Enubuj island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, February 4th, 1944.




Enubuj island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, February 4th, 1944.


A view of an M1 155mm howitzer which blew up, killing five of its crew and injuring several others quite seriously. Cause of the accident was believed to be a defective fuse.

Another cause for these type of accidents was the separately loaded powder. It was vital that the powder chambers of the 155mm tubes were to be swabbed and inspected after each round was fired. 

If too much powder residue built up in the barrel, it could cause a catastrophic explosion when a round was fired. Amazingly, those incidents were relatively rare.

The origin of the M114 actually lay in an initiative by the US Army to design and develop a modern carriage system for its aged M1918 155mm guns. 

The M1918 was nothing more than a copy of the World War 1-era French Canon de 155 C modele 1917 Schneider system which was procured in number by the American military.

 When it was decided against modernizing the older M1918 guns in this way, a new gun system was developed as the M1. The carriage became a split trail type and the gun was coupled to a hyrdopneumatic recoil system.

The weapon entered production as the 155mm Howitzer M1. It was not until 1962 that the now-modified M1A1 was redesignated to the M114/M114A1. 

The system was typically crewed by as many as 11 personnel including the unit commander, gun layer and ammunition handlers. Dimensions included a running length of 24 feet with a width of 8 feet and height of nearly 6 feet. Overall weight was 12,500lb. A trained crew could emplace (make ready to fire) the unit in 5 minutes.

Specs:
Maximum firing range‎: ‎14,600 m (16,000 yd)
Muzzle velocity‎: ‎563 m/s (1,847 ft/s)
Shell‎: ‎Separate-loading bagged charge
Rate of fire‎: ‎burst: 4 rpm; sustained: 40 rph

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