The RML 16-pounder 12 cwt gun was a British Rifled, Muzzle Loading (RML) field artillery gun manufactured in England in the 19th century, which fired a projectile weighing approximately 16 pounds (7.3 kg). "12 cwt" refers to the weight of the gun.
Design and manufacture
RML 16 pdr 12 cwt gun barrel diagram, 1877
The gun consisted of an 'A' tube of toughened steel, over which was shrunk a 'B' tube of wrought iron. The gun was rifled using the system developed by William Palliser, in which studs protruding from the side of the shell engaged with three spiral grooves in the barrel.
The gun was fitted with a set of side sights on each side of the barrel. This enabled the gun to be sighted for indirect, or direct fire, from either side of the gun. A flat surface was machined on top of the barrel for a clinometer to be used, enabling the gun to be levelled, or to provide an alternate method of indirect sighting.
The gun was designed for land service only, with no naval variants. Two marks of field carriage were produced, which only slightly differed in design.
Operation
Fully horsed 16-pounder with crew, 1880
The 16-pounder was normally deployed in batteries of six or four guns. Each gun was pulled by a team of six horses. It had a crew of nine men – five crew who could be mounted on seats on the limber and gun, three drivers and a gun commander (number one) mounted separately.
In addition to each gun, a limbered ammunition trailer was also horse drawn. Field Artillery was designed to move at the same speed as infantry, with Horse Artillery being used where greater speed was required.
Ammunition
16-pounder RML ammunition diagram
The 16-pounder used three types of ammunition – Common shell (for use against buildings or fortifications), shrapnel shell (for use any Infantry or Cavalry) and case shot (for close range use against 'soft' targets. Ignition was through a copper lined vent at the breech end of the gun. A copper friction tube would be inserted and a lanyard attached. When the lanyard was pulled the tube would ignite, firing the gun.[1] A number of different fuzes could be used enabling shells to either burst at a pre-determined time (and range), or on impact.
Guns were fired using a silk bag containing a black powder propellant. A typical rate of fire was one round per minute.
Many were re-issued to Volunteer Artillery Batteries of Position from 1889, with 16-pounders among 226 guns issued to the Volunteer Artillery during 1888 and 1889.[3] The 1893 the War Office Mobilisation Scheme shows the allocation of thirty seven Artillery Volunteer position batteries equipped with 16 Pounder guns which would be concentrated in Surrey and Essex in the event of mobilisation.[4] Most remained in use until 1902. In 1906 the 1st Shropshire and Staffordshire Royal Garrison Artillery Volunteers took them to their annual camp in Bare, Morecambe.[5] The last were not finally withdrawn until 1908.[6]
16-pounder RML as time gun, Bordon Camp, c1910
Some guns were issued to different parts of the British Empire. In South Australia eight guns were issued to the South Australian Volunteer Artillery.[7] Six guns were issued for use by the Trinidad Artillery Volunteers in the 1890s and would remain in service until at least 1912.[8][9]
The Irish rebel song Come Out, Ye Black and Tans refers to the overwhelming firepower the 16-pounders provided against the Zulu during the Zulu wars in the lyrics: Like the Zulus they had spears and bow and arrows, How bravely you faced each one, With your 16-pounder guns, And you frightened them damn natives to their marrows.
^Goodrich, Caspar F (Lt Cdr), Report of the British Naval and Military Operations in Egypt 1882, Navy Department, Washington, 1885, p.231
^Report on the Account of Army Expenditure from 1888–1889, The National archives, WO33/50
^Mobilization Tables for Home Defence, List of Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteer Units, HMSO, London, 1893
^Derek Harrison,, "A History of the Shropshire Artillery Volunteer Corps, Spink & Son Ltd, 2015, p313
^Lt Gen Sir James Moncrieff Grierson, Records of the Scottish Volunteer Force 1859–1908, William Blackwood & Sons Ltd, 1909, p.116
^Brook, David (1986a). "Field Artillery 1840–1900". In Brook, David. Roundshot to Rapier: Artillery in South Australia 1840–1984. Hawthornedene, South Australia: Investigator Press. p34
^The little army of Trinidad, Navy and Army Illustrated, Vol 2, 13 November 1896, p.256-7
^Trinidad: Defence Scheme. London: Colonial Office. 1912. p. 8.
