QF 12-pounder 8 Cwt Gun
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The Ordnance QF 12-pounder 8 cwt was a
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
"landing gun" intended for navy use ashore. "8 cwt" refers to the weight of the gun and breech, approximately 8 cwt = 8 x = . This was how the British often differentiated between guns of the same calibre or weight of shell. This gun had a short barrel and was of relatively low power compared to the 12 pounders of , although it fired the same shells.


History

Fourteen were converted into anti-aircraft guns as Mk I*. The Royal Navy eventually replaced the gun with the mountain howitzer.Clarke 2004, page 40


Combat use


Second Boer War

The gun was used in the early stages of the
Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...
in Natal.


World War I

These guns were employed on land in the West Africa campaign. They were also employed in the East Africa campaign ("Logan's Battery" 6th Field Battery, 2 guns, towed first by
Hupmobile Hupmobile was a line of automobiles built from 1909 through 1939 by the Hupp Motor Car Company of Detroit. The prototype was developed in 1908. History Founding In 1909, Bobby Hupp co-founded Hupp Motor Car Company, with Charles Hastin ...
cars and then REO lorries). This gun was briefly used in the Battle of Gallipoli, as the Royal Navy had supplies of ammunition for it when the army was short of ammunition for its own guns. Several guns were landed in July 1915 and operated from frontline trenches.Clarke 2004, page 40


Surviving examples

There is a surviving example held and maintained at Devonport Field Gun Association Heritage Centre & Museum at Crownhill Fort, Plymouth. There are also three examples at the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets summer training camp at HMCS Acadia in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. They still fired regularly, although they only fire blanks for ceremonial and training purposes. One example is located at HMCS ''Star'' in Hamilton, Ontario and is in use by the Hamilton Sea Cadet Corps.


Other uses

This cannon is the type used in the famous British Royal Navy
field gun competition The Royal Navy's command field gun competition was a contest between teams from a number of Royal Navy commands, in which teams of sailors compete to transport a field gun and its equipment over and through a series of obstacles in the shortest t ...
s. The Command Field Gun competition originated in 1907 at the annual
Royal Tournament The Royal Tournament was the world's largest military tattoo and pageant, held by the British Armed Forces annually between 1880 and 1999. The venue was originally the Royal Agricultural Hall, before moving to Olympia London and latterly the Ea ...
and involved the competing teams manhandling a 12-pounder gun, carriage and limber over walls and across an imaginary "chasm". The last of these races was held in 1999. Another race which is still ongoing is the Brickwood's Field Gun competition that also dates to 1907 and involves pulling a gun and limber along a measured course and back, swapping the carriage wheels with the limber wheels twice. Another example of this type of gun is the Portsmouth Gun Carriage which has been used to carry the coffin of senior naval; officers at ceremonial funerals. The gun is preserved at , a shore establishment at
Fareham Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufac ...
in Hampshire.


In popular culture

The RN Field Gun may be seen 'in action' in the 1957 film "Yangtse Incident", when a group of these guns was used on the banks of the River Orwell to depict Chinese
PLA Pla may refer to: People * Cecilio Plá (1860–1934), Spanish painter * Conrad Pla (born 1966), Canadian kickboxer and actor * Jim Pla (born 1992), French racing driver * Joan Baptista Pla (ca. 1720–1773), Spanish composer and oboist * Josefina ...
gun batteries on the North bank of the Yangtze, which fired on as she steamed up to Nanking in April 1949.


Notes and references


Bibliography


Text Book of Gunnery, 1902. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE
* 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. Royal Artillery Institution, London, 1988. * * Major Darrell Hall
"Guns in South Africa 1899–1902 Part III and IV" The South African Military History Society Military History Journal – Vol 2 No 2, December 1971
* Major Darrell Hall


External links

* ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTBPn8oAxYA YouTube ''Running with 3/4 Soddin Ton!RN team practice with QF 12 pdr for Navy Gun Run
For access to view the surviving example
{{DEFAULTSORT:QF 12-pounder 08 cwt Artillery of the United Kingdom World War I artillery of the United Kingdom 76 mm artillery Naval guns of the United Kingdom World War I naval weapons of the United Kingdom