Annie, Get Yer Gun!
Ran across this bit of history the other day. I thought all our readers who are current and former cannon-cockers would enjoy it.
That’s the old 280mm M65. Twenty were built in the early 1950s. They were nicknamed “Atomic Annie”, likely after the famous German “Anzio Annie” rail gun of World War II.
Eight still survive today as museum pieces. The one that fired the first (and only) live nuke round is on static display at the US Army Artillery Museum at Fort Sill, OK.
Here’s a movie of that test-firing, including some neat info about the system as well as the test event itself. Enjoy – and try not to get too big of a chub, guys. (smile)
Category: Big Army, Historical
Years and years ago, the VFW VSO in Salt Lake City, Utah was Collie Mattfield (now deceased – cancer).
He was a retired Army sergeant major, and in his office, he had a model of this gun.
I asked him about it, and he pointed out that the Army couldn’t use it because it was too big to maneuver through the winding streets of German villages, where it was needed.
Watching that video reminded me of when I was back from Viet Nam and assigned to the Combat Developments Experimentation Command at Hunter Liggett Military Reservation (now Fort Hunter Liggett), and seeing experimental weapons and tactics, such as the “Cheyenne” attack helicopter, which the Army rejected.
Hondo, thanks for the memory. I grew up in a small Oklahoma town not far from Fort Sill. On a class field trip to Sill, we got to see a live fire demonstration of that cannon, not nuclear of course.
Very interesting stuff there. I remember seeing that particular piece at the Ft. Sill museum back in 1985.
My first duty station which was in Germany, was a 155 unit that was nuke capable. Ah, memories of the cold war. Thanks for posting that.
Awesome piece of Red Leg history. That is where I saw it for the first time when I was at Sill in 90 and 92.
Very impressive. Especially the part about setting the fuse – with a wrench – CLANK CLANK CLANK.
Wow, crewing that would have been a hell of a job.
Actually from what I’ve read they had a 5 to 7 man gun section. But it required alot of support vehicles. I would’ve thought there’d be more.
he best thing about being a soldier was the toys we got to play with, explosives and the Fourth of July shows.
The Navy has the best toys though, no question about it !!!
There’s no weapon like a “special weapon”!!
You know, I knew I knew that voice! It’s Mr. Hand from Fast Times, aka Uncle Martin from “My Favorite Martian” real name Ray Walston. He did voice overs for the Atomic Energy Commission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Walston
forget the gunbunnies, we always tried to do the “Special Munitions” call for fire when we given the Fulda Gap on TSFO training days.
Gunbunnies, crack smoking FOs, all are worthless without a good FDC. Day one of FA OBC from the chief instructor. “A call for for fire is really a REQUEST for fire. the FDC decides if to shoot, what to shoot (shell/fuze combo) and how much to shoot” and if the shell misses it is always the Crack smoking observers fault :).
Really though all three are needed, the eyes (crack smoking observer) the Fist (gunline) and brain (FDC). if one is missing your not going to hit squat.
From a old FDC Chief that did 23 years all I can say is “Hell Yeah!!” I work on Ft Sill everyday and love to hear the sound of freedom!
The best part of being at sill was the 0600 TOTs that went off right as the flag went up.
Ah, yeah….. The toys The self propelled Howitzers The mud in Grafenwohr, Deploying camo netting five times a day for training (those nets are heavy and cumbersome). HOW Battery 3/2 ACR
My best fun was loading on a mission on the M102A1 (105mm)… kicking hot brass under the rail with my bare legs. We killed a truckload of rockets and the secondary explosions were a great reward. Nice to never hear them incoming. 2/19 FA 1ACD LZ Jamie
That looked like the M82 primer they were using. The 8″ went away with the SALT because they were Nuke capable. I thought the 155s were not, but then, I have been mistaken before.
They used some of the barrels off of the deactivated M110s to make bunker buster bombs for DS.
And I believe your right about the 155s not being nuke capable. The 8 inch guns had greater range than any of the 155s and still had to use a RAP to get the nuke rounds far enough down range. I don’t think 155s are RAP capable. We need a 13B to give us a definite ruling.
155mm were very much nuke capable:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W48
The 8″ (or 203mm, if you prefer) went away mostly because the M270 MLRS replaced it. Better range, smaller crew, better protection, and better downrange effects for the counterbattery mission.
For counter battery i would agree, for other things not so much. Tube arty gives you some things rocket arty just doesn’t. In some ways this has been mitigated by putting a unitary warhead on the MLRS (which also degrades its counter battery effects though) but for most mission other then maybe counter battery i would prefer tube
The 155s were/and if we had any shells left are very nuke capable. They were also Chemical capable back when we had a chem weapons program. Back in the day being a 13A required a personal reliably program screen just like air force ICBM crewman for precisely that reason.
Redleg JO &in BradTC – good stuff, appreciate the S2. I worked with 8 inch (4/14 & 2/14) and MLRS (the “new” 2/14) in Germany, and the M109s in the Guard (1/133). Never realized the 155 rounds were nuke capable (probably because the mission was no longer in place by the time I got to a 155 unit).
Seems like every 8 inch FTX ended with a SW mission. March order all the guns except “the” gun, build the round, shoot it and haul ass the other way.
Enjoyed my time with MLRS a lot more than with the other systems – it seems like we never relocated. Set up an aiming stake, back into the woodline and wait for a mission. Roll out of the woods to the stake, push a button, back into the woods. Repeat as necessary.
Good times.
Think the Soviet 160mm MORTAR was nuke-capable. Had a max range of something like 10km, which is ‘way too damn close to be tripping off any nuke for me.
They had nuke hand grenades too. Wouldn’t want to earn that expert badge…
Um, don’t think so.
The Davey Crockett nuclear warhead was about 50 lbs, give or take. You’re not gonna come up with a nuke too much smaller. Basic physics guarantees that.
A quick internet lookup gives the critical mass of a bare sphere of Pu-239 as approx 10 kg. You’ll need somewhat more than that much to make a nuclear “bang” (see the article on the W48 linked above regarding the “why”). Add the fuse, explosives, and control circuitry necessary to implode it, and you’re easily up to around 40 lbs, min – and probably somewhat more than that.