
service= 1895 - 1919
used_by=UK
wars=Mahdist War
Second Boer War
First World War
designer=
design_date=
manufacturer=
unit_cost=
production_date=
number=
variants=
spec_label=
weight=
length=
part_length=42 inch bore (8.4 calibres) [Text Book of Gunnery 1902, Table XII page 336]
width=
height=
diameter=
crew=
cartridge=50 lb Common shell; 50 lb Lyddite shell; later 40 lb Amatol shell [Treatise on Ammunition 1915, accurate as at 1st August 1914, mentions that there are both "Heavy" 50 lb and "Light" 40 lb shells and mentions a 14 oz 13 dram cartridge for a 40 lb shell (page 142). But only 50 lb shells are listed in tables. It is possible the 40 lb shell was in process of being introduced in 1914.]
caliber= 5 inch
action=
rate=
velocity=788 ft/s [Hogg & Thurston 1972 page113. Text Book of Gunnery 1902 gives 782 ft/sec, firing a 50lb projectile, with 11oz 7dram Cordite size 3¾ propellant.]
range=4,800 yds (50 lb shell);
6,500 yds (40 lb shell)
feed=
sights=
breech=3-motion, interrupted screw
recoil=5.5 inch, hydro-spring constant
carriage=wheeled, box trail
elevation=-5° - 45°Hogg & Thurston 1972, page 113]
traverse=
filling=
filling_weight=9 lb 15 oz (Lyddite)
5 lb (Amatol)
detonation=
yield=The Ordnance BL 5 inch Howitzer was initially introduced to provide the Royal Field Artillery with continuing explosive shell capability following the decision to concentrate on shrapnel for field guns in the 1890s.

History

Combat service

udan Campaign

The weapon was used by the Royal Field Artillery and served successfully at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898. During that campaign they gained the distinction of being the first British guns to fire the new lyddite shells in action.

econd Boer War

Major D Hall states that in the Second Boer War the Lyddite shells often failed to detonate; the gun was too heavy to be used as a field howitzer, and for siege use its range was too short and shell too light. However it achieved some success in Natal when able to get close enough to bombard Boers in trenches. [Hall June 1971]

World War I

thumb|left|
In action on Gallipoli, 1915
By 1908 it was obsolete and replaced in British Regular Army brigades by the modern QF 4.5 inch Howitzer.

Territorial Force brigades however continued to use the howitzer in World War I into 1916, including notably in the East African campaign.

A lighter 40 pound (18.14 kg) shell with Amatol filling replaced the original 50 pound (22.68 kg) Lyddite shell early in World War I Together with an increase in cordite propellant from 11oz 7drams to 14oz 5 drams, this increased the maximum range from 4,800 to 6,500 yards. Administrative error led to the new 40 pound shells being sent to Gallipoli without range tables or fuze keys for the new pattern fuzes, rendering them useless. [Simpson-Baikie 1920]

Ammunition

Notes

References

* [http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/u?/p4013coll11,230 Text Book of Gunnery, 1902. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE]
*Dale Clarke, [http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_detail.php/title=S6887 British Artillery 1914-1919. Field Army Artillery. Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2004]
*Major Darrell D. Hall, [http://rapidttp.com/milhist/vol021dh.html "Guns in South Africa 1899-1902" in The South African Military History Society. Military History Journal - Vol 2 No 1, June 1971]
*I.V. Hogg & L.F. Thurston, British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914-1918. London: Ian Allan, 1972
*Brigadier-General Sir Hugh Simpson-Baikie, Ex-Commander of the British artillery at Cape Helles. Appendix I STATEMENT ON ARTILLERY in [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22021/22021-h/22021-h.htm#Page_284 "General Sir Ian Hamilton, G.C.B. Gallipoli Diary Vol. II". New York: George H. Doran Company, 1920]

See also

*Howitzer
*List of artillery#Towed field guns and howitzers

urviving examples

External links

* [http://samilitaryhistory.org/diaries/zgead1.html Great War Diary - German East Africa 1916 - of Sergeant Joseph Daniel Fewster, 1st. (Hull) Heavy Battery R.G.A.]
*Bennet Burleigh, [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25504 Khartoum Campaign, 1898] Describes 5 inch howitzer use in the campaign