L6 WOMBAT
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The L2 BAT (Battalion, Anti-Tank) was a 120 mm calibre recoilless anti-tank rifle used by the
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
. It was also produced in the MOBAT version without a gun shield, and the ConBAT version with a new spotting rifle attachment. The L6 Wombat version was lightened. The Wombat was used by mobile units such as paratroopers and marines. the Wombat was also issued to some TA battalions such as 5th Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment BAT was developed from the wartime Ordnance, RCL, 3.45 in, replacing it and the
Ordnance QF 17-pounder The Ordnance Quick-Firing 17-pounder (or just 17-pdr)Under the British standard ordnance weights and measurements the gun's approximate projectile weight is used to denote different guns of the same calibre. Hence this was a 3-inch gun, of whic ...
to become the standard anti-tank weapon of the Army in the post-
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
era. The BAT and MOBAT were used until
anti-tank guided missile An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles. ATGMs range in size from shoulde ...
s, such as Vigilant and
MILAN Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
, took their place. WOMBAT remained in anti-tank platoons in Berlin to supplement MILAN until the late 1980s, due to the expected engagement ranges should the
Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...
have ever attacked. The wire guidance of MILAN would also have been problematic in the built up areas of Berlin. It was envisioned that Wombat would be used in '
shoot-and-scoot Shoot-and-scoot (alternatively, fire-and-displace or fire-and-move) is an artillery Military tactics, tactic of firing at a target and then immediately moving away from the location from where the shots were fired to avoid counter-battery fire, ...
' attacks mounted on the back of stripped down
Land Rover Land Rover is a brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by British multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR builds Land Rovers in Brazil ...
vehicles. The Wombat was a development version which was adopted and replaced the earlier BAT and MOBAT weapons. It was in turn replaced by anti-tank guided missiles. The L6 Wombat itself comprised the L12A3 BAT gun, but mounted on a new lightweight carriage. The vertically sliding breech of the BAT and MoBAT was replaced by a lighter horizontally hinged breech. The Wombat was mounted on a small two wheeled carriage, which was removable in order to be moved over obstacles and then locked to the carriage again. The weapon was normally carried in the rear of a specially adapted Land Rover ( Portee). The Wombat could also be mounted on the FV432/40
armoured personnel carrier An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world. Acc ...
. The usual round for Wombat was a HESH, which it could fire out to around 1,800 m. The HESH round could defeat of armour. Other ammunition types include the canister and modified canister rounds. The latter released
flechette A flechette or flèchette ( ) is a pointed, fin-stabilized steel projectile. The name comes from French (from \''wikt:flèche, flèche''), meaning "little arrow" or "Dart (missile), dart", and sometimes retains the grave accent in English: flè ...
s, or small darts, giving a "shotgun" effect. These rounds could be used against infantry in the open. The base of the BAT cartridge case was frangible, the reaction gases venting directly backwards through a single large venturi. This was in contrast to the US recoilless designs, which used a frangible sidewall to the cartridge case and multiple venturi. During the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
era,
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
and British
Royal Marine The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...
forces used the Swedish made
Snow Trac The Snow Trac is a small personal Snowcat that is roughly the size of a modern compact car. Aktiv Snow Trac were manufactured in Sweden between 1957 and 1981, with additional vehicles manufactured in Scotland. Origins and description In 1954, La ...
as a carrier for the L6 Wombat in the snow-covered mountains of Norway. Wombats were among the anti-tank weapons taken by the Parachute Regiment to the
Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...
in 1982, but they were not off-loaded from the transport ships.


Operators

Non British users of the MOBAT variant were Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia and New Zealand. Australia used the WOMBAT variant.


Variants

*L2 BAT, Battalion Anti Tank :The original towed gun complete with a heavy armoured shield and wheeled mount. Accepted for service in 1953. *L4 MoBAT (Mobile BAT) :A BAT with the shield removed to lighten it (even though it still weighed some and a spotting weapon (a
Bren light machine gun The Bren gun (Brno-Enfield) was a series of light machine guns (LMG) made by the United Kingdom in the 1930s and used in various roles until 1992. While best known for its role as the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry LMG in Worl ...
) added. It could be towed by an
Austin Champ The Austin Champ was a military and civilian jeep-like vehicle made by the Austin Motor Company in the 1950s. The army version was officially known as "Truck, 1/4 ton, CT, 4×4, Cargo & FFW, Austin Mk.1" however the civilian name "Champ" was u ...
or, later, a Land Rover. *L6 WOMBATIn ''Men against Tanks'', author John Weeks states the name "Wombat" was a reference to the animal and had nothing to do with magnesium. :A new build weapon with a lightweight carriage, which meant that it was usable by all air Mobile (Infantry Battalions) plus mobile troops, such as the Parachute Regiment and
Royal Marine Commandos The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a company strength sub-unit to the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG), landing craft cr ...
. It was also fitted to vehicles, such as the
FV432 The FV432 is the armoured personnel carrier variant in the British Army's FV430 series of armoured fighting vehicles. Since its introduction in the 1960s, it has been the most common variant, being used for transporting infantry on the battlefie ...
or a 3/4 ton portee
Land Rover Land Rover is a brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by British multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR builds Land Rovers in Brazil ...
. When fitted with an M8C .50 cal
spotting rifle A spotting rifle or ranging gun is a small-calibre rifle used as a ranging device for artillery. The ballistics of the spotting rifle are matched to those of the artillery piece, so that if a shot from the spotting rifle lands on the target, it m ...
, which fired a zirconium-tipped spotter tracer round visible past 2,000 yards, it could engage targets out to . The strike was observed by the No. 1, who called the fall of shot. The No. 2 maintained the spotting rifle and observed the back blast area. The WOMBAT entered service in 1964, rapidly replacing earlier versions in service with the regular army; but it never fully replaced MOBAT and CONBAT with infantry units of the Territorial Army. *L7 CONBAT ("Converted BAT") :A conversion of the L4 MoBAT or L2 BAT utilizing a L40A1 12.7 mm
spotting rifle A spotting rifle or ranging gun is a small-calibre rifle used as a ranging device for artillery. The ballistics of the spotting rifle are matched to those of the artillery piece, so that if a shot from the spotting rifle lands on the target, it m ...
. (The American designation was the .50-cal M8C spotting rifle. It used a shorter cartridge than the .50-cal machine gun.) The tracer rounds matched trajectory with the CONBAT to 350. Image:WombatL6-on-Snow-Trac.jpg, L6 Wombat being prepared for firing during winter training Image:Wombat-carrier-variant.jpg, Royal Marines Wombat outfitted Snow Trac on patrol in Norway


References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Norris, J., ''Anti-tank Weapons (Modern Military Equipment)'', Brassey's (UK) Ltd, 1996.


External links


Pictures of Mobat and ammunition
{{externalimage , topic=BAT guns , float=right , image
BAT gun
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MoBAT gun
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ConBAT gun
Recoilless rifles of the United Kingdom Cold War weapons of the United Kingdom Military equipment introduced in the 1950s