Cannister at Guadalcanal?

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diddyriddick

Staff Sergeant
1,387
1
May 29, 2009
Hamlet, NC, US
I'm currently reading Rising Sun by John Toland. In the chapter on Guadalcanal, he refers to artillery firing cannister. I had no idea that happened as late as WWII. Anybody know more?
 
I believe US 37mm AT guns could fire canister rounds, and I know that the 76mm L5 gun fitted to the Scorpion and Saladin in the British Army had canister rounds as late as the 1970s. Sometimes the old ideas still have life in them...
 
Don't Know about WWII but I understood it made a comeback in Korea as an efficient way to clear tanks of Chinese/Korean infantry.
 
I'm currently reading Rising Sun by John Toland. In the chapter on Guadalcanal, he refers to artillery firing cannister. I had no idea that happened as late as WWII. Anybody know more?

Others nailed it, the 37MM used cannister rounds. Used them in the first battle against the Ichichi (SP?) Battalion at the sand pit. Probably up on Bloody Ridge. Not used offensively but only defensively. Very hard to lug those 37MM guns around in the Jungle.

As for the 105MM, I know they were used at Anzio in the direct fire mode but am unsure if it was with cannisters or very short/contact fuses. Very effective against German infantry in that battle.

Possible it was also used in the Bulge around the Villages of Rochefelt/Krinkelt (again, SP?). But that is definite maybe.
 
Ok. I get the AT cannister-It's a direct fire weapon. But what good would cannister do for arty? Could you even depress the elevation enough to effectively use it?
 
105's can be depressed enough for direct fire, in fact, at least in the old days they had sights to be used for just that purpose. A friend of my who was in fire direction for 105 batteries in Korea in the early 70's said they had flechete (think of a shotgun shell filled with darts) round they called "beehives" for their guns to deal with potential human wave attacks that could be set to burst at any distance from the muzzle to maximum range
 
Most artillery pieces, even today, can be depressed to about -2/-3 degrees and fired 'over open sights'. I think it was the Aussies who were known to use 25-pounders as AT guns during WWII, exploiting the direct-fire capability.

Of course, if you need to fire over open sights, it means you're in serious trouble, but the option is still there should the worst come to the worst...
 

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