Maybe they were on sale at the time of purchase?
tree68It is perhaps a bit unnerving to drive down the range roads (which I did a fair amount of) and see a sign that says "this area cleared for overhead fire..."
Just seeing how much they had stored in Germany in bunkers in the 1980's was scary. I remember one bunker in Germany, floor to cieling Willy P shells.
CMStPnPWe took three air bursts of the 155mm round before the CO could get them to cease fire (they were spotting rounds for a FO and were being walked).
We had one drop in on a bivouac area here - killed a soldier.
It is perhaps a bit unnerving to drive down the range roads (which I did a fair amount of) and see a sign that says "this area cleared for overhead fire..."
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Thank God no-one was hurt! But you know, sometimes a good scare all around is the best teacher there is.
Flintlock76 I was at an artillery demonstration when I was in the Corps, and sat behind one of the 105mm howitzers, but not too close. Amazing! When the piece fired you could see the round going downrange, almost like a football thrown by an expert quarterback! Let me add the 105's were the same kind used in WW2, although they'd been rebuilt several times. A little bit of history in action.
I was at an artillery demonstration when I was in the Corps, and sat behind one of the 105mm howitzers, but not too close.
Amazing! When the piece fired you could see the round going downrange, almost like a football thrown by an expert quarterback!
Let me add the 105's were the same kind used in WW2, although they'd been rebuilt several times. A little bit of history in action.
Well former Wisconsin National Guard for two years of service with them then I went Active Duty for three. WIARNG made a lot of training mistakes at Fort McCoy, WI and really thats how they learned. One of them was to bivowac in an area we should not have been or else the Artillery officer had the wrong coordinates. I tend to think the latter as we did not move after the incident.
We took three air bursts of the 155mm round before the CO could get them to cease fire (they were spotting rounds for a FO and were being walked). I was in my sleeping bag lying down trying to go to sleep when the nearest one burst. It lifted up my body a few inches, sucked the air out my lungs then dropped me back on the ground. Nobody was harmed by fragments as we were all in our tents and thick down sleeping bags and we were probably out of fragment range apparently. Man that was quite a demo of power though. Can you imagine what a barrage does at ground zero?
I still remember the CO after the first one detonated....in a shakey voice. "Hey that was kind of close".....(lol). Just like being in the movie STRIPES. :)
I was at an artillery demonstration when I was in the Corps, (1975) and sat behind one of the 105mm howitzers, but not too close.
Flintlock76They were also told to get at least 1,000 meters away from the target area!
I had the priviledge of watching the A-10 "Hawg Smoke" competition in person a few years ago. The bullets from the Gatling gun may have been real, but the bombing competition used "flash bangs." We were probably 300-400 yards from both targets. Had they been dropping real 500 pounders, we'd have been a lot further away.
The bombing target was an old tank. Wouldn't have wanted to be in it...
One interesting thing about the gun portion - if conditions were just right, there were four separate events noted by a nearby observer (not necessarily in this order): The smoke from the gun firing, the sonic boom of the rounds passing, the sound of the rounds hitting the target (dumpsters), and the sound of the gun firing.
CMStPnPOur MLRS artillery system which is not nuclear capable now because of treaty already can fire conventional rounds further than 20 miles (up to 400 miles).
Think you may have hub-doubled a zero in that range: my understanding was that MLRS range was about 43mi which is now (as of late 2018, the last time I checked) being expanded out to about 85mi. Even ATacMS is only supposed to be about 185mi; I don't think SLEP is intended to extend that. (Of course these are all unclassified numbers...)
Of course I'd sleep easier knowing we had access to reasonably accurate 400mi range from a deployed field system.
CMStPnP, when I was a Marine lieutenant at the Basic School in Quantico VA we were taught that when calling for fire support ask for the biggest thing available.
However, just because you ask for a tactical nuke doesn't mean you're going to get one, no matter who you are!
On the other hand, during the Vietnam War if Marines asked for the next biggest thing available, usually the battleship New Jersey (if it was in the neighborhood) they usually got it. They were also told to get at least 1,000 meters away from the target area!
Tactical nukes have been around for a long, long time. Their original purpose was to stop a Soviet blitz into western Europe, a "last-ditch" effort if the Russians came through the Fulda Gap with more tanks than God!
Mention of Fort Lee reminded me that my mother told me that my father was one of the many men who built Camp Lee in 1917 (it became Fort Lee after WW II).
Now, back to modern armament.
Johnny
BaltACDSaw a blurb on TV news last night - US is working on conventional weapons to have a range exceeding 20 miles to keep up with or surpass the Russians.
They meant to say Tactical Nukes. Our MLRS artillery system which is not nuclear capable now because of treaty already can fire conventional rounds further than 20 miles (up to 400 miles). Tactical Nukes are limited to just conventional artillery shells by treaty and currently the farthest they can travel is 18 miles.
Did you know that any 18 year old Private in the Army Infantry can request the firing artillery unit to load a tactical nuke as part of their firing solution? The request has to be approved by the firing artillery battery before it can be loaded but I thought it interesting the request is allowed by the person on the front line.
Regardless of the release of nukes those 18 year olds have a LOT of destructive power they can request and not all of it requires pre-approval.
Popular Science (IIRC in 1927, available on Google Books) ran a three part article on the construction and deployment of these guns. Construction was done by Baldwin, the guns were 14" Naval Rifles as used on contemporary USN battleships and when deployd were manned by USN personnel.
My recollection was that the range was a bit longer than when mounted on a battleship, probably due to a higher elevation than a ship's turret is capable of.
Well Sam, you know there's never been a constitutional amendment passed saying secession's flat-out illegal...
An oversight on someone's part, I suppose.
And so everyone knows, that Krupp K-5 Sam's mentioned is the famous "Anzio Annie" of World War Two fame. It's on outdoor display near the US Army's Quartermaster Corps Museum at Fort Lee, Petersburg VA. The full-blown ordnance museum project's apparantly stalled at the moment.
Flintlock76 Railroad cannons are certainly interesting artefacts, but militarily they're dinosaurs. There's little they can do that can't be handled just as well by tactical air. Hey! I just remembered, back in the '90s there was a railroad gun displayed at the old Marine Corps Museum in Quantico Va. Not as big as the one in the article, I think it was a 12" gun, but I do remember it was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works! There 'ya go, railroad content! I don't know where it is now. I didn't see it at the new National Museum Of The Marine Corps when I visited a few years ago.
Railroad cannons are certainly interesting artefacts, but militarily they're dinosaurs.
There's little they can do that can't be handled just as well by tactical air.
Hey! I just remembered, back in the '90s there was a railroad gun displayed at the old Marine Corps Museum in Quantico Va. Not as big as the one in the article, I think it was a 12" gun, but I do remember it was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works! There 'ya go, railroad content!
I don't know where it is now. I didn't see it at the new National Museum Of The Marine Corps when I visited a few years ago.
This link's for our 'Ol Cannoncocker-in residence':
see@ https://trainsnscale.com/blog/the-krupp-k5-e-world-war-ii-german-railway-artillery-gun/
Wayne: The artillry piece in question [ a Krupp K-5 ] now resides at Ft. Lee Va. [in part. w/photos] FTL: "... was relocated (along with other museum pieces, in order to comply with the Base Realignment and Closure law passed by the US Congress in 2005) by the US Army Ordnance Corps to its US Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center at Fort Lee, Virginia, in 2010..."
Maybe, in case Virginia wants to seceed again?
CMStPnP on the front of some of the Milwaukee to Chicago Amtrak trains
While you're at it, why not incorporate a little "battlebots" hardware to the comutertrain mix?
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=battlebots.gif&qs=n&form=QBIR&sp=-1&pq=battlebots.gif&sc=8-14&sk=&cvid=F3377E98845546DA923453E4E4A20480
CMStPnPHey we could use this on the front of some of the Milwaukee to Chicago Amtrak trains to speed things up in METRA territory....just kidding.. :) https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/navy-yard-railroad-gun
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/navy-yard-railroad-gun
Saw a blurb on TV news last night - US is working on conventional weapons to have a range exceeding 20 miles to keep up with or surpass the Russians.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Hey we could use this on the front of some of the Milwaukee to Chicago Amtrak trains to speed things up in METRA territory....just kidding.. :)
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