HistoryPhotos
HistoryPhotos is for photographs (or, if it can be found, film) of the past, recent or distant! Give us a little snapshot of history!
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Those look terrifying to handle. oO
I think maybe I've been conditioned by the visuals of modern missile rounds, which generally look super-sturdy, with polished metal gleaming, and little marking details. Meanwhile, these kinda look like they've been rolled through a gravel field and then a hog-wallow, before eventually being loaded up, here. ππ¨
Itβs not particularly dangerous to handle those rounds. High explosives need a blasting cap to go off. The worst injury those guys will be exposed to is if one of the rounds falls off the ramp and lands on someone.
Ohhhhh... yeah yeah yeah, that's right. The dang-ol' blasting caps. Thank you!
Still, in terms of anything fired out of a bore, my understanding is that you want the round to be as absolutely polished and uniform as possible in order to ensure accuracy and safe operations.
So, a question-- when these rounds eventually arrived at the artillery / firing site, were they prepped in such ways in order to get them 'up to speed?'
The only part that needs to be a little clean is the brass ring at the bottom of the round. That ring needs to sit flush with the walls of the barrel to make a tight seal in order to fire.
Are you actually saying that the overall round can be as dirty, flawed and misshapen as possible, as long as it fits in to the bore, as long as the brass ring is clean and fits well?
No offense, but that seems a biiit MUCH to countenance, as I see it at the moment.
That is what iβm saying, yes. What good is an artillery system that requires perfectly clean rounds in order to fire? Wars are commonly held outside in the elements.
Anything on the round is going to go out with it when the charge ignites. The loader will give the round a once over to get most of the big stuff off the round before loading it into the breach but they donβt spit shine it.
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.
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.
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
And youβre 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.
Ah, the binary life.
Gotcha.
Thanks for the discussion, in any case.