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BL 9.2-inch howitzer
The Ordnance BL 9.2-inch howitzer was the principal counter-battery equipment of British forces in France in World War I. It equipped a substantial number of siege batteries of the Royal Garrison Artillery. It remained in service until about the middle of World War II.
==History==
The origins of a British heavy "siege" howitzer lie in advances in technology and the 21 cm howitzers used by the German field army.〔Headlam, p. 262〕 UK had purchased Skoda 9.45-inch howitzer from Austria in 1900 for service in South Africa. A practice camp in the 1900s showed this howitzer's high minimum elevation was a major problem. In due course Britain decided to develop its own heavy weapon, but retained the Skoda transport technique of moving it in three loads on wheeled trailers (either horse or traction towed). A trial gun was received in 1913 and fired at Woolwich and Shoeburyness during the winter. In July 1914 it was sent to the tactical firing range at Rhyader with a siege company. The assessment was "This equipment is a vast improvement on any other in use in the siege artillery, and is worth taking with an army." Major General von Donop, Master-General of the Ordance, immediately ordered 16 guns〔Headlam, p. 263〕 and a further 16 were ordered in October 1914. The prototype gun, "Mother", was in action in France on October 31, 1914 and production guns entered service in 1915.〔
The gun was transported in three loads - body and cradle, bed, barrel - towed by either heavy horses or a Holt tractor. The equipment comprised a segment shaped ground platform assembled from steel section and bolted to a holdfast sunk flush with the ground. An earth box fitted above ground to the front of the holdfast, with (Mk 1) or (Mk 2) of earth prevented it "bucking". On soft ground, extra beams were used under the holdfast.〔 The carriage was mounted on the platform, it was pivoted at the front and traversed up to 30 degrees left and right by a spur gear engaging a curved toothed rack at the breech end of the platform, with the weight of the carriage on rollers.
The tubular cradle pivoted by the trunnions supported the barrel – a wire bound ''A tube'' – and connected it to the hydro-pneumatic recoil system with a floating piston (the first British use of this)〔Hogg IV, Allied Artillery of World War One. The Crowood Press,Marlborough, 1998〕 and hydraulic buffer. However, the initial design suffered from excessive recoil and was modified in 1916. In 1917 the recoil was further improved by addition of a recoil indicator and cut-off gear.〔Official History of the Ministry of Munitions Vol X The Supply of Munitions Part 1 Guns, Sect VI Other Modifications in Design, (g) 9.2-inch Howitzer〕 Full recoil (40-inch Mk I, 44-inch Mk II〔Hogg & Thurston 1972 pp. 161–162 for WWI British service; US Army Handbook 1920 p. 295 for US service.〕) was allowed at lower elevation, hence absorbing most of the horizontal (i.e. backward) force. A shorter recoil (23-inch Mk I, 20-inch Mk II〔Hogg & Thurston 1972 quote recoil at maximum elevation as 23 inches and 20 inches for Mk I and Mk II respectively in WWI British service; the US Army Handbook of 1920 quotes recoil of 19 inches for both at maximum elevation.〕) was allowed at high elevation where the ground itself could absorb much of the vertical (i.e. downward) recoil force. This prevented the breech from hitting the platform. The barrel had to be depressed 3° for loading, as can be seen in the photograph, shown below, of a howitzer of the Australian 55th Siege Battery.
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