Posted on 08/12/2012 3:45:46 PM PDT by moonshot925
20 cannons were manufactured from 1951 to 1953.
The cannon fired a W9 or W19 nuclear artillery shell with a maximum range of 24-29 miles.
5 Field Artillery Battalions were deployed to the 7th Army in West Germany between October 1953 and April 1954. The units were hosted by the 42nd Field Artillery Group.
Each battalion had 3 280mm guns, 30 officers, 7 warrant officers and 401 enlisted men.
All of the cannons were retired in December 1963.
Unit I was in had Davey Crockett rockets ~ they were being phased out at the time. I think that was the only atomic weaponry ever issued to the Infantry.
marines never had them. based on information gained from examining the 2 german 28cm K-5 railroad guns captured after the anzio breakout (finally). both were brought to the states and used to fix one to test fire. K-5 LEOPOLD used to sit across the street from the atomic cannon at APG
Yeah! And now its a full auto!!
The exhaust plumes from a salvo of sounding rockets, used to collect data from the blast.
Are they as bad as assault rifles?
Yes. Those are instrument-carrying rockets intended to measure various aspects of a test explosion. What you're seeing are the rocket trails, going from the ground up.
What if one of those suckers had a HANG-FIRE?
The yield of the bomb can be estimated from the horizontal distortion of the vertical stream made by smoke rockets. The rockets were launched just prior to the explosion.
Thanks for the explanation/information.
“In many pics of Atomic explosions, what are those white streaks you often see near the ‘Mushroom Cloud’ that appear to be going up and down from the ground to the sky? (anyone know?)”
Those were made by small rockets fired off instants before the bomb went off to generate smoke trails so as to give a visual indication of the propagation of the shock wave.
Those were made by small rockets fired off instants before the bomb went off to generate smoke trails so as to give a visual indication of the propagation of the shock wave.
Actually, i read somewhere it was otherwise, they were created by some static electric discharge or something created by the blast initial effect, not effected by the shock wave or to measure the shockwave
I saw some show that talked about this gun. Since it was unwieldy, taking a day to set up, and with only a handful of them around, the Soviets constantly had them targeted.
They are rockets that are launched just before the test.
They are spaced apart so that they become distance markers.
They are used for making measurements of the yield.
I bet they were great on snarks.
After a few drinks with a Los Alamos newkyewler program manager, this atomic cannon came up in the conversation.
He couldn't stop laughing.
“Actually, i read somewhere it was otherwise, they were created by some static electric discharge...”
I never read that, but I can’t claim direct knowledge. Any kind of static electricity discharge or orderly fields set up by the blast I would imagine would be obliterated by the sheer flood of ions and particles of all sorts emitting from the blast. That’s why I think (and have read) that they are just dumb smoke trails from rockets launched immediately pre-detonation. And, as you say, they are only visible on *some* of those early Nevada (NM, in the case of Trinity) blasts, which were all photographed in roughly the same fashion.
Read “Curve of Binding Energy” by John McPhee..lots of info on size reduction of weapons and who did it...
That is the most awesome GIF I have ever seen.
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