Hi All I visited Shrewsbury Castle and took pics of the guns at the enterence. The diary for the 51 Medium Regt, RA are held here, my grandfather was part of this regiment when he died in Italy in 1944. I am wondering if anyone can tell me more about the guns please? The sign said they where used as training guns at Owestry. Would it be possible that my grandfather fired guns such as these in the Italian Campaign? or that he trained on them? He was also in Malta for three years but on the AA guns. Cheers Ant
Hi Andalucia The smaller of the guns is a 25pdr Field Gun used by Divisional Artillery. The bigger one is a 5.5 inch (pos a 4.5 pic not clear) gun used by Corps Medium Artillery, as your Grandfather was in a Medium Regt the same as my father he would have used the 5.5, but there is no saying that he did'nt train on both. Regards Rob D.
I know those guns: Fire!!! My boys spent ages on them, and chatted to a korean veteran sat on a bench nearby; told him they were 'gonna blow up everyone in town with the big guns'... he offered to help. Lovely museum isn't it (assuming it's still there). one of the higher rent ones - Chatty staff & secondhand books for sale in the shop.
Thanks for the pictures and details Rob, great stuff Von Poop thats a great pic of your boy. Yes the museum was still open when we went early this month. Nice place indeed well worth a visit.
Hello Owen, The Ordnance Society are carrying out a National Artillery Survey and would like to include the two guns at Shrewsbury Castle that you took lots of pictures of. I wonder if you also have details such as their manufacturers and serial numbers? Would you be willing to have your pictures included in our survey? The survey, which now includes over 560 guns is downloadable from the website: NATIONAL ARTILLERY SURVEY. I hope to hear from you soon. Trevor Parker
Many thanks - I'll add them to the Ordnance Society's Flickr collection (acknowledged to you) and link the entries in the survey to the pictures. Trevor
Depotman, Are you aware that English Heritage a few years ago did a similar survey of their artillery collection? I did correspond with their officer, but have moved on and cannot even recall his name now.
David, thanks for that - we worked closely with English Heritage to incorporate their collection our survey, with links to photos for most guns. Have you looked at our survey?
Christ. The sprog pictured had his 19th birthday yesterday. I won't even start friendly fights with him these days as he'd knack me, the massive lump. Tempus bleedin' fugit. I think he'd still cheerfully blow up local towns if given the chance, so there's that...
Could you possibly send high quality pictures of the above to "ordnance.society@btinternet.com"? Copying the pictures above only produces a very low resolution image.
