1/35 M114A1 155mm Howitzer in Viet Nam, 9-15-13, Details

[sturmbird]

just add to my post about the swab, and bucket (s). Sometime around the spring of 1968 there was an order that came down requiring the breech to be swabbed after every shot. My unit was a first strike unit out of Ft Bragg, and they rarely swabbed the breech when I joined them. But I guess somebody had a fire or worse. To be exact I never really saw any unit swabbing the breech except for the 175 guys until that spring. The order came down from the very top of the food chain. So if your doing a 1966 or 67 scene, the swab might be laying well out of the way. Never saw any 105 battery ever swab the breech at anytime!
gary

[Tobi]

Nice progress Mike. I love the ammo and powder bunker. Through Gary and you, I have never learnt so much about arty before!

Cheers,
Tobi

[redleg12]

Tony - Thanks for stopping by and for the kind comments...always trying to get better!

Gary - Love the stop by the firing point. As for the 105, since it is semi-fixed ammo you don't have to swab. But since you can fire at a higher rate, you will punch the tube every day or after every 100 or so rounds.

Tobi - Thanks, that is the great thing about these sites. You can have fun and learn at the same time!!

Rounds Complete!!

[sturmbird]

Sept 18, 2013 19:43:53 GMT -5 redleg12 said:

Tony - Thanks for stopping by and for the kind comments...always trying to get better!

Gary - Love the stop by the firing point. As for the 105, since it is semi-fixed ammo you don't have to swab. But since you can fire at a higher rate, you will punch the tube every day or after every 100 or so rounds.

Tobi - Thanks, that is the great thing about these sites. You can have fun and learn at the same time!!

Rounds Complete!!

The reason you swab breeches is to get that last burning rag out of there. My first AG was a Mexican guy that grew up in your neighborhood. He was so fast (and good) that he often opened the breech with fire inside it on the way back into battery. First couple times I saw him do that, it scared me to death! These guys could shoot a one round zone sweep in about 53 to 55 seconds! A minute and ten seconds is considered exceptional! I remember one time they called in a check fire on the end user's end, and the first rounds hadn't impacted yet. We had two more rounds to load, and told them they'd best dig a deep hole really, really fast! Max range takes a little over a minute to get there.

The only time we ever punched a tube was when it was brand new. Had to get all the cosmoline out of it. Army manual says soap & water, but we used a 50/50 mix of gasoline and diesel. Punching a round is done with the bell shaped adapter on the rammer staff. Not much to it unless it's one of the exotic timed fuses that are made of plastic! Then everybody clears out to about a 150 yards! Only saw that happen once.

Up and until about September 1968 we often shot screaming meemies on H&I shoots. Some crews put razor blades between the fuse and the projo, but we always used the can that the 565 timed fuse comes inside of. The round just screams like a woman in flight. Later we found out that every once in awhile the round would tumble on the way down, and didn't explode. So we quit using them. Was a lot of fun shooting them over friendless!! (we were big on recycling!)
gary

[deafpanzer]

Catching up.... LOVE the base! Guys are going to love it too at Armorcon.

[redleg12]

Gary - Love the screamers. Always gets every ones attention. On the 105 a good AG uses the recoil return to open the breech..help you get a round out every 4 to 5 seconds.

Dickey - Thanks..No privilege...you are always welcome

Andy - Thanks for the peek. Looking forward to next week at Armorcon.

Thanks Again to all who peek

Rounds Complete!!

[sturmbird]

Sept 22, 2013 7:06:42 GMT -5 redleg12 said:

Gary - Love the screamers. Always gets every ones attention. On the 105 a good AG uses the recoil return to open the breech..help you get a round out every 4 to 5 seconds.

Dickey - Thanks..No privilege...you are always welcome

Andy - Thanks for the peek. Looking forward to next week at Armorcon.

Thanks Again to all who peek

Rounds Complete!!

the old 105's had a few issues that could cause a lot of grief. The guns were prone to jumping around a bit when shooting out near max ranges and with the barrel near level. Due to weight and the spring in the tires. We always called them "pop guns". The M102 was a much better design. Another problem with 105's that few ever think about is the ammo resupply. The crates are bulky, and fill a landing net quickly. Then you gotta get rid of all those cases after shooting. I saw a pile once that was fifty feet tall and about fifty feet by one hundred fifty feet long!! Of course the rounds only weighed about forty pounds complete. Yet a crew on an M110 might shoot 25 rounds a night, and get resupplied every five days or so, while the 105 guys are going thru 400 rounds a day! Watching them we always wondered why they never got rid of the wooden crates in the rear and came up with an easier idea. I mean we had ammo pallots all over the place, and their entire volume was less than a gun shooting 400 rounds a day in a 105 battery! The one serious advantage that the M102 had over everybody was how mobile it was. Shoot here a couple days and then move twenty klicks south to be shooting in two hours. Course that also has it's down falls too. After a few moves you get real tired of picking up and starting all over again.

I went to a get together yesterday. They said they quit counting heads at the 10,000 person number. I'd guess there was a minimum of 12K and probably close to 15K there. Met two guys from LZ Ripcord. I already knew one of them, and they were in the hunt for two others out of Ripcord. (read the book!) I must have sampled food from fifty different groups, and probably went thru three times the legal limit in beer (what do you do with free beer?) Saw one very old fellow from the 29 Div that saw his tour of duty start on Omaha Beach! Can't wait to do it again next September!!

raining up in the mountains this morning, and we gotta check out one of the mountain tops. Can I borrow your pancho?
gary

[redleg12]

Cleaning up the final details. First, for my old buddy Gary, the old fashioned aiming post light held in place by 100 mile an hour tape. The flashlight is from Verlinden, painted with Polyscale light green and the lens is Tamiya Clear Red. The tape is OD decal.



The projectiles all use Tamiya Flat Copper for the rotating bands, the PD fuse is Alclad Burnt Metal, the MTSQ Time fuse is Black. Illumination rounds are Flat White, WP Smoke and HC Smoke are Tamiya Cockpit Green and HE rounds are Tamiya OD Green. After all the paint then all the decals and a seal coat of semi-gloss.

The coilmeter on the roof of the shed used a tripod and yoke from the Academy machine gun kit. The unit is .1 diameter tube, the eye piece in the rear is .060 tube and the focus knob is .020 rod. The lens in front tis is an.075 dia MV lens.



The ready rounds include 5 HE with PD fuses, 1 HE with MTSQ Time fuse, and 2 WP Smoke with PD fuses. The pallet is ,040 basswood, stained with VN Earth pigment and drilled for the bases of the projectiles.

Near the breech, is a 30 cal ammo can for the primers. Two more cans were in the ammo shed middle area along with a 50 cal can used for fuses. Cans are painted with Polyscale dark green



At this point I have to finish with weathering the ammunition shed and some of the loose items but here is the front view thus far



Here is the view from the rear.



Just about done. Once I weather the ammunition shed and some loose items I will be all set for Armorcon. I will post some final pictures next week.

As always if you have any comments, please feel free to drop in.

Rounds Complete!!

[bigjohn]

Outstanding!!!!! I love all that extra ammo!! Thats how it should be.

[redleg12]

Big John - thanks, always looks good with all the ammo.

Rounds Complete!!

[fightnjoe]

outstanding. absolutely outstanding.





joe

[redleg12]

Joe - Thanks for the peek and for the comment

Rounds Complete!!

[robbo]

This is coming together. Love it so far and it's only going to get better the more you add

[sturmbird]

On the left trail (gunner's side) there was a steel rod sticking out from the end. Never saw one that didn't have this attachment. They varied in length, and have seen them as long as three feet. Our's was about two feet long. This was to make it easier to shift the gun to a new azmuth. There are grab handles on the trails, but they are a real pain to grab, and usually takes three guys. With that rod sticking out, one guy can actually shift the gun in a pinch! Once the trails are up in the air, the grab handles are easier to get to.

Most units kept the thin cased rounds in separate locations from the HE. This is a safety issue. Smoke and WP are never close together because in the dark the colors are similar. Illumination rounds are shaped different, and are heavier like WP. These two are never mixed, as the guys on the other end wouldn't much care for a WP round instead of a light bulb! We never fused smoke or WP & Illumination. Cofram (this will depend on the time frame) are another thin shelled round. Ours were fused, and kept in a separate bunker built from a culvert. Looking back this was probably not such a good thing to put fuses on them. Lastly we kept an empty 50 cal ammo can to keep the supplemental charges in. for the S.F. teams. You always have one left over everytime you use a PD fuse. These are never ever put in with unburnt powder.

With the collimator out, you'd start shooting with white smoke. Then move into something like a standard contact load of HE to prove your register out. Registering a howitzer is simply zeroing it in. The use of the "contact load is to make sure that when firing danger close, you ain't gonna kill the wrong guy. Actually the collimator will be removed once firing commences as the concussion will ruin it. Once the aiming stakes are set, there's little use for it again. The base piece is the gun FDC works off of. It's registered weekly. The others are once a month unless your in some other disorganized Army (won't say). I've seen the base piece shoot over fifty rounds before the F.O. is satisfied (well our base piece left a lot to be desired!). We rarely shot ten rounds in registering. Speaking of collimator, there was another one that looked more like a surveyor's transit. They picked out a target several klicks away that they have very accurate data off of. Another outfit I saw based everything off of azmuth 6400 (true north). Was pretty accurate.
gary

[wbill76]

Always love watching one of your emplacements come alive Mike. Wish I could be there to see it in person at Armorcon!

[redleg12]

Robbo - Thanks for the peek and for the comments

Gary - Totally understand the projo separation and agree. Here I had to take a bit of artistic license, otherwise the ammo bunker would be wrapping around two sides and a bit bigger. Ahhh, the old days of registration. As for the other instrument, you mean the aiming circle. Used as the primary instrument to lay (survey) a battery into a position.
Always love you comments but this has been fun on this build. As I said you inspired my pig!!

Bill - Thanks Bill, just about ready to fire, first target will be Armorcon this weekend. Wish you could be there!

Rounds Complete!!

[sturmbird]

Sept 23, 2013 21:03:13 GMT -5 redleg12 said:

Robbo - Thanks for the peek and for the comments

Gary - Totally understand the projo separation and agree. Here I had to take a bit of artistic license, otherwise the ammo bunker would be wrapping around two sides and a bit bigger. Ahhh, the old days of registration. As for the other instrument, you mean the aiming circle. Used as the primary instrument to lay (survey) a battery into a position.
Always love you comments but this has been fun on this build. As I said you inspired my pig!!

Bill - Thanks Bill, just about ready to fire, first target will be Armorcon this weekend. Wish you could be there!

Rounds Complete!!

I can never forget that steel shaft hanging out there as I tripped over it more than once! My statements about the actual projo separation wasn't direct towards you, but to let the guys in on why we see the rounds all separated.
you did well
gary

[bbd468]

Mike, just gets better and better! Splendid job on all accounts.

[redleg12]

Gary - It is always good to explain the real deal!!

BBD - Thanks for the peek and for the comment

Rounds Complete!!

[Deleted]

WOW Mike !!!!
What a beautiful dio !!!!

[sturmbird]

this completely off the topic, but still related to this one-five-five. (correct pronunciation). Would also make a fantastic dio if you were good with figures (I'm not)

When I was down on Gator, I spent about three agonizing weeks in the FDC. They had been at this location for about nine months, and were rather settled in by then. When I went in there I was stuck with one of the map tables that had a large tee square like arm that was set up off the base piece (in theory). They would give me the grid square, and then the numbers. I then would establish a pin point and then align the tee square on the pin point. Then run thru that line looking for high points of elevation. (I told you it was boredom). Other guys had their own jobs to do, but that was mine. There was a computer that was about 2'x2'x3' tall, and one guy fed the data into it. While this was going another guy sat there in a chair with a slide rule and worked the same equation. He was also faster than the computer, and a little more accurate! Other guys did the powder charges, and the firing data. Then all this data was compared to what the battalion FDC got, and at the sametime with Div. Arty. Safety issues!

Now that we have a very rough idea as to what happens in that three or four minutes; let me sorta fill you all in on what this place looked like (you'll love it). The FDC bunker was about four feet under ground, and actually had a concrete floor! The remaining four feet above ground had about three feet of sand bags on the roof and sides (maybe more). Poorly designed, as we later learned, but was fantastic on New Years Day 1968. Plus it was dry! The walls were plywood, that had a coat of clear varnish! (only time I ever saw that!) Every square foot of paneling had a Playboy Centerfold on it plus all the other pics they could glean out of the magazine. It was a well known feature, and photos of it have turned up here and there thru the years. But most folks have no idea who and where it was at. Now this would make one heck of a dio. Now this particular bunker operated as two separate FDC's because the battery was split into two three gun groups. So there were four map tables instead of the normal two. Most of the time it was just stand around at wait. Course this ended in February.

gary

[redleg12]

Gary - OK....the funny T square is a Range Deflection Protractor. The pin at the base of the protractor represented battery center. You find the grid of the target, put a pin in the target, rotate the RDP so the edge is touching the target pin and the base is in batter center. Now on the long side of the RDP you can read range and on the arch of the RDP you can read deflection. The little slide rule sticks are made for each different powder charge. You slide to the range and you can read quadrant to set on the gun, also fuse setting for MTSQ.

As for the computer, it was known as FADAC. The computer was old tube technology, ran on a 3K generator and was very slow. Most good FDCs could beat the computer on the first round but it was usually faster on the corrections. It was useful for registrations and calculating corrections or for applying MET data. The FADAC had the computing capability of a small calculator today.

Thanks for the memories...

Rounds Complete!!

[sturmbird]

Sept 25, 2013 19:42:15 GMT -5 redleg12 said:

Gary - OK....the funny T square is a Range Deflection Protractor. The pin at the base of the protractor represented battery center. You find the grid of the target, put a pin in the target, rotate the RDP so the edge is touching the target pin and the base is in batter center. Now on the long side of the RDP you can read range and on the arch of the RDP you can read deflection. The little slide rule sticks are made for each different powder charge. You slide to the range and you can read quadrant to set on the gun, also fuse setting for MTSQ.

As for the computer, it was known as FADAC. The computer was old tube technology, ran on a 3K generator and was very slow. Most good FDCs could beat the computer on the first round but it was usually faster on the corrections. It was useful for registrations and calculating corrections or for applying MET data. The FADAC had the computing capability of a small calculator today.

Thanks for the memories...

Rounds Complete!!

we had a guy that was an assistant math professor at Columbia University, and was drafted in late 1966. He was the final check on the firing data, and caught errors from time to time. He went home in May 1968. We had two map tables for each battery. One was a full topo, and the others was setup in intricate grid squares. I ran the topo maps to make sure that the trajectory of the round cleared the elevation points. I never did any high angle stuff as it was pretty flat unless we were shooting due west. I was told that it was fairly tricky to drop a round in a canyon, but was never presented with that problem. I never paid a lot of attention to what went on with the guys on the other side of the room, so I just can't say much. Div. FDC and Battalion FDC were slower than these guys, so we often were waiting on them. During Tet in 68, the Div FDC was overwhelmed with fire missions, so we bypassed them to gain time. The Battalion FDC was much larger in man powder, and they they were able to stay with us most of the time.
gary

[sturmbird]

Sept 25, 2013 19:42:15 GMT -5 redleg12 said:

Gary - OK....the funny T square is a Range Deflection Protractor. The pin at the base of the protractor represented battery center. You find the grid of the target, put a pin in the target, rotate the RDP so the edge is touching the target pin and the base is in batter center. Now on the long side of the RDP you can read range and on the arch of the RDP you can read deflection. The little slide rule sticks are made for each different powder charge. You slide to the range and you can read quadrant to set on the gun, also fuse setting for MTSQ.

As for the computer, it was known as FADAC. The computer was old tube technology, ran on a 3K generator and was very slow. Most good FDCs could beat the computer on the first round but it was usually faster on the corrections. It was useful for registrations and calculating corrections or for applying MET data. The FADAC had the computing capability of a small calculator today.

Thanks for the memories...

Rounds Complete!!

[redleg12]

Well, after final weathering with MIG Vietnam Earth pigment, here are the final photos of the finished model.

Front View



Rear view



Gunners Side view



Views of the ammunition storage bunker with ammunition





Powder drum and aiming post



Colimeter



Bore Cleaner Storage



I finished in time to take it to Armorcon where it earned a gold medal. Hope you enjoyed this mission. Next up Nike Hercules AD missile

As always if you have any comments, please feel free to drop in.

Rounds Complete!!

EOM!

[sturmbird]

looks nice, and would make a few guys homesick
gary

[bullardino]

Stunning result, Mike. Will there be some crew in the future or will it stay this way?

[redleg12]

Gary - Thanks, this one was for you. You are welcome at my firing point anytime.. be well my brother!

Bullardino - Thanks. with the helmets "lying" around, it is a "break" period so no figures. Besides I generally inhale when it comes to figures, this not a figure guy. Also there are not many figures made that are proper for artillery. For VN era there was a resin set of figures made for artillery, but OOP and hard to find.

Rounds Complete!!

[Deleted]

Awesome job! Brings back memories.

[tonylee-Rest In Peace]

I just knew it would pull down the GOLD Mike.

Red Leg Golden Boy among us people.

Three Cheers
Tony lee