RBL 40 pounder Armstrong gun
| Ordnance RBL 40 pounder gun | |
|---|---|
| File:RBL 40 pounder Tasmania 1902 AWM A04785 clipped 300px.jpeg Launceston Volunteer Artillery, Tasmania, 1902 | |
| Type | Naval gun Fortification gun |
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1860s - 190? |
| Used by |  United KingdomAustralian colonies |
| Wars | New Zealand Land Wars Bombardment of Kagoshima |
| Production history | |
| Designer | W.G. Armstrong Co. |
| Manufacturer | W.G. Armstrong Co. Royal Gun Factory |
| Produced | 1859 - 1863 |
| Number built | 1013[1] |
| Variants | 32cwt, 35cwt |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 32 cwt (3,584 pounds (1,626 kg)), later 35 cwt (3,920 pounds (1,780 kg)) gun & breech[2] |
| Barrel length | 106.3 inches (2.700 m) bore & chamber[2] |
| | |
| Shell | 40 pounds 2 ounces (18.20 kg)[2] |
| Calibre | 4.75-inch (120.6 mm)[2] |
| Breech | Armstrong screw with vertical sliding vent-piece (block) |
| Muzzle velocity | 1,180 feet per second (360 m/s)[2] |
The Armstrong RBL 40 pounder gun was an early attempt to use William Armstrong's new and innovative breechloading mechanism for medium artillery.
Contents
Design history
The Armstrong "screw" breech had already proved successful in the RBL 12 pounder 8 cwt field gun, and the British Government requested it be implemented for heavier guns despite Armstrong's protests that the mechanism was unsuited to heavy guns.[3]
The first version weighed 32 cwt, followed by the 35 cwt version which introduced a longer and stronger breech-piece.[4]
A 32 cwt variant having a horizontal sliding wedge breech instead of the Armstrong screw with vertical vent-piece was introduced in 1864 as an attempt to address the perceived weaknesses of the screw-breech design. It was withdrawn from service by 1877.[5]
The gun was recommended in 1859 for the Navy as a broadside or pivot gun.[4]
An officer from HMS Euryalus described the gun's performance at the Bombardment of Kagoshima of August 1863:
| “ | The 40-pounder we found answer exceedingly well, for coming out of the place [Kagoshima] we planted common shell, with pillar fuze, wherever we wished, at a range of 3,800 yards. Three steel vent-pieces broke, but another placed them immediately and no harm was done. These guns work very easily, are very true, and the drill is very simple. | ” |
Land service
The guns were typically employed mounted on high "siege travelling carriages" for use as semi-mobile guns in forts, firing over parapets.
Colony of Victoria service
The Australian colony of Victoria received six 35 cwt guns in August 1865. They were used as mobile coast fortification guns and later as field guns. Three of these guns are known to survive.[7]
Colony of Tasmania service
As a result of the Jervois-Scratchley reports of 1877 into the defence of Australian colonies following the withdrawal of British troops, the Launceston Volunteer Artillery Corps in Tasmania acquired 2 guns on late-model iron carriages with iron wheels[8], which they continued to operate until at least 1902.
Surviving examples
- A gun made by Royal Gun Factory in 1865 at Elizabeth Castle, Jersey
- Restored gun No. 272 at Hastings-Western Port Historical Society Museum, Victoria, Australia
- Restored Gun No. 271 at Fort Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia
- Unrestored Gun No. 268 in Como Park, South Yarra, Victoria
- A 40-pounder horizontal-wedge gun at Royal Armouries, Fort Nelson, Portsmouth
- On board HMS Warrior, Portsmouth, UK
See also
- 12px Media related to RBL 40 pounder Armstrong gun at Wikimedia Commons
- List of naval guns
- Armstrong gun
Notes
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- Treatise on the construction and manufacture of ordnance in the British service. War Office, UK, 1877
- Text Book of Gunnery, 1887. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE
- Text Book of Gunnery, 1902. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE
- Alexander Lyman Holley, "A treatise on Ordnance and Armor" published by D Van Nostrand, New York, 1865
External links
- Diagram of RBL 40-pdr on siege travelling carriage at Palmerston Forts Society website
- RBL 40-pdr on Platform, Medium No. 4 at Palmerston Forts Society website
- 40-pounder use in New Zealand Land Wars at New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
- W.L. Ruffell, Armstrong RBL 40-pr
- W.L. Ruffell, "The Armstrong Gun Part 4: Other Armstrong Equipments in New Zealand" - use ashore in New Zealand Land Wars
- Diagram showing gun on block trail carriage
- ↑ 1013 were in service in 1877 : 819 35cwt & 194 32cwt. Quoted in Treatise on Manufacture of Ordnance 1877, page 150. Holley 1865, page 13 quotes 641 as at 1863 : 535 manufactured by Elswick Ordnance and 106 by the Royal Gun Factory. From the Report of the Select Committee on Ordnance, 1863.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Text Book of Gunnery, 1887
- ↑ Ruffell, The Armstrong Gun Part 5: British revert to Muzzle Loading
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Treatise on Manufacture of Service Ordnance, 1877
- ↑ Treatise on Manufacture of Service Ordnance, 1877. pages 89, 153
- ↑ The Times, 25th April 1864 : 25 April 1864 THE ARMSTRONG GUNS IN JAPAN http://www.pdavis.nl/Japan.php
- ↑ Friends of the Cerberus Website : slideshow http://www.cerberus.com.au/reenactors/40_pounder_slideshow.html
- ↑ David Spethman, "The Garrison Guns of Australia" page 49. 2008, published by Ron H Mortensen, Inala, Qld. ISBN 978 0 9775990 8 0
