The Ordnance BL 15-pounder, otherwise known as the 15-pounder 7 cwt, was the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

's field gun in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

and some remained in limited use in minor theatres of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It fired a shell of 3-inch (76 mm) diameter with a maximum weight of , hence its name which differentiated it from its predecessor '12-pounder' 3-inch (76 mm) gun which fired shells weighing only .The British at that time traditionally identified smaller guns by the maximum weight of shell they could fire, arbitrarily rounded up or down.

History

The gun was a modified version of the previous BL 12-pounder 7 cwt gun of 1883. When the modern smokeless propellant

cordite Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace black powder as a military propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burn ...

replaced gunpowder in 1892 it was decided that the 12-pounder was capable of firing a heavier shell up to . A shell was adopted and the gun was renamed a 15-pounder. Mk I carriage : recoil was controlled by drag-shoes. These were placed under the wheels, and were connected by chains and cables to the wheel hubs and the trail. Mk II carriage : this had the same drag-shoe system and also a hydraulic buffer. This only allowed a short recoil, and was not successful. Mk III carriage : In 1899 a rudimentary recoil system was added, consisting of a "spade" beneath the axle which dug in when the gun recoiled, connected by a steel wire to a spring in a cylinder on the trail. Mk I and II carriages fitted with these were known as Mk 1* and Mk II*. The latter retained the hydraulic buffer.Hall, June 1973 Although the whole gun jumped and moved backwards on firing, the spring returned it to firing position and hence still increased the rate of fire compared to the old model without any recoil mechanism.Clarke 2004, page 18 Hogg and Thurston comment ironically : "It is said that it checked it ecoilso well that the gun usually recoiled and jumped forward ". Other Mks of carriage followed, all with axle-spades, but without buffers. From 1904 the BL 15-pounder was superseded by the modern QF 18-pounder. Remaining BL 15-pounders were upgraded as the BLC 15-pounder to equip the

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry ...

with an "ersatz QF gun".

Combat use

The gun was normally towed by 6 horses, in 3 pairs.

Second Boer War

349 guns were in service in the

1899–1902 and fired 166,548 shells out of the British total of 233,714. While the gun could fire a shell up to approximately , the No. 56 time and percussion fuze in use in 1899 could only be set for a maximum timed range of because it only burned for 13 seconds. The shrapnel shells in use were usually time-set to burst in the air above and in front of the enemy. Hence the gunners had to get within approximately of the enemy to fire on them. The fuze could be set to explode on contact (percussion) up to the maximum range, but shrapnel exploding on contact was of little use. This was rectified later in the war by the No. 57 "blue fuze" which could be time set up to .Hall, December 1975Hall, December 1972

World War I

7th Field Battery (4 guns, originally No. 2 and No. 6 Light Batteries) towed by oxen and known as the Oxo Battery and manned by Mauritian and South African gunners fought in the German East Africa campaign in

.Farndale 1988, page 316

Ammunition

Surviving examples

HM Royal Armouries Fort Nelson, Fareham, Hampshire, England
* At the Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich, London

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Dale Clarke
British Artillery 1914–1919. Field Army Artillery. Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2004
* General Sir Martin Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery : Forgotten Fronts and the Home Base 1914–18. London: Royal Artillery Institution, 1988. * Major Darrell D. Hall
"Guns in South Africa 1899–1902" in The South African Military History Society. Military History Journal – Vol 2 No 1, June 1971
* Major Darrell D. Hall

(web page is incorrectly titled 1900–1914) * Major Darrell D. Hall, [http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol025dh.html "Field Artillery of the British Army 1860–1960. Part II, 1900–1914" in The South African Military History Society. Military History Journal – Vol 2 No 5, June 1973] * Major Darrell D. Hall
"AMMUNITION: 15-PR 7 cwt BL". in The South African Military History Society Military History Journal – Vol 3 No 4, December 1975
* I.V.Hogg & L.F. Thurston, British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914–1918. London: Ian Allan, 1972.

External links

Handbook for the 15-pr B.L. gun mark I Field batteries 1896

Handbook for the 15-pr B.L. gun mark I Field batteries 1900

Handbook for the 15-pr B.L. gun mark I Field batteries 1903

Handbook for the 15-pr. B.L. gun field batteries 1904
at State Library of Victoria
COLESKOP and the ARMSTRONG 15-POUNDER BL

from Victorian Forts and Artillery website Society website

from Victorian Forts and Artillery website Society website {{DEFAULTSORT:BL 15-pounder Field guns Artillery of the United Kingdom 76 mm artillery