Hello, everyone here. Please advise-the BL 8 howitzer had an artillery platform. Wood beams formed the base, or metal profiles could also be used? Or was it a combination of both types of material? The platform was still in the ground - wood could have had a damp problem....
Did a bit of digging into the arcana of 8inch howitzers. It seems that only the British howitzers used the platforms. The platform
was an improvised design to overcome the early problems of the Mark VI in soft and very hard ground where the gun would skate across
the ground without the recoil system working at all. The other users of the Mark VI - the USA and Russia didn't seem to use the platform.
The US Army specified the use of a platform but in the few images of deployed US 8inch howitzers the platforms don't seem to have been used.
The USA's 8inch howitzers stayed in the US and although about 500 were produced (Marks VI, VII and VIII) most went into reserve
and weren't issued to units.
The 72 or so Russian Mark VIs saw service with the Tsarist army. The Red Army had 50 on strength in 1936.
The Mark VIs remained in service in Russia until 1943 and were highly regarded by the Red Army - there were attempts to improve the range of the howitzer
and the mobility of the carriage but these didn't seem to go anywhere. The limbers on the Russian howitzers were replaced with a locally produced design
without the box in the 1920s (Shirokorad). It's noted that a criticism of the Mark VI howitzer in Russian service was the need to dig a hole under the trails
to allow for recoil at high elevations - suggests the platforms weren't being used.
The US gave 32 Mark VIs to Finland in 1940 and all the remaining 434 were released to Lend-Lease. Many of the British L-L howitzers were reworked
as 7.2inch howitzers.
Regards,
Charlie
-- Edited by CharlieC on Friday 18th of October 2019 11:34:21 AM
-- Edited by CharlieC on Friday 18th of October 2019 11:39:54 AM
I salute everyone here and thank you. The model is 1/35 RODEN production. My other work - new parts on the kit TAKOM. Simple adjustments only - there´s no way to fix everything.
Yes, I want to put the platform under the wheels. There are a lot of things to redo on the model - I´m only trying what I´m able to do. I ´m now working on the back - the magnification. Ivo
The striped poles are to establish a sight line for indirect fire. I think other poles are for barrel cleaning - I think they might have been slotted together with a brush
or oiled wad on the end. The barrel was so high up on the Dicke Berta that doing cleaning and maintenance on the gun would have been a real problem.
Thank you for the answer, here´s my next job on the model.I´m also trying to make a new piece-the gun barrel. Base Al logs 25 mm thick. Ivo from Czech Republic.
