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Author Topic: Our troops in action  (Read 854 times)

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Offline Max Caliber

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Our troops in action
« on: July 25, 2011, 08:12:05 AM »
Great picture. Has nothing to do with black powder artillery but has everything to do with why we have the freedom to shoot black powder artillery.
 
 
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Max

Offline DaveSB

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Re: Our troops in action
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2011, 09:03:08 AM »
wow, very cool!!
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Offline seacoastartillery

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Re: Our troops in action
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2011, 05:32:17 PM »
     We agree with you, Max.  Hurrah for the Armed Forces!  This picture also is very interesting to us in a technical way, as well.  We are wondering, is it ever possible to get the Trails 'Set' if your piece is sitting on a gravel pile like this one is?  Is there a modern artilleryman out there to give an informed answer to this question?  If it's not possible, does the piece go backward with every discharge until the muzzle is adjacent to the palletized ammo?

Mike & Tracy
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Offline subdjoe

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Re: Our troops in action
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2011, 06:44:27 PM »
Great photo!  And a wonderful example of "timing is everything" in photography.  A few hundredths of a second earlier or later and it wouldn't be as dramatic.

God Bless our troops.
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Joseph Lovell

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Offline Cat Whisperer

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Re: Our troops in action
« Reply #4 on: July 26, 2011, 11:47:26 AM »
In loam or clay, which this is obviously not, the FIRST round sets the trails.

Typical dust-being-raised picture -- I assume it's the first round kicking up the gravel.
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Offline p51

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Re: Our troops in action
« Reply #5 on: August 04, 2011, 04:38:45 PM »
Quote from: Cat Whisperer on July 26, 2011, 11:47:26 AM
Typical dust-being-raised picture -- I assume it's the first round kicking up the gravel.
I doubt that. If this is Afghanistan, there is a lot of loose gravel pretty much everywhere. A pal of mine described those valleys as “Like fighting in a gravel mine pit for a year straight.” I’ve dealt with artillery set up in similar terrain and have watched the trails dig ruts so far that the guns had to be moved and set up all over again after just a few shots. They’re supposed to be self-setting but that’s not the case if you set up on bad terrain. The 105s rarely ever dug any holes even when firing on laid gravel as the trails are a giant loop and dispersed the concussion very well into the ground. But on the wrong ground, even a tank can slide back a little when sending downrange.As for the gun, that’s a M777 155MM. It’s an odd looking gun when it’s set up for movement as the tow loop is actually mounted on the bottom of the muzzle. The rounds have GPS capability, from just over 24 kilometers away, you can hit something accurately between 5-10 meters. Area or suppressive targets can be hit from a lot further away than that. This system was on the drawing boards when I was still active duty and I once saw one of the test models (I think built in England) and drooled over what it could do as we only had 155s with tracks under them. We already had that capability with our Paladin SPs, but out of towed tubes was something new. Once we got rid of all our tracks during the transition to the first Stryker Brigade, was lost our 155 capability for a short while. The light fighters on the other side of the post had M119s, which are 105s and looked like a smaller version of the 777.  I personally go to pull a lanyard on those a couple of times and worked the breech plenty of times (firing HE into the impact zones at Fort Lewis and Yakima, as well as some test tables at Aberdeen I finagled myself into over a weekend). The red legs used to think I was nuts that I liked working the breech more than firing the thing. Even more odd, one of the FA Battalions I once worked with was the very same unit my Grandfather went to France with in WW1!
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Offline Tod0987

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Re: Our troops in action
« Reply #6 on: August 04, 2011, 06:01:22 PM »
Guys,
 
Checked out the site and found that there are several other awesome pictures of this gun crew in action. Several of them actually capture the shell in flight imediatly following it exiting the gun. One shows what appears to be the shell going supersonic, but I could be wrong not knowing a lot about this howitzer.
http://totallycoolpix.com/2011/06/a-soldiers-life-in-afghanistan/  it's about halfway down.
 
ps Hope this doesn't violate the forum rules. This gun I believe is loaded with powder bags and a shell and just a moderized version of a hotchkiss etc and we all love smoke and flame  ;D .
 
tod0987
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Offline subdjoe

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Re: Our troops in action
« Reply #7 on: August 05, 2011, 07:53:06 AM »
Quote from: Tod0987 on August 04, 2011, 06:01:22 PM
Guys,
 
Checked out the site and found that there are several other awesome pictures of this gun crew in action. Several of them actually capture the shell in flight imediatly following it exiting the gun. One shows what appears to be the shell going supersonic, but I could be wrong not knowing a lot about this howitzer.
http://totallycoolpix.com/2011/06/a-soldiers-life-in-afghanistan/  it's about halfway down.
 
ps Hope this doesn't violate the forum rules. This gun I believe is loaded with powder bags and a shell and just a moderized version of a hotchkiss etc and we all love smoke and flame  ;D .
 
tod0987

I like #24 - the guy taking a photo or video of the gun with his cell phone.

Can you imagine the photo record we would have if GIs had cell phones in WWII?
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Joseph Lovell

Justice Robert H. Jackson - It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.
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