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280mm ATOMIC Gun (year 1953)
- Thread starter kz11gr
- Start date
waffenamt
Well-Known Member
Excellent link!
I watched the whole 2 hour prog last week on the History Channel.
Its called 'The Atomic Bomb Story',well worth tracking down.
best
waff
highlandotter
HONOURED MEMBER RIP
I rememer the 280 well
I issued 3 practice shells in 1954 at Fort Sill. They came in nice custom fitted boxes.Of course, being an ammunition ordnance company, we had all kinds of equipement on paper, but even at the Artillery School, they existed on paper only. The damn things weighed about 800 pounds, so the only way to load them on a truck, was to haul them out of the box with a rope and as many hands as you could get willing to get a hernia. The nice boxes were demolished in the exercise. Well, they only fired 2, and the lieutenant asked"Wilson, were is the box?". "In the dump sir". I was not in favor for days after using my problem solving abilty, After all these years, I consider it one of the high points of my service.
I issued 3 practice shells in 1954 at Fort Sill. They came in nice custom fitted boxes.Of course, being an ammunition ordnance company, we had all kinds of equipement on paper, but even at the Artillery School, they existed on paper only. The damn things weighed about 800 pounds, so the only way to load them on a truck, was to haul them out of the box with a rope and as many hands as you could get willing to get a hernia. The nice boxes were demolished in the exercise. Well, they only fired 2, and the lieutenant asked"Wilson, were is the box?". "In the dump sir". I was not in favor for days after using my problem solving abilty, After all these years, I consider it one of the high points of my service.
shelldude
Well-Known Member
280mm HE...
Hello Jeff,
NICE 280mm HE projectile! Thanks for showing it to us, those HAVE GOT to be difficult to come across. I was a kid in Baumhoulder when these things were being used. With their two tractor vehicles, you could hear the damn things rumble out to the field a mile and a half away!
Thanks again,
Randall
Hello Jeff,
NICE 280mm HE projectile! Thanks for showing it to us, those HAVE GOT to be difficult to come across. I was a kid in Baumhoulder when these things were being used. With their two tractor vehicles, you could hear the damn things rumble out to the field a mile and a half away!
Thanks again,
Randall
charley777
Well-Known Member
Pest control
Hmm....so i could clear 10 years of possums, pigs, stoats, rats and feral cats in one hit.........oh hang on though...collateral damage.....would kill the kiwi, kaka & kakariiki too......ah well, back to rifles, shotguns & traps. LOL thanks for sharing
Hmm....so i could clear 10 years of possums, pigs, stoats, rats and feral cats in one hit.........oh hang on though...collateral damage.....would kill the kiwi, kaka & kakariiki too......ah well, back to rifles, shotguns & traps. LOL thanks for sharing
And since the 280mm Atomic Gun became obsolete so soon after it was designed, there were a huge number of the HE practice projectiles left in inventory. In the 1960s, the "Gunfighter" program experimented with adding sabots to these projectiles so they could be fired in the 16 inch Naval Rifles on the Battleships off the coast of Vietnam.
The sabots were aluminum pot shapes, with large plastic rings around the projos at mid body above the aluminum pot, to keep the projos centered in the bore. Reputed to have a 58 mile range. They were refered to as LRBA (Long Range Bombardment Ammunition).
The sabots were aluminum pot shapes, with large plastic rings around the projos at mid body above the aluminum pot, to keep the projos centered in the bore. Reputed to have a 58 mile range. They were refered to as LRBA (Long Range Bombardment Ammunition).
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Randall,
I will have to look in the proper manual from the 50's to see exactly what fuze was appropriate with the HE projo, but it would have been PD, MT or Prox.
Typically the HE versions of shells are used as spotters for the Nuke projectile they want to fire. The 155mm and 8 inch Nuke projos are rocket assisted, and the M549 155mm and M650 8 inch were both rocket assisted to approximate the same trajectory. Since it is desireable to have an airburst for Nukes in most cases to minimize fallout, a MT or Prox fuze would be used. If you watch the Youtube video of the 280mm atomic gun, they show a MT fuze.
I will have to look in the proper manual from the 50's to see exactly what fuze was appropriate with the HE projo, but it would have been PD, MT or Prox.
Typically the HE versions of shells are used as spotters for the Nuke projectile they want to fire. The 155mm and 8 inch Nuke projos are rocket assisted, and the M549 155mm and M650 8 inch were both rocket assisted to approximate the same trajectory. Since it is desireable to have an airburst for Nukes in most cases to minimize fallout, a MT or Prox fuze would be used. If you watch the Youtube video of the 280mm atomic gun, they show a MT fuze.
V40
Well-Known Member
I have had that movie for years and I always seem to get it out about three times a month. I als have the 3D glasses that came with it. I also enjoyed William Shatner's narration. The funniest part I thought was when the Chinese detonated theirs and they all got up to run towards it along with gas masks on the horses.
Another good one for nostalgia is "The Atomic Cafe" which included Bert The Turtle saying: "Duck and Cover"!
Another good one for nostalgia is "The Atomic Cafe" which included Bert The Turtle saying: "Duck and Cover"!
Grenademan2005
Well-Known Member
Awesome. :tinysmile_eyebrow_t
Hello HAZORD,
Would you happen to know the weight of the explosive filler used in the 280mm HE shell, as well as the type of explosive ? I guess this information is no longer classified, but I couldn't find it anywhere, so I'd very much appreciate any details you could provide.
Thanks in advance.
Kind regards.
Matt.
Hello HAZORD,
Thanks for the prompt reply. I knew the projectile appeared in one of the ammo manuals from the 1950s, but I was never able to actually locate this manual or even find its references.
If you can find this manual, I would be very interested in the main specs of the 280mm HE projectile, i.e. :
- weight of complete round
- length of complete round (unfuzed)
- explosive filler (type and weight )
- propellant type
- propellant weight (service charge)
- maximum range
- muzzle velocity
I assume these details should be available, if the manual has the same format as the TM-43-0001-28.
I hope I am not asking too much.
Many thanks in advance.
Kind regards.
Matt.
Thanks for the prompt reply. I knew the projectile appeared in one of the ammo manuals from the 1950s, but I was never able to actually locate this manual or even find its references.
If you can find this manual, I would be very interested in the main specs of the 280mm HE projectile, i.e. :
- weight of complete round
- length of complete round (unfuzed)
- explosive filler (type and weight )
- propellant type
- propellant weight (service charge)
- maximum range
- muzzle velocity
I assume these details should be available, if the manual has the same format as the TM-43-0001-28.
I hope I am not asking too much.
Many thanks in advance.
Kind regards.
Matt.
I saw this film via the then Army Kinema Corporation (UK) in 1957 and have never seen it since until now.
We had a lot of free time at the end of the ammunition examiner course and the instructors went through the AKC (now SKC) catalogue for anything we or they might want to see. I particularly remember this and a 2 hour or more film made in Hiroshima immediately after the bomb. I have seen things about Hiroshima in documentaries since but never anything like that.
We had a lot of free time at the end of the ammunition examiner course and the instructors went through the AKC (now SKC) catalogue for anything we or they might want to see. I particularly remember this and a 2 hour or more film made in Hiroshima immediately after the bomb. I have seen things about Hiroshima in documentaries since but never anything like that.