Strangely Brown Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-26511743 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonhunter Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Yes I have heard from bits of him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangely Brown Posted March 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Yes I have heard from bits of him Just looked at a map, I suspect it landed a couple of miles from his house! Love to know whether it was the wrong charge bag, elevation etc. In my day if there was a YO on the gun position we always blamed them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonhunter Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Who is going to write his obituary ....... Shall we start Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oaken Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Noticeably quiet around here today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown dog Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Just looked at a map, I suspect it landed a couple of miles from his house! Love to know whether it was the wrong charge bag, elevation etc. In my day if there was a YO on the gun position we always blamed them! I always say that if the boys fire a charge or elevation error it'll land in my garden; didn't quite expect it to come true these days! That needs to be a career-ender for a bunch of people; looking at the map, that must have been around 7-10km N of the top edge of the range - and has come in over a village. Spilt tea everywhere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan534 Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Thats what happens if you use the BD reloading method when prepping the charges! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonhunter Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Perhaps loaded with components supplied by 1967spud ..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 " ... capable of containing nearly half a tonnes [sic] of explosives ...." My, that was a big shell! And, it only made a hole around two feet deep? These MoD cuts are biting deep or else the Army isn't getting much bang for its buck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jungle_re Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Was it privi ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorg Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Another one of my homeloads gone wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown dog Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 " ... capable of containing nearly half a tonnes [sic] of explosives ...." My, that was a big shell! And, it only made a hole around two feet deep? These MoD cuts are biting deep or else the Army isn't getting much bang for its buck! Assuming it was a 155; it was around 45kg with most of that weight being steel; around a quarter of the weight is HE. The shallowness of the crater demostrates the extreme efficiency of the design - shells that make big craters are wasting their oomph on moving soil; shells that make shallow craters have bigger kill radiuses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missed Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Aha the drop shorts proving that they dont actually drop short............too often! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gandy Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 We all miss now and again, I usually just don't measure it in K's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradders Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Assuming it was a 155; it was around 45kg with most of that weight being steel; around a quarter of the weight is HE. The shallowness of the crater demostrates the extreme efficiency of the design - shells that make big craters are wasting their oomph on moving soil; shells that make shallow craters have bigger kill radiuses. Is this because they have better/more sensitive fuses? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangely Brown Posted March 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Aha the drop shorts proving that they dont actually drop short............too often! If it wasn't discovered until the next day; the evidence (or lack of!) would have been burned before anybody was the wiser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 The shallowness of the crater demostrates the extreme efficiency of the design - shells that make big craters are wasting their oomph on moving soil; shells that make shallow craters have bigger kill radiuses. Point taken - the reference was to the 'half tonnes' that I think would make just a little deeper hole than the 12 kg you advise the filling actually weighs - and of course my tongue was very firmly in my cheek on copying this pearl of journalistic research. (Even I know that an artillery piece would have to be a teensy weensy bit bigger than the AS90 to handle such a slightly (!!) larger shell in both calibre and overall size. Wikipedia quotes the 16"/50 Mk7 main armament on the WW2 USS Iowa class battleships as firing projectiles weighting between 0.85 and 1.2 tonnes.) At a half tonne, the railway line 300M away from the point of impact might have suffered a little too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangely Brown Posted March 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Is this because they have better/more sensitive fuses? Things have probably changed a lot since my day, but IIRC you get set HE fuses to "quick" or "Super quick". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown dog Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Is this because they have better/more sensitive fuses? Not really,best above surface effect is achieved by getting it to burst 9m above the ground. modern shells are made with high tensile steel and therefore have thinner walls, which -together with more powerful HEs gives a much more efficient burst (and higher velocity more evenly sized and more numerous fragments) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown dog Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 If it wasn't discovered until the next day; the evidence (or lack of!) would have been burned before anybody was the wiser. or eaten! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Not really,best above surface effect is achieved by getting it to burst 9m above the ground. modern shells are made with high tensile steel and therefore have thinner walls, which -together with more powerful HEs gives a much more efficient burst (and higher velocity more evenly sized and more numerous fragments) I think I'll stay well clear - rifle bullets frighten me enough! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradders Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Not really,best above surface effect is achieved by getting it to burst 9m above the ground. modern shells are made with high tensile steel and therefore have thinner walls, which -together with more powerful HEs gives a much more efficient burst (and higher velocity more evenly sized and more numerous fragments) I didn't realise that normal artillery had altitude/proximity fuses. We certainly never had them back in my day when I was attached to the German Green Berets fighting with the 19th Canadian Delta Paras portable Artillery Cadre against the Argie Mau Mau in the Panjshir Valley just south of the Mekong Delta in Salonica back in 84. You won't have ready about that in any history books, I can tell you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 We certainly never had them back in my day when I was attached to the German Green Berets fighting with the 19th Canadian Delta Paras portable Artillery Cadre against the Argie Mau Mau in the Panjshir Valley just south of the Mekong Delta in Salonica back in 84. You won't have ready about that in any history books, I can tell you Brilliant ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown dog Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 I didn't realise that normal artillery had altitude/proximity fuses. We certainly never had them back in my day when I was attached to the German Green Berets fighting with the 19th Canadian Delta Paras portable Artillery Cadre against the Argie Mau Mau in the Panjshir Valley just south of the Mekong Delta in Salonica back in 84. You won't have ready about that in any history books, I can tell you Presumably you had to eat your computer after writing that? Ground-sensing radar fuzes with sensitivity set to account for the radar reflectivity of the ground are the norm for most countries on 'our team'. The clever stuff beyond that crosses over into what we'd have considered sci-fi 15 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradders Posted March 10, 2014 Report Share Posted March 10, 2014 Presumably you had to eat your computer after writing that? Ground-sensing radar fuzes with sensitivity set to account for the radar reflectivity of the ground are the norm for most countries on 'our team'. The clever stuff beyond that crosses over into what we'd have considered sci-fi 15 years ago. And you get all that in a 'dumb' artillery shell nowadays? It's amazing the stuff man invents to kill our fellow man in the most efficient way possible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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