BL 5-inch howitzer

Template:Use dmy dates Template:Template other The Ordnance BL 5-inch howitzer was initially introduced to provide the Royal Field Artillery with continuing explosive shell capability following the decision to concentrate on shrapnel for field guns in the 1890s.

Combat service

Sudan Campaign

The weapon was used by the Royal Field Artillery and served successfully at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898. During that campaign they gained the distinction of being the first British guns to fire the new Lyddite shells in action.

Second Boer War

Major D Hall states that in the Second Boer War the Lyddite shells often failed to detonate; the gun was too heavy to be used as a field howitzer, and for siege use its range was too short and shell too light. However, it achieved some success in Natal when able to get close enough to bombard Boers in trenches.

World War I

By 1908 it was obsolete and replaced in British Regular Army brigades by the modern QF 4.5-inch howitzer.

Territorial Force brigades, however, continued to use the howitzer in World War I into 1916, including notably at the ANZAC and Suvla beachheads, Gallipoli, and in the East African campaign.

A lighter 40-pound (18.14 kg) shell with Amatol filling replaced the original 50-pound (22.68 kg) Lyddite shell early in World War I Together with an increase in cordite propellant from 11 oz 7 drams to 14 oz 5 drams, this increased the maximum range from 4,800 to . Administrative error led to the new 40-pound shells being sent to Gallipoli without range tables or fuze keys for the new pattern fuzes, rendering them useless.

Gallery

• A rear view of the BL 5-inch Howitzer.
  A rear view of the BL 5-inch Howitzer.
• Approaching Maddox Hill, Northern Cape, January 1900.
  Approaching Maddox Hill, Northern Cape, January 1900.
• In action on Gallipoli, 1915.
  In action on Gallipoli, 1915.
• A BL 5-inch Howitzer in Romanian service during World War I. Romania received 28 howitzers in 1917.
  A BL 5-inch Howitzer in Romanian service during World War I. Romania received 28 howitzers in 1917.

Ammunition

File:BL5inchHowitzerCartridge11oz7dramMkV.jpg	File:BL 5 inch Howitzer Common Shell Mk III Diagram.png	File:BL 5 inch Howitzer Common Lyddite Shell Mk IV diagram.png	File:TFrictionTubeMkIV.jpg
Cordite cartridge 11 oz 7 dram Mk V, for 50 lb projectile	50 lb Common shell Mk III	50 lb Common lyddite shell Mk IV	T Friction tube Mk IV

See also

• Howitzer
• List of howitzers

Bibliography

• Text Book of Gunnery, 1902. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE Template:Webarchive
• Dale Clarke, British Artillery 1914-1919. Field Army Artillery. Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2004 Template:ISBN
• Major Darrell D. Hall, "Guns in South Africa 1899-1902" in The South African Military History Society. Military History Journal - Vol 2 No 1, June 1971
• I.V. Hogg & L.F. Thurston, British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914-1918. London: Ian Allan, 1972
• Brigadier-General Sir Hugh Simpson-Baikie, Ex-Commander of the British artillery at Cape Helles. Appendix I STATEMENT ON ARTILLERY in General Sir Ian Hamilton, G.C.B. Gallipoli Diary Vol. II. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1920
• Hogg, Ian. Twentieth-Century Artillery. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2000. Template:ISBN Pg.46
• România în războiul mondial 1916-1919, Documente, Anexe, Volumul 1, Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului, București. Pg. 42

Surviving examples

• At Karak Castle, Jordan
• National Military Museum, Bucharest, Romania

External links

• Handbook for the 5-inch B.L. howitzer 1905 Hosted online by State Library of Victoria, Australia
• Field service manual Field artillery howitzer brigade 5-inch B.L. 1908 Hosted online by State Library of Victoria, Australia
• Handbook for the 5-inch B.L. howitzer, 1909 Hosted online by State Library of Victoria, Australia
• Handbook and equipment details for the 5-inch B.L. howitzer Mark I field batteries 1896,1901 Hosted online by State Library of Victoria, Australia
• 5 inch B.L. howitzer gun drill 1915 Hosted online by State Library of Victoria, Australia
• Great War Diary - German East Africa 1916 - of Sergeant Joseph Daniel Fewster, 1st. (Hull) Heavy Battery R.G.A.
• Bennet Burleigh, Khartoum Campaign, 1898 Describes 5-inch howitzer use in the campaign