Gun carriage

“ Down below in the gun-decks during an action, the batteries became so full of the smoke of black powder that the men could hardly see what they were doing. The darkness prevented them from seeing the very dangerous recoiling of the guns, and many were killed by them. It was impossible to judge how a gun carriage would recoil, for it never recoiled twice in the same manner, and though the men at the side tackles did their best to reduce the shock they could not prevent it altogether. ”

“ The absence of the cap squares of a gun can be remedied by lashing the metal firmly down to the carriage with a raw hide rope, and then twisting it up tight with a stick, as shown in the above illustration; which also exhibits the mode of raising a gun by making use of the trail as a lever. A heavy gun may be mounted by letting its muzzle into a hole in the ground while the carriage is run under it. ”

“ Gun-carriage and guns are drawn each by six horses. Those horses, which are only used by the foot artillery, are the best and strongest of the German army. And yet even those animals are often unable to do the work required of them, so that all available men, seventy or eighty at times, have to help transport the gun with ropes specially carried for that purpose. That help is chiefly resorted to when the guns leave the road to be placed in firing position. ”

“ All the nations whose tendencies have been considered in this report have experienced to a varying degree with field gun carriages, particularly in a desire to design a carriage permitting a greater angle of elevation and greater movement of the gun in the traverse. The Italians have expressed themselves in the modified Deport Carriage; this vehicle is of the split trail type and permits an elevation in excess of 75 degrees, and a traverse on each side of the center of the carriage of about 20 degrees—about 356 mils. ”

“ A gun-carriage which, applied to a gun mounted in barbette, allows it to recoil behind the parapet or other shelter, and by means of a counterpoise brings it, or assists in bringing it, again into battery after it has been loaded. ”

“ I dare say the three-pounder was not far. It in all probability upset, and parted from the carriage; but if an enemy (so usually termed) had made the attack, it is very improbable that either guns or carriage would have been left, for a very few men could carry gun, carriage, and all.”— [MS. Correspondence of General Pollock: Camp near Ali-Musjid, Nov. 1, 1842.] ”

“ With the tackles hooked to the upper-bolts of the carriage, the gun is to be bowsed out as close as possible, without the assistance of crows or hand-spikes; taking care at the same time to keep the breeching clear of the trucks, by hauling it through the rings; it is then to be bent so as to run clear when the gun is fired. When the gun is out, the tackle-falls are to be laid along-side the carriages in neat fakes, that when the gun by recoiling overhauls them, they may not be subject to get foul, as they would if in a common coil. ”

“ The interior compartments of the ammunition-chests vary according to the nature of the ammunition with which they are loaded. In rear of the last chest is placed a spare-wheel axle of iron, with a chain and toggle at the end of it. On the rear end of the middle rail is placed a carriage hook similar to a pintle-hook, to which the lunette of a gun-carriage whose limber has become disabled may be attached, and the gun carried off the field. The caisson has the same turning capacity and mobility as the gun-carriage, so that it can follow the piece in all its manœuvres, if necessary. ”

“ The hind axle-tree takes, with the intervention of various elevating arrangements, the preponderance of the breech. The second kind is adapted for field and siege work: the shallow brackets are raised in front on high wheels, but unite behind into a solid beam called the trail, which tapers downwards, and rests on the ground when in action, but for travel is connected to a two-wheeled carriage called a limber (which see) . Gun-carriages are chiefly made of elm for ship-board, as less given to splinter from shot, and of oak on shore ”

“ All field artillery, by which is meant guns and howitzers, which accompany mobile troops are designed on the quick-firing principle, by which the inevitable recoil at the moment of firing is absorbed by an arrangement known as the recoil-carriage, thus preventing any movement of the gun-carriage proper, and avoiding unnecessary labour for the gun-detachments, while at the same time allowing the men composing it to remain under cover of the shield with which the guns are provided. ”

“ They are of admirable metal, and would have proved very serviceable, except that unfortunately their bore does not suit any of our shot. Gun-carriages rent by the bursting of guns, or so unscientifically constructed as inevitably to destroy themselves, like the iron carriages taken from the enemy at Kertch, are kept as lessons for the Captain Instructor to dwell upon, when he takes round his bevy of young artillery cadets. ”

“ In the ditch is the carriage of a shattered machine-gun; one can see the hole made by the shell—a 75. What a state the gun on that carriage must have been in! And the machine-gunners? At the bottom of the hole! Ammunition belts of coarse white canvas lie coiled in puddles.
We pick up some boots full of rain-water. I wonder whether the men from whom we took them walked barefooted through the mud merely for pleasure? In another hole we find the men themselves. Further on again we encounter crosses bearing German inscriptions. ”

“ With parts and movements far more ingeniously adapted than those of the crude and unskillfully designed muzzle-pivoting carriages of Captain Heathorn, also exhibited at Paris, and much exhibited and exposed since, the Gruson mounting is even more complicated, expensive, and liable to injury of every sort to which a gun carriage can be conceived liable. ”

“ It is difficult to know, within a few feet, to where the carriage will come, and the greatest watchfulness is necessary on all hands to prevent accidents.” This refers, observe, to the truck gun under control. How terrible an uncontrolled gun could be, may be read in the pages of Victor Hugo’s Quatre-Vingt-Treize, of which romance the breaking loose of a piece on the gun-deck of a frigate forms a central incident. ”

“ Both when firing from the carriage and from the gun dismounted the fire must be distributed all along the advancing line of cavalry; special attention must be paid to the supporting lines, to one’s own flanks, and to the defence of the carriages when the guns are separated from them. Machine-gun detachments are able to [200] advance in the open fields without any fear of the enemy’s cavalry, provided the latter is not supported by artillery or infantry, or is not in such force as to be able to attack simultaneously from different sides in several lines. ”

“ The mobile guns should be mounted on a light tripod and carried in a low-wheeled handcart, or they may be mounted on a very light two-wheeled carriage capable of being drawn by one man and having wheels of small track, which can move over the narrowest roads in the fortress. These mobile guns should not be allotted to any particular work, but to the garrison other than those within the forts, for use in repelling assaults and making counter-attacks. ”

“ The board is of the opinion that, except as to perfection of details, the limit of carriage design, as expressed by the most modern type of box-trail and split-trail carriages, has been reached; and feels that with the advent of motor transportation the tendency will be toward a gun mounted on a self propelling carriage and expressing the desires of the field artillery with respect to maximum horizontal and vertical arcs of fire. ”

“ Lever and wheel-men do their duty; the guns are run in (or out when required) with the ease of pop-guns, till certain marks on carriages and slides correspond; then they are laid, firing-gear is cleared and made ready, while the outsiders take out the tompion, open the port and scuttle of the gun about to be loaded, bring forward a bolster of powder (or a representative mass of wood) , and place a giant shot on a ‘trolly,’ which is just a little railway-carriage to convey the shot on rails from its rack to the gun. ”

“ The 10-inch rifle and 13-inch smooth-bore are used with the 13-inch carriage, and the 12-inch rifle and 15-inch smooth-bore on the 15-inch carriage; the 20-inch gun has a separate carriage. The flank-casemate carriage is adapted to the mounting of the 24-pounder iron howitzer in the flanks of casemate batteries. Several modifications have been introduced into the carriages for the experimental rifled guns. For the largest calibers the chassis-rails are deeper in rear than in front. ”

“ The inventive genius of ordnance and civilian experts has been taxed in designing carriages that would obviate this fault, resulting, it is believed, in the solution of this difficult problem. Since 1893 the number of gun carriages constructed or building has been raised to a total of 129, of which 90 are on the disappearing principle, and the number of mortar carriages to 152, while the 95 emplacements which were provided for prior to that time have been increased to 280 built and building. ”

“ The armaments will be exceedingly heavy when all the guns are mounted, and they are fast getting the ten-inch columbiads into position en barbette. Every thing which could be required, except mortars, was in abundance—the platforms and gun-carriages are solid and well made, the embrasures of the casemates are admirably constructed, and the ventilation of the bomb-proof carefully provided for. ”

“ In parks not on immediate service, it is customary to arrange the guns with their muzzles to the front; but where the guns are likely to be wanted at a short notice, appearances must not be studied, and the gun carriages must be parked with their shafts to the front, ready to receive horses to them. A quarter-guard is placed in front of the park, and the noncommissioned officers and gunners’ tents on the flanks, at about 20 paces distance and 40 paces to the rear the subaltern officers ”

“ They may be further divided into those required for the immediate service and transportation of cannon, as gun-carriages and mortar-beds, and those employed for the transportation of ammunition, implements and materials for repairs, as caissons, mortar-wagons, forges, and battery-wagons. The field-, mountain-, prairie-, and siege-carriages being required for the transportation of their pieces are similar in their construction; those for sea-coast purposes differ materially from the others. ”

“ After the cars came a convoy of trucks. Some of these were closed, some open. On some of the open trucks they made out the form of camp kitchens, on others, bent forward, half asleep, were men,—hundreds and hundreds of men.
And then came the big guns—guns on half tracks, on trucks, and propelled by their own power they one and all gave out a great bang and clatter. Now and then, as a gun threatened to leave the road, there came a shout of warning. Once the whole parade of monsters came to a jangling halt. Then the silence was appalling. ”

“ The guards faced around, and at the points of their weapons or by blows from the barrels, they forced the Industrials back. One man drew a pistol, and resting it across a brake-wheel, fired at—and missed—one of our party, whose "gun" echoed the shot. With a cry, and grasping his arm with his left hand, the assailant sat down; his six-shooter falling on the sand between the cars. By that time the freight had all been transferred; the engine coughed, the cars jerked, each the other, and the train began to gather way, its passengers settling themselves into their places as they went. ”

“ These portable and easily laid field railways twist and turn and coil like snakes among the gun positions, the miniature engines, with their strings of toy cars, puffing their way into the heart of the artillery zone, where the ammunition is unloaded, sorted, and classified in calibers, and then artfully hidden from the prying eyes of enemy aviators and from their bombs. ”

“ Of the drivers, nothing remains except tattered boots and charred scraps of clothing, while the ground within a radius of fifty yards of the wagons is littered with pieces of iron, split brass cartridge cases, which have exploded, and some fixed-gun ammunition with live shells. ”

“ Having used up all his Lewis-gun ammunition upon marching troops, one lad fired his Very-lights, his signal-rockets, at the next group of men he saw. They flew at field-gunners and put them to flight, at heavy guns crawling along the roads on caterpillar wheels, at transport wagons, motor-lorries, and one motor-car, whose passengers, if they live, will never forget that sudden rush of wings four feet overhead, with a spasm of bullets about them. ”

“ In 1338 there existed breech-loading guns, with one or more movable chambers, to facilitate loading, but, even then, the fire was very slow; “three shots an hour was fair practice for a big bombard.” It is not certain when wheeled carriages were introduced, though mention is made of two-wheeled bombard carriages in 1376; but it must be remembered that the gun at first was looked upon as a substitute for the balista and other war machines employed in the siege of a fortified place. Its value as an effective and movable weapon on the battlefield was not realised for some time. ”

“ He may at any time train a gun on those particular roads, on the off-chance of bagging a convoy, or at any rate of making the road in question so dangerous as to necessitate it being put out of bounds for transport, thus making the approaches to the line more difficult and fewer in number. ”

“ Though hundreds of airplane photographs of the country behind the German trenches were brought in and minutely examined, there was nothing about them to suggest the hiding-place of a gun of so large a caliber until some one called attention to the deep ruts left by motor-trucks which had left the highway at a certain point and turned into the innocent-looking patch of woods. Why were the wheel-ruts shown on the plate so black? Because the vehicle must have sunk deep into the soft soil. ”