RML 2.5-inch mountain gun

Ordnance RML 2.5-inch mountain gun
Ordnance RML 2.5-inch mountain gun
	Sikh gunners assembling the gun, circa. 1895
Type	Mountain gun
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	1879–1918
Used by	British Empire; British Raj; Romania
Wars	Second Boer War; World War I
Production history
Designer	Colonel le Mesurier, RA
Designed	1877
Manufacturer	Royal Gun Factory
Specifications
Mass	800 pounds (363 kg) total
Length	69 inches (1,750 mm)
Barrel length	66 inches (1,680 mm)
Shell	7 pounds 6 ounces (3.35 kg) (Shrapnel); 8 pounds 2 ounces (3.69 kg) (Ring)
Calibre	2.5 inches (63.5 mm)
Action	RML
Muzzle velocity	1,436 feet per second (438 m/s)
Maximum firing range	3,300 yards (3,018 m); (shrapnel); 4,000 yards (3,658 m); (ring)

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

On display at Royal Artillery Museum London.

It was intended as a more powerful successor to the RML 7-pounder mountain gun.^[1] Some writers refer to the 2.5-inch gun as a "7-pounder" because it also fired a shell of approximately 7 pounds, but its official nomenclature was 2.5-inch RML.

In 1877 Colonel Frederick Le Mesurier of the Royal Artillery proposed a gun in 2 parts which would be screwed together. The Elswick Ordnance Company made 12 Mk I guns based on his design and they were trialled in Afghanistan in 1879. Trials were successful and Mk II with some internal differences made by the Royal Gun Factory entered service.^[2]

The gun was a rifled muzzle-loader. Gun and carriage were designed to be broken down into 4 parts (barrel, breech, 2 wheels) so they could be transported by pack animals (2 mules each: each mule with a left load and a right load, which must balance) or men. The barrel and breech were screwed together for action, hence the name "screw gun".

Second Boer War

Siege of Kimberley, 1899–1900

The gun was used in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) on its standard mountain gun carriage, and also with the Natal Field Battery at Elandslaagte and Diamond Fields Artillery at Kimberley on field carriages which had larger wheels and gave greater mobility.^[1]

A major defect in the war was that the gun's cartridges still used gunpowder as a propellant, although smokeless cordite had been introduced in 1892. The gunpowder generated a white cloud on firing, and as the gun could only be aimed using direct line of sight, this made the gunners easy targets for Boer marksmen as the gun lacked a shield.

It proved to be ineffectual and outclassed by Boer ordnance and was replaced by the BL 10-pounder mountain gun from 1901.

World War I

Either 4 or 6 guns (sources appear imprecise) were returned to service from Southern African garrisons in 1916 and were employed by the Nyasaland-Rhodesian Field Force in the campaign in German East Africa.^[3] Writers who refer to "7-pounders" in World War I are in fact referring to this 2.5-inch (64 mm) gun.

Romania bought 36 of these guns in 1883–1884, being designated in the local military nomenclature as "63 mm Armstrong mountain guns model 1883". They were the first guns designed for mountain warfare in Romanian use. Despite being obsolete, they were still used during World War I, with updated shells, due to the lack of sufficient numbers of more modern mountain guns in Romanian Army service as well as the fact that during the 1916-1917 campaigns a large section of the front was in mountainous terrain.^[4] By the beginning of 1918, only 16 remained in service^[5]

Surviving examples

At Fort Klapperkop, Pretoria

Restored gun is displayed at Firepower, the Royal Artillery Museum. Woolwich London
Two guns are displayed at Fort Charles, Port Royal, Jamaica
Two 2.5-inch (64 mm) RMLs on Field carriages and one on a Mountain carriage, at Fort Klapperkop Military Museum, Pretoria, South Africa.
One gun at the National Military Museum, Romania, Bucharest
Two guns guarding Avram Iancu's tomb in Țebea, Romania
Two guns displayed outside Peleș Castle, Romania

In literature

It was actively described in Rudyard Kipling's poem "Screw-Guns".

Notes and references

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Hall, June 1971
^ Ruffell
^ Farndale 1988, page 331-332
^ Stroea, Adrian; Băjenaru, Gheorghe (2010). Artileria româna în date si imagini [Romanian artillery in data and images] (in Romanian). Editura Centrului Tehnic-Editorial al Armatei. pp. 43–44. ISBN 978-606-524-080-3.
^ Stroea, Adrian (2008). 165 ani de existenta a artileriei romane moderne [165 years of existence of the modern Romanian artillery] (in Romanian). pp. 406–407.

Bibliography

External links

Handbook for 2.5-inch R.M.L. steel, jointed, gun mule and camel equipment, 1888 at State Library of Victoria

[HallJune1971-1] Hall, June 1971

[2] Ruffell

[3] Farndale 1988, page 331-332

[4] Stroea, Adrian; Băjenaru, Gheorghe (2010). Artileria româna în date si imagini [Romanian artillery in data and images] (in Romanian). Editura Centrului Tehnic-Editorial al Armatei. pp. 43–44. ISBN 978-606-524-080-3.

[5] Stroea, Adrian (2008). 165 ani de existenta a artileriei romane moderne [165 years of existence of the modern Romanian artillery] (in Romanian). pp. 406–407.

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