Howitzers in Anti tank role

Kiwigeordie -
well it would if the Tank Turret lid was open at the time the shell arrived ...
Cheers

 

Surely though the 25pdr is NOT a howitzer.

Of course not, it's a gun/howitzer.

 

i always thought guns like the 25 pounder and long tom as field guns, capable of doing be direct and indirect fire

 

Kiwigeordie -
well it would if the Tank Turret lid was open at the time the shell arrived ...
Cheers

Well, if you're going to drive around a battlefield with the sunshine roof open...

Seriously though, I recall seeing footage from the desert of tanks milling around on a plain and being shelled by (I believe) medium or heavy artillery. This doesn't make them 'anti-tank' guns, does it?
Surely an anti-tank gun is a specifically designed piece of equipment.
Pete

 

Kiwi
well of course the A/T gun is a specially designed gun- e.g 88mm and long barrelled 75mm -this is why Rommel used them so much but he also used any artillery to stop our Tanks - and the reason our sunshine roofs were open was to see just where the hell we were going- thus the amount of Tank Commanders lost....
Cheers

 

As an infantryman if I could not kill a tank, I would at least make sure he was closed down, as Tom points out it restricts vision, that improves my chances. Every weapon of war has its weakness and you exploit that. We would spend 24 hours driving across Germany battened down in NBC role, drivers and commanders using periscopes. The seconds it takes to swing a periscope through 360 to see who and where a contact is could spell the end of a promising career. The mark one eyeball works well, the ability to see unrestricted may not help you in direct attack but you will see any attack on other vehicles.

 

Kiwi
well of course the A/T gun is a specially designed gun- e.g 88mm and long barrelled 75mm -this is why Rommel used them so much but he also used any artillery to stop our Tanks - and the reason our sunshine roofs were open was to see just where the hell we were going- thus the amount of Tank Commanders lost....
Cheers

Tom. Sorry if my remark seemed facetious. No offence was intended.
I fully understand that most tank commanders exposed themselves to danger in order to improve their field of view.
The nub of my argument regarding the original thread was that, just because howitzers may have been used to shell a concentration of tanks does not confer on them the title of "anti-tank" gun.
Cheers,
Pete

 

here is a picture i found on my computer, cant remember where its from, but its apparently the result of 25 pounder HE shells hitting the side of a tiger

also, i believe the soviets used a lot of their 122 and 152mm howitzers in the anti tank role

 

Direct fire with its AP or dropping indirect fire??

 

direct fire, when i think of howitzers being used in the anti tank role, i always think of them being used in direct fire. The description for the photo read that it was fired at by HE rounds, as can be seen by the cracks in the armor, and an AP round

 

Surely though the 25pdr is NOT a howitzer.

Capable of fulfilling both roles (up to a point). But is the 155mm Long Tom a howitzer?

Chris

 

Kiwi -
No offence taken - we had to look out now and again to make sure that the war was still on as we didn't want to lose our home leave and all that pay

Cheers

 

Just my two penn'orth, but I think its irrelevant as to what a gun was designed as, rather what it is used as - for instance the German 88 was originally designed as a AA gun, but was successfully used as an anti-tank gun, unless Rommels mob were shooting at some really low flying aircraft

 

Just my two penn'orth, but I think its irrelevant as to what a gun was designed as, rather what it is used as

Yes, I agree, but the title of this thread specifies howitzers, which is why I posed my question, as the 25Pdr is a gun, not a howitzer.

 

i believe the soviets used a lot of their 122 and 152mm howitzers in the anti tank role
:wow: that should have been a rather frightening experience, even in a King Tiger.

By the way, 25pdrs were also used AT in Greece.

 

Remember your talking 1940's ARMY doctrine.
This is all a bit 'what if', 'was it'.
Thats why you ain't getting many arty bods on this thread.
Best
Rob

 

well, just saw this, so as a gunner, the 155mm long tom was indeed a howitzer,most of the time howitzers are used as a indirect fire weapon,however they can be used in a direct fire capability. we used to practice doing this against mockups of soviet tanks. we used full charges and HE's.(we were M109A3s)

 

Diverted to consider the anti-tank use of the 25-pounder and Point 63 on Ruweisat Ridge and found this first-hand account of their use by R.I. Cunningham, then a subaltern in ‘E’ Battery, 1st Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery.:

From: 1985 South African Military History Society - Journal - THE TURNING POINT<BR> 3rd July 1942: An eye-witness account [El Alamein]

 

Ordnance QF 25-pounder - Wikipedia

 

5.5 inch Medium Gun - The Royal Artillery 1939-45

BL 5.5-inch medium gun - Wikipedia
From above link: There was no AP (armour-piercing) round for the gun but, in an emergency, gunners were taught to remove the impact fuze and fire the unfused high explosive as an AP substitute (citation needed)