25 pounder gun

[@oldgitsknowstuff]

My Dad served with the South Notts Hussars. They were deployed to Tobruk to give the Australians artillery support. He took part in the Battle of Knightsbridge in June 1942. The regiment was wiped out. From 426 battery there was only 1 survivor. Fortunately my dear old Dad was in a Stuart Recce tank coming in with the advancing Panzers, calling off the ranges to the guns, till they got hit !. A bad day for the regiment. Apparently, if the gun was about to be overrun, the crew removed the dial sight or smashed it up. He recalled a badly wounded soldier, still cluching the 25Pdr. dial sight in his arms at the FDS before being 'Euthenised' by the doctor. The 25 Pdr was a 'Gun/Howitzer' . War is hell.

[@sampointau]

Very nice video. It also explains the reason my grandfather, who was an 18pdr driver/gunner with the Australian FAB in WW1 in France was re-upped in WW2 as an artillery instructor on 25pdr field guns.

[@peterjames9610]

Nice piece of history Sam, one of the things that fill the gaps in history, for me at least.

[@colinblick4903]

Loved this…. I was a junior leader (15)… at Bramcote an got our gunners RA on the 25 pounder….. was gun layer,loved firing these guns back in the 60’s😎💪🏼

[@anthonyburke5656]

My father fought the 25 pounder for over 6 years in WW2, except for a period of a few months in the Middle East, when their 25 pounder wore out and they fought a captured 88 mm German gun (which was bought back and now sits in an Artillery museum). He later fought a gun duel with a 6 inch naval gun the Japanese had captured at Singapore and moved ad installed at Rabaul. He was still fighting Japanese 6 months after the war ended. The gun he fought the gun duel with now sits in a local park and is a jungle Jim for kids and a perch for pigeons.

[@anthonywright6237]

Top fucking Mr. My great uncle was an RSM in Burma he was over there longer than ive ever been out with a woman

[@anthonywright6237]

Another great uncle was on hms ajax when it was sunk fighting the graff spee

[@astiwine2354]

As a boy growing up in the 1950's we had a boarder who had served on 25pdrs with the 166th (Newfoundland) Field Regiment, RA. They served in Tunisia and later in Italy. he told me nay stories about his service, including firing at German tanks over open sights. At one time I could rhyme off the crew positions and duties and the exact sequence of actions and commands involved in firing a round. My prized possession was a Dinky (I think) model of the gun, limber and quad. At present there is a small display of artillery, including a 25 pdr, outside a branch of the Royal Canadian Legion at Pleasantville in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, in Canada.

[@mitchmitchell515]

Excellent.my dad landed d day plus 1, royal artillery he was the gun layer on 25 pounders.he said the gun was devastating when used correctly. I love you showing the charge bags ,great detail.my dad died November 2020 at the age of 96 and was buried on November 11,quite apt.thanks again

[@EssexHMVA]

Hi Mitch, thank you very much for the kind comments, I'll pass them on to Peter as well. Russell

[@peterjames9610]

Much respect for you and your dad.

[@stevemirfin8802]

Thank you for these details. My father was in the Northumberland antitank regiment at El Alamein and the Normandy D day landings. Died at the age 91 in 2013 and talked very little of his experiences and regret that I didn’t ask more questions.

[@EssexHMVA]

So many people we speak to have little or no idea of what they did during WW2. In many cases at events, we have had veterans talk about what they did and the family were totally unaware of what they had done. A generation who just got on with it , without fuss.

[@limjamrace]

Same here..My Father died April 1996 aged 81 ..Ernest Llewellyn..North Africa and up through Italy.

[@bryanduncan1640]

@steve mirfin - I know what you mean; my father was at Dunkirk and then fought in the desert, finishing up in Palestine. He died at 93 in 2012 and never spoke about his experiences.

[@EssexHMVA]

@@bryanduncan1640 We have the record card for one of my grandfathers, but it leaves more questions than answers to what he did!

[@richardkomorowski6022]

My dad commanded a battery of twenty-five pounders during the Battle of Ancona. Despite being wounded, he fought on and received the Polish Cross of Valour.

[@JohnSmith-zv8km]

We all have much to thank the polish fighters for in WWII

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your interesting comments. We had many " Free Forces" as well as troops from many countries around the world, which made up the Allied Armies.

[@ScottAT]

Impressive.

[@gunner678]

A superb artillery piece. I had the honour to command a troop of them.

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for the comments Matthew, we are lucky to have some veterans in our association who also used them during their army service.

[@gunner678]

@@EssexHMVA excellent. It's good to have experience in your ranks.

[@Ralphieboy]

Great little film about a classic piece of ordinance.

[@albertschultz7151]

Thanks for the video. Grew up in Northern Rhodesia and every town, more or less had a Moth Club. Outside the club house there was invariably a 25 pounder.

[@anthonywilson4873]

Very well described not a wasted word. Clear and concise nice to see close ups of the components and systems instead of a load of dirge from a presenter standing in the way.

[@EssexHMVA]

thank you Anthony

[@cliffordhallam3270]

My Mum worked at the Gun Factory in Nottingham during the war and started off making breech blocks, and later became an inspector, for the 25 pounder. The Luftwaffe used to send a Me110 to arrive about lunchtime and strafe the workers as the went to the canteen.

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your fascinating comments which are of much interesting. It can sometimes be forgotten how many women were employed in war work. Some of the fuse parts used on the shells were made in an underground factory, now part of the central line tube.

[@tonyjedioftheforest1364]

Very interesting video, my late dad used these in the Second World War as a member of the Royal Artillery. He served in the desert. I do miss him.

[@EssexHMVA]

This was very much part of the RA. Sadly many veterans are no longer with us, but we aim to keep their memory alive for future generations.

[@keithallen4389]

I was a 5.5 inch gunner (please do a review) but used these a lot in training with the South African Artillery. We considered it one of the best field guns ever made and it saw active service in Angola in the 1970s until outranged by Russian ‘Stalin Organs’. I fired it many times and loved the kick in the pants when hitting the firing lever while sitting on the small round seat behind the sights. They are very popular at State ceremonial functions, given the impressive bang they make with blank charges. At our army battle school we were made to lie in a shallow trench while it was fired over our heads and I was amazed at how fast the projectile arrived, sounding like a jet fighter screaming overhead.

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your comments Keith, the owner of this 25 pounder also owns an AEC Madator, which was briefly featured in our first video, which towed such guns as the 5.5. We plan to do many more of these type of videos and I am sure the 5.5 will be on the list.

[@johnnyhollis9977]

Keith, just read your comment! My dad used to tell me that if the 5.5 shell went up the spout slightly off centre, it was heads down time! Apparently the shells driving band had a nasty habit of swinging back after firing the shell!!!!! 😉

[@keithallen4389]

@@johnnyhollis9977 There were occasions when the driving bands, copper, were damaged during transportation and/or badly rammed by loaders not synchronising the ram. These could fly apart on exiting the muzzle and the sound they made was quite scary, though we never had any injuries that I know of. In Angola a very high rate of fire was reached by the South African gun crews, especially at the Battle if Bridge 14.

[@johnnyhollis9977]

@@keithallen4389 😉👍

[@ronaldreid2185]

What regiment Keith? I was in 14 Field 76 - 77, the intake after the Angola excursion. I was trained as a TA in the Sexton battery (a 25 pounder on a Sherman chassis). The 5.5 battery was located in the tents alongside us (no barracks). At the end of my national service we tested the first iteration of the 155mm gun they were developing.

[@williamkennedy5492]

My dad was wounded firing these guns and when in hospital the germans bombed it,wounding him a second time , they were out to get him, his wound downgraded him from front line duties and he survived whilst many of his regiment were killed ! He was proud to be a gunner !

[@jonsouth1545]

A great piece of kit I know to test the recoil for the new 17lbr they used pair of these strapped together in the turret of an Aussie Sentinel tank. This often makes me wonder what would have happened if in the early war with the first Churchills and later models of cruiser tanks (Cromwell) etc instead of using the 40mm and the 57mm they had put one of these in the turret in 1941-42 (The Churchill was always designed for the 57mm, but due to a shortage of the guns early models were fitted with a 40mm instead, but they did have a large supply of 25lbr's that could have been used and the modifications to the turret would take no less time than the IRL modifications) as it was capable enough for the period as an AT platform one that would have increased dramatically if the Canadian developed HEAT shell had been put into production and a very effective APBC shell was developed and was more than capable of taking out any contemporary Axis tank including vehicles like the King Tiger. and it had a working HE round that was so sorely missed by early UK tanks up until the adoption of the 75mm which was a licenced copy of the inferior although still excellent French field gun of WW1 that was originally designed in 1897. It would also have simplified logistics chains as the Tanks and the Royal Artillery would now have a standard ammo and their would be a large amount of interchangeability of parts. I often think this was a lost opportunity. In many ways this approach of putting a modified field gun in a tank is exactly what the Soviets did when they put the larger 125mm D5T in tanks like the IS2 and when that hit a Panther it not only penetrated the frontal armour it went through the tank and came out of the back and with the superior shell design of the Western allied shells (Russian ones were good but they were a little behind in developing APDS and HEAT rounds although post war the developed some absolute beauties for the 125mm) similar levels of performance for the time may have been possible with the smaller 25lbr due to better shells I would guess between 80-90% of the maximum penetration of a contemporary 125mm Russian gun, which is still good enough for the period and far superior than the 75mm found on Sherman's and M3's whilst minimizing some of the ergonomic constraints encountered by the Russians as they would be using a physically smaller gun with lighter and more easily manipulated 2 part ammunition compared to what the Soviets were using. Although this gun would not have had the same stretch potential as the 17lbr but then again as a main line tank gun the 17br did not remain in service very long first being replaced by the 20lbr in 1948 so losing the 17lbr from history while sad for people like me who think it was a wonderful gun it is not that much of a loss in combat capability for the period if at all due to the far superior HE Shells and the design potential of the Canadian developed HEAT shells and an APDS shell probably could be developed for it as a stop gap measure after all they did make an APDS shell for the 6lbr (57mm) that was issued in 1944 and was capable of going through the front of a Tiger at 2000m if head on and over 1000m if the Tiger was angled and was responsible for the majority of German tanks knocked out by the Commonwealth forces in 1944-45 as although the 17lbr had a much bigger punch, being physically bigger is was harder to use in mobile warfare at the period, especially as the early ones had issues with the gun carriage.

[@keithbrooker2379]

Portugal still have a few 25Pdrs for parades that they still fire.

[@ianwilkinson5069]

I live in a small town along the NY/Pa border in the US. We have a cannon from our civil war that they used to fire off up untill 1976 atleast.

[@BanjoLuke1]

Very interesting. My late father, an active schoolboy pacifist (PPU) volunteered on Holloway Road the day he left school in 1940 and after a few months in the Essex Regt. was sent to OCTU and thence to a TA field artillery battery in the long wait for the Second Front. Many of his dearest friends were from those times, so childhood for me was full of stories about this gun. Landed around D+15 and then Caen and Falaise, clearing up around Nijmegen after Market Garden, Den Bosch and the northern regions rim of the Bulge and then the push across the Rhine and up to Hamburg. Stories of laying smoke later in the war to allow enemy troops to surrender, unseen by their officers. Extraordinary tales of ordinary people doing remarkable things. A TA unit supporting 53rd (Welsh) division. None of them regular soldiers. Like so many involved in that terrible slaughter. An interesting video; thanks for posting. I seem to recall seeing a 25 Pdr displayed somewhere in Normandy (Pegasus?) when we were passing through some years ago.

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your fascinating information. Many 25 pounders did land in Normandy and were very effective against German defences. The Essex Yeomanry landed with Sexton Canadian-designed self-propelled artillery vehicles. which was based on a Sherman.

[@andrewclayton4181]

I've read that a trained crew could have six shells in the air at once from these. They were fast loaders. Very versatile.

[@EssexHMVA]

It has been said that the Germans had thought we might have developed some sort of automatic loading system due to the speed some teams could fire at.

[@oldgitsknowstuff]

@@andrewclayton4181 And until the barrels glowed red hot.

[@terryteed1903]

It actually went out of service in 1992, i was in the last intake at JLRRA and the 25lb er was used in confirmation training for the last Guns trade training course, this was the final year that JLRRA was an all artillery training unit.

[@6thmichcav262]

Thank you for showing the pictures of cordite. A lot of publications assume “cordite” is a general term for gunpowder when it is not.

[@johnburchell2043]

Thanks for the first detailed look at this iconic gun.

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your kind comments, more to come !

[@tallandhandsome29]

Very interesting. An underrated piece of ordnance IMO, overshadowed, wrongly, by the Flak 88. Thanks for the upload.

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your comments, glad you enjoyed it. More to come soon.

[@bonza167]

in the 1970's I did my apprenticeship at a firm called Chas Ruwolts located in Richmond, Victoria, Australia. during the war they manufactured 25 pounders for the Aussie army and even shipped some to the middle east for use there before Japan entered the war, which became Austrlias main focus. the time consuming process of making a riveted chassis was, well, time consuming, so they later simply welded the pieces together and were able to churn out the guns in amazing quantities. the old timers who were still working there told me about this as well as machining breach blocks, the rifling machine and the challenges of having the sights locally made. visit various RSL's and war memorials around the country and it is common to see a 25 pounder on display.

[@EssexHMVA]

very interesting comments indeed, such equipment was made on licence with various items.

[@bonza167]

I should have added that while doing my apprenticeship the Aussie army returned one of these howitzers to the factory. we apprentices then stripped it down, made some new parts and completely overhauled it and it ended up like new back from the factory where it was first made. all overseen by some of the old hands who made them originally who were would have been younger than what I am now. this was back in '76. cant recall what the intent was for having it rebuilt for, maybe a display somewhere, possibly the Aussie war museum. check out many war memorials or RSL's around Australia and chances are there is a 25 pounder on display. Avoca in Vic has a good fully welded example and Koo Wee Rup has one in North Africa desert colours. they all have the Chas Ruwolt name plate discretely attached

[@YahooMurray]

I am glad to support your channel. USAF Vietnam vet - best wishes to my UK friends.

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you Robert, we are pleased to show our appreciation to all those past and present in our armed forces.

[@willleahy6958]

Wonderful to see a great gun with all its kit. Thanks

[@EssexHMVA]

thank you for your comments Will, it took the owner quite some effort to get back all the items to make it as it once was.

[@seanoreilly7293]

I was a Junior Leader RA in 68. Got to train on them along with the 105. Brilliant in AT mode.

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your comments, and yes the 25 pounder certainly had a long military life. This particular gun was restored from a total wreck and though deactivated, all the other items are correct and work.

[@terrysaunders214]

My grandad served with on this gun in WWII. I've still got a few old cartidges in the garage. Nan used them to keep her knitting needles in!!

[@johnnyhollis9977]

Hi, my father called the 25 pdr his pocket pistol! His main kit being a 7.2 Howitzer and a Scammell Pioneer gun tractor. He lost the lot in a friendly bombing event 44/45! Replaced with a 155mm Long Tom US jobbie. However, his love was the 7.2 which he used to have a go at mobile V2 launch vehicles etc! I still have the 25 pounder handbook!

[@gunnerman2452]

I fired the 25 pounder many times as part of the saluting team at Edinburgh Castle in the late 90s. They now use the 105m gun for salutes now, as it was getting hard to find the parts for the 25 ponder

[@stephenandrews2762]

Trained on one 86-87 junior leaders RA ,the one I trained on built 43 if I remember correctly

[@Paddington60]

As a Cadet I visited Larkhill about 1972 and we fired 25 pounders. We all had a go at each crew position, are they called gun numbers, or is that Navy speak. I remember taking the fibre top off to remove one of the bags. Hit my target second shot and the sergeant and adult gunners adjusted the aim to a new target by rotating the gun on the platform. Pushing the casing in with a clenched fist so you started and finished with the same number of fingers. My next adventure with artillery was with some 130mm guns, but that is another story. Good memories, thank you for the video.

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your interesting account of your visit to Larkhill. By the 1970s some modifications had been done to the guns still in service, hence why the example in the video does not have the additional bracing brackets for example and the gun cone fitted is WW2 dated.

[@วัชราพรดุมรถ]

Woolwich barracks 1968, basic training, enjoyed firing this at salsbury gun ranges, during basic training, ex gunner m

[@DrivermanO]

Very good video. I trained on 25pdr when I was in Cambridge University OTC in the early 1970s. Great times - but unsticking the platform out of sticky mud could be problematical! And we used to fire off Grimes Graves gun area at charge 3 into Stanford PTA. But of course, that's off limits now as it was ruining the ancient monument. Quite right too. The shell is HE117 (117 being the PD fuse). But one point. The item you mention as the clinometer is the sight clinometer - to ensure the sights are level, not the barrel, as I recall. But that was 50 years ago!

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your comments, and yes the trail platform can get quite stuck even when only used for events and can require the tug of a Land Rover get it out of soft ground. There are in fact 2 clinometers , one fits to the breach and the other small one fits to a bracket for the site. We are always happy to have people assist with our clarifications.

[@kevinbabu8919]

Awesome video, Essex !!!!!!! The Indian Army used 25 Pounder guns as the main artillery piece for the 1965 and 1971 wars against Pakistan. It was also effectively used to destroy Pakistani M-48 Patton tanks at long rage. (The Battle of Asal Uttar)

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your comment, the Indian Army have a long connection with the 25 pounder going back to WW2.

[@gunner678]

@GodBAINS Yt . 6.1M views I think it's also fair to say that the majority of the Pattons in Pakistani service at this time were clapped out and ready for major overhaul. Only a small proportion were actually fully combat capable. That said, it was an impressive success for the Indian army in this AO.

[@brucelee3388]

You 'missed' the cross leveling wheel on the side of the mount in front of the cone. That is why you put the clinometer on the breach, to make adjustments so the pivot points on the carriage were level and the tube was only elevated vertically - if not the shells would land all over the place as the tube was elevated and lowered, which could prove 'embarrassing' to friendly forces. My father pointed this out to me when I was a kid & I got to play on a 25pdr that was set up was a War Memorial (before everything rusted solid) in Australia - he served in the Field Artillery 1939-46 on 18 pdrs, 25 pdrs and US 155mm guns.

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your information. There are certainly more to this gun than covered in the video , including the night illumination set, tool kit and the lots more . This gun has most if all it’s equipment. We may take another look at this weapon in a future video .

[@burlatsdemontaigne6147]

Learned to strip one of these as a cadet with the RA on Salisbury Plain. First time I came across the term 'dogs bollocks' which was the name given to a distinctive part of the breech mechanism.

[@josephhurdman5588]

My mother's father was an artillery gunner in Burma, in WW2 -- until I saw your video, I had no idea that the Royal Ordinance 25lb gun had nearly the same sized shell as the German 88mm -- it just needed a longer, rifled barrel...

[@EssexHMVA]

Thanks for the interesting extra piece of history. We always enjoy reading and hearing of family military service. There was also a QF version of the gun which was lightened and used in the Far East . Maybe one for a future video ?

[@chrisbabaero5147]

I made several Airfix 25 pounder 1/72 scale kits that came with the Quad vehicle and ammunition limber. This video brings back all the memories. Thanks ❤‼

[@jaswmclark]

The Toronto Artillery Has a 25 lb. gun, limber and a Chevrolet tractor which is used for displays, abd military funerals. Canadian crews were so well drilled that I have had former German soldiers tell me they thought they were auto loading. We have acquired a second gun and limber from the Irish army and are searching for a restorable tractor to have a second one available.

[@garymills7494]

Great video, thank you for sharing.

[@harveystill4549]

no mention of the gunlayers role on this gun or the howitzer (4.5 ) in use at the time -my dad RRA -1945 to 52

[@californiadreamin8423]

Great Video. “Return via Dunkirk” by Gunbuster, and “The Guns of Normandy “ are very good reads. The role of co ordinated massed fire by the Royal Artillery, was crucial to success at Alamein and thereafter , particularly in Normandy.

[@landhopper4296]

If that second one is by George Blackburn of the Royal Canadian Artillery, I’d recommend it. Perhaps the most gripping account of the battle for Normandy, and in subsequent volumes through to the Scheldt, I’ve ever read. It makes clear just what the training, coordination and in particular this gun, made possible. Today, we can stand back and acknowledge that you’d not want to be an the receiving end of such a barrage, and the Italian film ‘El Alamein’ references the horror of the ‘British ‘88’ from their perspective, which I’ve always assumed was most likely referring to the 25pdr QF.

[@californiadreamin8423]

@@landhopper4296 Yes that’s the one. There is a book, the name of which I cannot recall, which describes the way in which the use of artillery evolved between Dunkirk and Alamein, which allowed every gun to be rapidly switched to a new target, and also the use of “titles” which prioritised the urgency . I always puzzled how in Normandy the Germans were defeated when they had such superior small arms and tanks, but the Blackburn book certainly points out the superiority of the Royal Artillery.

[@graemesydney38]

When you mention the 25's anti-tank role, it was only intended for 'in defence of the gun position' and not employed as an a/t weapon.

[@EssexHMVA]

You are correct, the anti-tank shells had originally been intended for defence , but there are certainly accounts of such weapons, including the 3.7 being used directly.

[@graemesydney38]

@@EssexHMVA ​@@EssexHMVA In my father's unit history, (2/4th Fld Regt, 7 div, A.I.F.) it is recorded that a single 25 was employed in the a/t role been rolled forward down a road successfully engaging French Char B1's. They were the point of the Divisional advance guard - desperate measures in desperate days.

[@oldgitsknowstuff]

​@@graemesydney38 Please take a look at the painting by Terence Cunio called 'The Battle of Knightsbridge ' ...

[@graemesydney38]

@@oldgitsknowstuff With the tanks being depicted as about 10 meters away I think that would meet the definition of 'in defence of the gun position'.

[@oldgitsknowstuff]

@graemesydney38 10 metres ? If you've viewed the painting, I admit it's very dramatic, and although there is some 'Artistic licence', it was accepted as 'accurate' by the Regiment. Anyway, an anti-tank gun is supposed to be for defending against tanks, no problem with that. The 25 Pdr. I'm told.....also had an AP round chopped the legs off advancing infantry within a 25 yard radius of fall of shot. So, a bit of a handy 'All rounder' in the field gun range. Also available in 2 exciting colours. Green and Desert sand. Respects.

[@robgazzard4432]

Excellent video. Well done.

[@EssexHMVA]

thank you Rob, we are pleased you enjoyed it .

[@gunnerhoward3134]

We still trained on and fired the 25 pounder gun in training (JLRRA) 1989/90

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your interesting comment, it was a gun with a long life and many armies continued to used them until fairly recently.

[@cheesenoodles8316]

I have heard more than a few soldiers credit this gun for bringing firepower upon the enemy.

[@neilwilson5785]

Excellent video.

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for your comments Neil

[@SteampunkGent]

Please give those leather cases a good treatment with neatsfoot oil. It will save them from cracking further and possibly help preserve the stitching

[@EssexHMVA]

Thank you for the advice, I will pass it on to the owner

[@mackenshaw8169]

Interesting. Didn't know that the much storied 25 pdr was actually designed as an all rounder.

[@kevinbabu8919]

Essex, can you please try to make a video of 17 Pounder Anti-tank gun and it's effectiveness?

[@Dave5843-d9m]

The other great British gun was the 57mm Six Pounder anti tank gun. They sound small but did huge damage go German armour at El Alamein and one was recorded as having taken out two Tiger 1 tanks. The real deal. They were small enough to hide and could be operated by just three men though four was a lot easier. Try that with a bigger gun using two part ammo.

[@EssexHMVA]

The Six Pounder was indeed another great weapon and saw much use during WW2. The owners grandfather took part in Operation Market Garden and landed in a glider with a 6 pounder in Holland.

[@demos113]

Nice work.

[@32shumble]

I remember going to a demonstration at Lark Hill where they lined up and fired a row of 25 pounders and a field in the distance blew up - I don't know if it was real shells or they fired blanks and the explosions were demolition charges. After that they fired an Honest John rocket off the back of a truck!

[@DraftySatyr]

I remember going to one of those RA open days in the mid-1960s too, at somewhere around the age of 8/9. Tremendously exciting at the time, but nothing compared to the firepower demonstrations held at Battlesbury Bowl, or sitting in the Bombard OP on Salisbury Plain being shelled for real (by 5.5" howitzers, I think)

[@MrRobinGriffin]

thanks

[@billywoods9192]

I believe a howitzer is defined by the ability to use a variety of charges and those range tables you mentioned. Guns aren't that picky.

[@oldgitsknowstuff]

A 'Gun has a fixed shell case and a Howitzer has a 'Bagged charge. That's how my Dad (a master artillery gunner) described it to me.

[@geordiedog1749]

Great video. I’ve an huge affection for this weapon as my grandfather was in the RHA. He was in the NW Frontier prior to September “39 and was rushed to France with the BEF. He then went on to the Desert and to Italy. He left the Arty a major having gone in as a private. Major ‘Jock’ Orr. (Are there any accounts that cordite and spaghetti were ever mixed up,btw?)

[@markrowland1366]

It filled both roles.

[@benwilson6145]

The 51st Highland Division managed to send their 25 pounders back from Le Harve. They had no more ammunition available for them the Division was captured at St Valery.

[@shifty389]

My dad used these when he was in 29 commando in Malta strange fact they had 2 guns a white gun and a black gun

[@danielgreen3715]

Wouldn't it be good to have it fully working again ! What was it like in the Anti Tank role?? Could it take out German Tanks and at what range?

[@EssexHMVA]

Thanks for your comments and questions Daniel . There are a few live firing ones left though they are used for events and just fire a cartridge with some powder in to make a bang ! The anti-tank round is a solid lump and is very heavy hence made of a dense metal . It certainly would have pierced most plating . Sometimes the shockwave caused by the hit would be enough to disable the crew , even if it did not penetrate the armor.

[@danielgreen3715]

@@EssexHMVA Cheers! ..And yeah i do suppose the Shockwave of the impact or whatever it is called would seriously shake you up at least!

[@JohnSmith-zv8km]

Very interesting indeed, thanks

[@EssexHMVA]

Glad you enjoyed it John

[@waveranger4974]

Very interesting and informative

[@fredjones7705]

"It looks like spaghetti. In fact this is spaghetti"....well fire me some meatballs cause I'm hongry.

[@EssexHMVA]

I think it’s been used for display at a number of shows so I am not sure you would still want to eat it .

[@copee2960]

What artillery did the British use during the Falklands conflict ?.

[@PieAndChips]

105mm Light Gun

[@kellybreen5526]

I was with 11RCA from 1991-2000. We used 105's, but have a working 25 pounder and Ford CMP tractor which was restored to a high standard. This was the gun which carried Nathan Cirillo who was murdered at the cenotaph in Ottawa by a Jihadi crackpot who got into the parliament building before finally getting what he deserved. The 25 pounder could not be towed faster than about 35 mph or the limber and gun would start to snake. I learned this first hand driving it from Guelph to Palmerston for a parade. I knew an ex BSM who fought in North Africa and he told me that the 25 pounder could outshoot our 105, but not being a NATO caliber the gun left Canadian service in the 60s. Happy days!

[@EssexHMVA]

Certainly those sand tyres are fun in wet weather or as we faced once from heading home from an event , snow!

[@Ubique2927]

Would a longer barrel have made this a good anti tank gun?

[@EssexHMVA]

The answer to your question is possibly but the fact was that at the beginning of the war, the Royal Artillery preferred the 17 pounder and although many times weapons were used not for their intended role, it was meant to the a gun designed for each job.

[@alecblunden8615]

The 25 pdr was a very effective anti-tank gun, unmodified, notably in Greece and North Africa. The 6 and 17 pdrs were specialised guns and used as such whereas the 25s were more valuable as artillery

[@Ubique2927]

@@alecblunden8615 .. Against Italian tanks and Pz III's not against later German tanks. But it could have been.

[@alexwilliamson1486]

A great gun, all rounder…emergency firing with the clinometer…that and the side of a truck and a piece of chalk…#UBIQUE

[@hendrikvanleeuwen9110]

Nice vid. Cheers.

[@EssexHMVA]

Glad you enjoyed our video

[@andrewdunn9307]

Dis my basic Guns on these 1985 JLRRA

[@alexlanning712]

The Germans had the "88"s but we had that

[@EssexHMVA]

Both armies had a number of different weapons, and they all had their pro's and con's, most certainly.

[@raymaxwell2940]

Oh look its a tiger so what lol🐯

[@dougoneill7266]

Interesting, but to compare this otherwise excellent gun to the '88mm is a bit disingenuous given the disparity in cartridge sizes.

[@andrewfrancis3591]

There is no comparison, but do you think the army were not aware of the 88 and carried on with this system for a reason? Barrel life, cost and reliability.

[@gunner678]

It's not a comparison. The calibre is 88mm in diameter.

[@dougoneill7266]

@@gunner678 'It compares favourably' is what was stated. that seems like a comparison to me. not that it matters.

[@dougoneill7266]

@@andrewfrancis3591 I think from my limited knowledge of both that the 25lb er was the more versatile weapon and probably easier to manage logistically. so I'm sure that it made sound sense to make it the cornerstone of the field artillery.

[@gunner678]

@@dougoneill7266 excellent artillery piece and still a viable weapon even today in the right circumstances.