The Ordnance RML 7-pounder Mk IV "Steel Gun" was a British rifled muzzle-loading

mountain gun Mountain guns are artillery pieces designed for use in mountain warfare and areas where usual wheeled transport is not possible. They are generally capable of being taken apart to make smaller loads for transport by horses, humans, mules, tractor ...

. 7-pounder referred to the approximate weight of the shell it fired.

History

Development began in 1864 to replace the RBL 6-pounder gun of , which had proved too heavy for a mountain gun. Several Mks of 7-pounder RML of were tried in 1865 by boring out and rifling old

SBML The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) is a representation format, based on XML, for communicating and storing computational models of biological processes. It is a free and open standard with widespread software support and a community of use ...

bronze guns, but were still too heavy.Ruffell Several Mks of new steel barrels (the first British all-steel gun, hence the name "Steel Gun") were then produced of and but were not considered powerful enough. Mk IV of with a longer bore was settled on for production in 1873. It was superseded by the

RML 2.5-inch Mountain Gun The Ordnance RML 2.5-inch mountain gun was a British rifled muzzle-loading mountain gun of the late 19th century designed to be broken down into four loads for carrying by man or mule. It was primarily used by the Indian Army. History It was ...

from 1879.

Combat use

It could be assembled and a round loaded in 20 seconds. Its common shell was considered ineffective. To give it a high angle capability, a double shell was produced of increased length and containing a larger bursting charge. This was fired with a reduced charge, but the low muzzle velocity did not always arm the fuze, or prevent the over-long projectile from somersaulting. Shell rotation was effected by studs on the body of the shell. Elevation was by quoin or wedge and by screw.

Anglo-Zulu War 1879

Britain deployed several guns mounted on Colonial (or "Kaffraria") carriages: light field gun type carriages with larger wider-spaced wheels suited for being horse-drawn across long grass. Two of these guns deployed as field guns of the N/5th Brigade,

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...

were lost in the disastrous

Battle of Isandlwana The Battle of Isandlwana (alternative spelling: Isandhlwana) on 22 January 1879 was the first major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Eleven days after the British commenced their invasion of Zulul ...

Second Anglo-Afghan War

An RML 7-pounder Mountain Gun appears to be present in a photograph by

John Burke (photographer) John Burke (circa 1843–1900) was a photographer, best known for his photographs of the Second Anglo-Afghan War between 1878 and 1880. He was born in Ireland, around 1843, where he was a tradesman. He applied for a job in the British Army as ...

from the

Second Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ps, د افغان-انګرېز دويمه جګړه) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the l ...

(November 1878 – September 1880). The war began when Great Britain, fearful of what it saw as growing Russian influence in Afghanistan, invaded the country from British India. The first phase of the war ended in May 1879 with the

Treaty of Gandamak The Treaty of Gandamak (Dari: معاهده گندمک, Pashto: د گندمک تړون) officially ended the first phase of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Mohammad Yaqub Khan ceded various frontier areas to Britain while retaining full control of Af ...

, which permitted the Afghans to maintain internal sovereignty but forced them to cede control over their foreign policy to the British. Fighting resumed in September 1879, after an anti-British uprising in Kabul, and finally concluded in September 1880 with the decisive

Battle of Kandahar Battle of Kandahar may refer to: * Battle of Kandahar (1880), the last major conflict of the Second Anglo-Afghan War * Battle of Kandahar (2001), the fall of the city in 2001, signaling the end of organized Taliban control of Afghanistan * Battl ...

First Boer War 1880–1881

Britain deployed 4 guns mounted on standard small mountain carriages during the war.

War of the Golden Stool 1900

The

West African Frontier Force The West African Frontier Force (WAFF) was a multi-battalion field force, formed by the British Colonial Office in 1900 to garrison the West African colonies of Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and Gambia. In 1928, it received royal recognition ...

fielded a number of guns in the War of the Golden Stool, their use being fairly heavily referenced by

Willcocks Willcocks is a surname, and may refer to the following: *Dianne Willcocks, Dianne Marie Willcocks CBE (born 5 May 1945 was the Vice-Chancellor of York St John University until retirement in April 2010 *Sir David Willcocks (1919–2015), British cho ...

Armitage Armitage is a village in Staffordshire, England on the south side of the Trent and Mersey Canal south just outside of the market town of Rugeley and north of the city of Lichfield, and noteworthy for the Armitage Shanks sanitary porcelain fact ...

and Montanaro in their books on the campaign. Bartlett also references the Central African Regiment having a battery of 7-pounder guns attached to A Company in 1898, with the Central African Regiment taking part in the war.

Second Boer War 1899–1902

BoersWithCapturedBritishRML7pounderMountainGuns

RML7pdrMountainGunOnFieldCarriageBoerWar

The gun was employed mounted on armoured trains and used by local militia forces early in the war. It was also employed mounted on normal field carriages with larger wheels which increased mobility in the long grass and allowed it to be towed by horses.Hall, June 1971

Anglo-Aro War

Column No. 4 of The British assembled Aro Field Force deployed one 7-pounder gun during the battles in and around

Arochukwu Arochukwu Local Government Area, sometimes referred to as Arochuku or Aro Oke-Igbo, is the third largest local government area in Abia State (after Aba and Umuahia) in southeastern Nigeria and homeland of the Igbo subgroup, Aro people. It is co ...

Surviving examples

Today, several examples of the guns still exist around the world : * at the Regional Military Training Center in Darulaman Garrison, Kabul. The garrison is near the palaces, and south of the Bala Hissar where the British had their headquarters during the Anglo-Afghan wars. * A gun at Royal Armoury, Fort Nelson, UK
Royal Artillery Museum, London
*

South African National Museum of Military History The South African National War Museum in Johannesburg was officially opened by Prime Minister Jan Smuts on 29 August 1947 to preserve the history of South Africa's involvement in the Second World War. In 1975, the museum was renamed the South Af ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, South Africa

Notes and references

Bibliography

* Major Darrell D Hall
"Guns in South Africa 1899-1902" in The South African Military History Society Military History Journal – Vol 2 No 1, June 1971
* Major Darrell D. Hall

(web page is incorrectly titled 1900–1914) * W. L. Ruffell, ttp://www.riv.co.nz/rnza/hist/gun/rifled9.htm The Gun – Rifled Ordnance: Mountain Artillery. RML 7-pounder

External links

Diagram of carriage, 7-pounder gun of 200 Lbs Mk I and Text
at Victorian Forts and Artillery website. {{DEFAULTSORT:RML 07-pounder mountain gun Mountain artillery Artillery of the United Kingdom 76 mm artillery Victorian-era weapons of the United Kingdom