Cylinder 730 for Tube Vent Electric .625 inch

[AE501]

Cylinder 730 and sub container.
The tube was introduced for the Ordnance BL 120mm L11 rifled gun when it replaced the 105mm L7 gun in the Chieftain.
The intention was to use the sub container as a revolving cylinder and replace it with another when the first one was empty.
This was not a success and was replaced by a magazine, on the same lines as a BREN mag, but underneath the breach rather than above.
The Cylinder 730 and sub container was retained even though it was no longer used as a revolver.
There were 12 x Cylinders 730 packed in a Box Steel H50.

 

[Falcon]

Are there any photos available of the revolver mechanism?

 

[AE501]

L11A1 was the first gun and 130 were produced. These would all have been used in trials. The first trials would have been to determine gun pressures, then overpressure, then trials at arctic and desert conditions etc., before it ever went near a tank.
It was established from these trials that there were rearward obturation problems which would have affected the removal of the sub container from the central spigot among other things, which would have obstructed reloading the crucial Tubes Vent Electric, so L11A2 was produced with this and a lot of other trials related changes.
L11A3 and 4 were more trials of an improved breach ring and autoloader feasibility.
L11A5 was the main production run.
It is evident that the 10 tube sub container was not used in the revolver mode in service and was replaced by a magazine containing 14 tubes of the type previously described. There are 6 such magazines in a stowage bin in the tank and these have to be filled from the sub container, inside the tank due to RF hazards outside.
It is therefore unlikely that very much information is available, unless someone has some FVRDE drawings?