The Ordnance BLC 15-pounder gun (BLC stood for BL Converted) was a modernised version of the obsolete BL 15-pounder 7 cwt gun, incorporating a recoil and

recuperator A recuperator is a special purpose counter-flow energy recovery heat exchanger positioned within the supply and exhaust air streams of an air handling system, or in the exhaust gases of an industrial process, in order to recover the waste heat. ...

mechanism above the barrel and a modified quicker-opening breech. It was developed to provide

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry ...

artillery brigades with a reasonably modern field gun without incurring the expense of equipping them with the newer

18-pounder The Ordnance QF 18-pounder,British military traditionally denoted smaller ordnance by the weight of its standard projectile, in this case approximately or simply 18-pounder gun, was the standard British Empire field gun of the First World Wa ...

. It is the gun that writers usually mean by "15-pounder gun" in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, but can be confused with the earlier

Ordnance QF 15-pounder } The Ordnance QF 15-pounder gun, commonly referred to as the ''Ehrhardt'', was a modern German field gun purchased by Britain in 1900 as a stopgap measure to upgrade its field artillery to modern QF standards, while it developed its own alternati ...

''Ehrhardt'' or

Ordnance BL 15-pounder The Ordnance BL 15-pounder, otherwise known as the 15-pounder 7 cwt, was the British Army's field gun in the Second Boer War and some remained in limited use in minor theatres of World War I. It fired a shell of 3-inch (76 mm) diameter with a maxim ...

, both of which fired the same shell.

Design

BLC 15 pounder gun Mark I, II, IV barrel diagrams

BLC 15-pounder Mark II, II, IV breech mechanism diagrams

Many modifications were made to the old BL 15-pounder barrels to adapt them to a new carriage with a

recoil buffer A recoil buffer is a factory-installed or aftermarket component of firearms which serves to reduce the velocity and/or cushion the impact of recoiling parts of a firearm. Design The simplest form of recoil buffer is made from a resilient and deform ...

and

above the barrel similar to the modern 13-pounder design. Previously, the barrels had been mounted directly on the carriage by

trunnion A trunnion (from Old French "''trognon''", trunk) is a cylindrical protrusion used as a mounting or pivoting point. First associated with cannons, they are an important military development. Alternatively, a trunnion is a shaft that positions a ...

s. Now, the barrel was suspended from a forged-steel inverted U-shaped cradle which had trunnions to attach it to the carriage. The trunnions, sight brackets and elevating gear attachment lugs were removed from the barrel. The radial T-vent hole on top was plugged, holes in the jacket passing through the trunnion centres were sealed with screwed steel plugs, and the holes in the hood for fitting tangent sights were plugged with white metal alloy. The 3-motion breech was replaced by a single-motion

interrupted screw Breech from Russian 122 mm M1910 howitzer, modified and combined with 105 mm H37 howitzer barrel An interrupted screw or interrupted thread is a mechanical device typically used in the breech of artillery guns. It is believed to have b ...

breech, which had an axial T vent running through it into the chamber, designed to take a T friction tube. The new firing mechanism involved a new "push" type T friction tube, which was inserted into the axial breech vent. The crosspiece of the T was positioned pointing upwards. A long layer's guard was added to the left side of the cradle projecting behind the breech. A spring-loaded firing handle was built into the layer's guard. When cocked by pulling back and then releasing, it sprang forward and struck a firing lever on the breech, which translated the forward motion to a downward motion and propelled a firing plunger into the T of the friction tube which in turn ignited the

cordite Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace black powder as a military propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burn ...

propellant charge. In 1915, Territorial batteries guarding the east coast of England adapted their 15-pounders for use against

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

s, by simply digging a pit to accommodate the trail of the gun, to allow it to be trained upwards. It is unlikely that this arrangement was ever used operationally. In a more sophisticated adaptation, two 15-pounders were modified for

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

use by increasing the allowed elevation to more than 60°. These guns were installed at Ford Wynyard in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

Combat service

The weapon was used by British

New Army The New Armies ( Traditional Chinese: 新軍, Simplified Chinese: 新军; Pinyin: Xīnjūn, Manchu: ''Ice cooha''), more fully called the Newly Created Army ( ''Xinjian Lujun''Also translated as "Newly Established Army" ()), was the modernised ...

and Canadian infantry divisions in all theatres of

until replaced by the 18-pounder from 1916 onwards. The 10th Battery of the Royal Canadian Field Artillery (RCFA), equipped with four guns, fought a notable action in the evening of 22 April 1915 north of St Julien to hold the left of the British line where the German infantry was breaking through following their gas attack on the first day of the

Second Battle of Ypres During the First World War, the Second Battle of Ypres was fought from for control of the tactically important high ground to the east and south of the Flemish town of Ypres in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the pr ...

. Hence, when skillfully utilised in the role that it was intended for – against troops in the open – the gun was still effective despite being obsolete. Where infantry avoided being caught in the open, the guns were of limited use due to their light shell. After they became redundant, from late 1916 some were retained in fixed positions on the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers * Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a maj ...

anti-tank gun An anti-tank gun is a form of artillery designed to destroy tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, normally from a static defensive position. The development of specialized anti-tank munitions and anti-tank guns was prompted by the appearance ...

s, freeing up modern guns for their usual duties. Number 1 15-pounder Camel Battery RGA (today's 21 (Air Assault) Battery) served with six guns with the

Indian Expeditionary Force The Indian Army during World War I was involved World War I. Over one million Indian troops served overseas, of whom 62,000 died and another 67,000 were wounded. In total at least 74,187 Indian soldiers died during the war. In World War I the ...

in the

Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 peopl ...

hinterland from 1915 to 1918 during the South Arabia campaign, to defend the important port at Aden against any Turkish advance. In July 1915, actions were fought in initially losing and then regaining the British advanced post at Sheik Othman controlling the water supply to Aden. Sgt Curtis was awarded the

Distinguished Conduct Medal The Distinguished Conduct Medal was a decoration established in 1854 by Queen Victoria for gallantry in the field by other ranks of the British Army. It is the oldest British award for gallantry and was a second level military decoration, ranki ...

for saving his gun in these actions21 (Air Assault) Battery – History
(presumably the first, in which two guns were lost). The Camel Battery was present when the British captured Hatum in January 1918. The gun was the standard field artillery for the early South African Union Defence Force and saw action with the Cape Field Artillery at the Battle of Kakamas and Battle of Upington during the

South-West Africa Campaign The South West Africa campaign was the conquest and occupation of German South West Africa by forces from the Union of South Africa acting on behalf of the British imperial government at the beginning of the First World War. Background T ...

Ammunition

Surviving examples

Royal Australian Artillery Museum The Australian Army Artillery Museum was an artillery museum located in North Fort, on the northern head of the entrance to Sydney Harbour, in Sydney, Australia. It was formerly called the "National Artillery Museum", and had a large collecti ...

, North Head, Sydney, Australia * Six guns can be found in South Africa. One gun is located in the

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, two more on open-air display in Kollege Road,

Graaff-Reinet Graaff-Reinet is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the oldest town in the province. It is also the sixth-oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, Paarl and Swellendam. The town was the ...

and another 3 in various location throughout South Africa, including Kimberley and Cape Town

Notes and references

Bibliography

* Dale Clarke
British Artillery 1914–1919. Field Army Artillery. Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2004
* Mark Connelly
The British Campaign in Aden, 1914–1918
Journal of the Centre for First World War Studies, 2:1 (2005) 65–96. * General Sir Martin Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Western Front 1914–18. London: Royal Artillery Institution, 1986 * General Sir Martin Farndale, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Forgotten Fronts and the Home Base 1914–18. London:The Royal Artillery Institution, 1988. * I.V. Hogg & L.F. Thurston, British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914–1918. London: Ian Allan, 1972

External links

Handbook of the 15-pr. B.L.C. guns, Marks I, II, II* and IV, with Mark I carriage and Marks I, IA, IB and IC limbers and wagons: land service, 1912
at State Library of Victoria
15-pr B.L.C. gun gun drill 1914
at State Library of Victoria

from Victorian Forts and Artillery website {{DEFAULTSORT:Blc 15-pounder Field guns World War I artillery of the United Kingdom World War I guns 76 mm artillery