The Ordnance BL 12-inch howitzer was a scaled-up version of the successful BL 9.2-inch siege howitzer.

History

Following the success of their BL 9.2-inch howitzer,

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in ...

designed an almost identical version scaled up to a

calibre In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore matc ...

of 12 inches, the Mk II entering service on the Western Front in August 1916.Hogg & Thurston 1972, Page 180. Eight complete equipments are reported as arriving in August 1916 and being in action in France shortly afterwards. It was similar but unrelated to the BL 12 inch railway howitzers Mk I, III and V produced by the

Elswick Ordnance Company The Elswick Ordnance Company (sometimes referred to as Elswick Ordnance Works, but usually as "EOC") was a British armaments manufacturing company of the late 19th and early 20th century History Originally created in 1859 to separate William A ...

at the same time. The Mk IV was a more powerful version with longer barrel produced from 1917. Later models were used for British home defence in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Service use

12inchHowitzerShellForFritzThiepvalSeptember1916

As with other large-calibre weapons, it was operated by the

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. The 12-inch was dismantled and transported in six loads mounted on

traction engine A traction engine is a steam engine, steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin ''tractus'', meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any t ...

wheels. It was then reassembled on its static siege mounting on top of a steel holdfast, with 22

tons Tons can refer to: * Tons River, a major river in India * Tamsa River, locally called Tons in its lower parts (Allahabad district, Uttar pradesh, India). * the plural of ton, a unit of mass, force, volume, energy or power :* short ton, 2,000 poun ...

of earth in a box sitting on the front of the holdfast in front of the gun, to counteract the kick of firing.

Ammunition

File:BL 12 inch Howitzer Shell Mk V Diagram.jpg, Mk V HE shell, World War I File:The Battle of Passchendaele, July-november 1917 Q7811.jpg, 12 inch shell being loaded

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Dale Clarke, ''British Artillery 1914-1919. Heavy Artillery''. Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2005 * I.V. Hogg & L.F. Thurston, British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914-1918. London: Ian Allan, 1972.

External links

Newsreel showing 12" siege howitzers and other heavy weapons in action
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bl 12 inch Howitzer World War I artillery of the United Kingdom World War I howitzers Siege artillery World War II artillery of the United Kingdom 305 mm artillery Vickers