The Ordnance BL 2.75-inch mountain gun was a screw gun designed for and used by the Indian Mountain Artillery into

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Description

The gun was an improved version of the 1901 BL 10-pounder mountain gun. The new 1911 version improved on the 1901 gun with a new pole trail, recoil buffer, recuperator and

gun shield A U.S. Marine manning an M240 machine gun equipped with a gun shield A gun shield is a flat (or sometimes curved) piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, or artillery pie ...

, and increased shell weight from 10 to . It was a screw gun design, where the barrel could be separated into two parts via a screw joint. This allowed for the gun to have a heavier barrel, but still be broken into smaller portions for transport by mule teams. This was important for a weapon designed to be used in mountainous and rough terrain, or where adequate vehicle and horse transport was not readily available. The weapon could be carried by six mules or towed.

Service history

The gun was adopted in 1911 and began entering service in 1914. The weapon served primarily with the Indian Mountain Artillery in the northwest portion of British Indian territory (on what is now the border between Pakistan and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

) and participated in British-led military action in that theatre. It also served in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

and the

Salonika front The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germa ...

during

. Due to its specialised nature the gun was produced in only limited numbers, with just 183 manufactured during the war. It was superseded at the end of World War I by the QF 3.7-inch mountain howitzer.

Ammunition

Surviving examples

A 2.75-inch mountain gun is on display at the Heugh Battery Museum, Hartlepool

Notes and references

Bibliography

*Dale Clarke
British Artillery 1914-1919. Field Army Artillery. Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2004
* Hogg, Ian; 2000; ''Twentieth Century Artillery''; Amber Books, Ltd., * I.V. Hogg & L.F. Thurston
British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition. London: Ian Allan, 1972

External links

Handbook of the 2.75-inch B.L. gun : Mule equipment. London : H.M.S.O. 1920
at State Library of Victoria
Gun drill for 2.75 inch B.L. gun converted MK I and MK I carriage mark I 1921,1923
at State Library of Victoria

{{DEFAULTSORT:BL 02.75 Inch Mountain Gun World War I artillery of the United Kingdom Mountain artillery 70 mm artillery World War I mountain artillery