That's not really what I'm saying, though. An ideal is not something "we must adhere to perfectly," it's moreso there as a guide upon good-practice, which is generally best-adhered to. Mais non?

Okay, so sure--
war is typically chaos, and shit happens, and some shells certainly won't be as pristine-clean as others, which therefore contributes to gunner inaccuracy, etc, but regardless (and speaking as a nincompoop layman, myself) ... I'm not seeing any reason why there shouldn't be an imperative to keep the rounds as clean as possible, within reason.

Perhaps I'm missing something obvious, tho.

[–] teft@piefed.social 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They are keeping them as clean as possible in this picture. See the rails they are rolling on? A little mud isn't going to hurt an artillery round or the gun's barrel. Nor will it affect the accuracy. Maybe if you took a chunk out of the metal of the round. But dirt? Not likely.

The imperative to keep them clean is like everything in war. Not that important unless it saves your life or your battle buddy's life. Rounds will fire with mud on them so who cares if they have some mud on them? I've got more important things to worry about as a soldier in war than doing busy work.

Unless Top is mad at everyone because his wife is banging Jody, if that happens then we will spitshine the the rounds since it's dumb busy work.

[–] JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Alright.

Still, let's say you're a gun-battery crew receiving fresh ammunition. First thing is to look it over, right? And you're naturally not going to be too thrilled about grubby-looking or flawed ammo, right?

Because more than just the accuracy or inaccuracy factor, poorly-maintained gun ammo & batteries did in fact blow up across modern warfare, many... many times.

Hell's bells, I didn't even remember this one until I searched just now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion

[–] teft@piefed.social 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

And you’re naturally not going to be too thrilled about grubby-looking or flawed ammo, right?

Doesn't matter if you're thrilled or not. You use what you are given in the military. If that means you have to clean it then it sucks to be you.

the explosion had occurred because of an overram of the powder caused by either an accident due to human error or an equipment failure

How does this example have anything to do with dirty rounds being fired? They overrammed the powder. That can happen with perfectly clean powder.

And those rounds in the picture are just the round. The bags of powder are stored separately.

[–] JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 2 points 2 weeks ago

Ah, the binary life.

Gotcha.

Thanks for the discussion, in any case.