US 8 inch Atomic Projectile

[M8owner]

I have never seen a picture of a tactical nuke artillery round before. So, when I saw this on eBay, I thought that I would share.

 

[pzjgr]

Interesting!

The only thing I have connected is this mug from an Atomic Annie unit...

 

[weberoed]

I have loads of pictures of the M 422 8" atomic projectile, plus some others. MY biggest folder is on the B 54 SADM, have lots of pics on that one

 

[M8owner]

The interesting thing to me is that we (US Army) never planned on just firing one at a time. In Combined Arms and Services Staff School while I was an Army officer in staff training, we were taught to plan strikes of 40 to blanket an area. The maximum you could hope to kill (immediately) with one was 800 enemy soldiers at one time if you were lucky - a battalion if it was concentrated.

 

[Taber10]

You're right. On a related topic, I had been researching the "Davy Crockett" system. The actual weapon was NEVER issued to the firing units; Remained with a Custodial Unit for its entire life. BUT the Army's plan was to place TEN warheads in ONE M113 APC of the version that could carry and deploy the 81 or 120 mortars. Now, how concentrated would the enemy have to be to be able to use even TWO of these warheads, which were basically a "line of sight" weapon????
Again, I'm not near knowledgeable enough on anything to question Army tactics, but it seems that TEN warheads would be much....
Taber

 

[kiwieod]

half the time you don't actually have to use the weapon its the threat of it that will deter an enemy

 

[Depotman]

I thought it would be useful to put the UK's collection of these rounds out in the public domain! There were quite a few in the 'Firepower' museum (now closed) at Woolwich Arsenal and one is on display at the Greenwich Heritage Museum on the same site. It isn't labelled as such. I've attached some pics taken at the FFE exercise just before the museum was closed and all the exhibits packed up for moving to various storage locations in the vicinity of Salisbury Plain. This was prior to a 'new' Firepower museum being built at or near Larkhill on Salisbury Plain - STILL WAITING. Depotman

 

[US-Subs]

Nice pictures of the trainer, but as Mike mentioned, the M422 was the full-up version. The Army also fielded the 280mm, the "New 8-inch" (M753) and the most deadly of them all, the 155mm M454. The Navy developed their own projectiles, but I'm not certain that they were ever actually fielded as the Army weapons were.

Taber, you put an Air Force twist on an Army weapon, the DC was a recoilless rifle, either the light gun (120mm) or the heavy (155mm). Understandable, don't get me started about blue EOD badges.

For folks wanting to do a little more reading, the Army Museum has one of the most accurate descriptions: https://armyhistory.org/the-m28m29-davy-crockett-nuclear-weapon-system/

If you are not familiar with US designations, the carrier munition has an M-number, the warhead it carries has a W-number. In numerous situations the same warhead design could be used in different or successive delivery systems - i.e. the Davy Crockett was recycled into the SADM, the W31 was loaded into both the Honest John and the Nike Hercules etc. There are several good open source books out that give an accurate historical record of warheads and delivery systems, it can make interesting reading.