Difference between revisions 123071595 and 123071596 on dewiki

{{More footnotes|date=January 2009}}

{{infobox weapon
| name               = Ordnance QF 25 pounder
| image              = [[File:25 Pounder Gun.JPG|300px]]
| caption            = Ordnance QF 25 pounder gun shown mounted on its firing platform, King Street West, Dundas, Hamilton, Canada.
| origin             = [[United Kingdom]]
| type               = [[Field gun]]/[[Howitzer]]|
(contracted; show full)

The official 'reduced detachment' was 4 men.

Many different Companies manufactured the guns and component parts in the UK. Vickers Armstrong in Scotswood, Baker Perkins in Peterborough and Weirs in Glasgow were some of the most significant. The various Royal Ordnance factories produced most of the ordnance items. In Canada Sorel Industries built complete guns and provided the ordnance for fitting to the Sexton. Australia also built complete guns, cho
osing to weld the carriages rather than rivet, as was the practice in the UK and Canada. In all, over 13,000 were made world wide.

==Ammunition==
[[File:25 pounder base charges diagrams.jpg|thumb|left|<center>"Normal" cartridge arrangements</center>]]

The 25 pounder fired separate ammunition; the projectile and the propelling charge in its usually brass cartridge case with its integral primer were loaded separately. Being a QF gun the cartridge case provided obturation.

(contracted; show full)to 12 pieces per battalion. In 1964 a total of 54 25-pdr guns were delivered from Greece to Cyprus, where they entered service with the Cyprus National Guard organized into 4 12-tube battalions (181, 182, 183 and 185) and one independent battery of 6 tubes (184). They saw action during the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974. The 25-pdr remained in Greek Army service until 1992, when they were retired as part of the CFE agreement. The pieces of the Cyprus National Guard remain in storage.

==Variants==

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⏎
===Mark I===
[[File:25 pounder field gun of 153rd Field Regiment 07-06-1943.jpg|thumb|25-pdr field gun of 153rd Field Regiment (Leicestershire Yeomanry) during a practice shoot in the mountains near Tripoli in the Lebanon, 7 June 1943.]]

(contracted; show full)first produced in 1943. This was a shortened version of the standard 25 pounder, mounted on the ''Carriage 25 pr Light, Mark 1''. The Baby was intended for [[jungle warfare]] and was only used by Australian units in the [[South West Pacific theatre of World War II]]. The gun could be towed by a [[jeep]] or broken down into 13 sections and transported by air. During the [[New Guinea campaign]] the gun was manhandled up steep jungle tracks where trucks could not operate.

===Carriages===

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⏎
====Mark I====
The Mark I carriage was the first real 25 pounder carriage. Later in World War II some guns had a double shield, two shields separated by spacers, to improve protection. It had a Probert pattern calibrating sights, but with the range indicator wrapped into the distinctive cone that rotated against a fixed reader arm

====Jury Axle====
(contracted; show full)====Mark III====
The Mark III carriage was a further development of the  Mark II carriage to provide joints that enabled the trail to be cranked for "upper register fire". It entered service at the end of World War II.

====Mark IV====
The British did further work on the 25 pounder Short, enabling it to fire charge Super. One or 2 prototypes were produced and the carriage was officially designated the Mark IV, but never went into production.

==Self-propelled 25 pounders==

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⏎
===Bishop===
The [[Bishop (artillery)|Bishop]] was a British self-propelled 25-pounder using the [[Valentine tank|Valentine]] tank chassis.

===Sexton===
The [[Sexton (artillery)|Sexton]] was a Canadian self-propelled 25-pounder using the [[Ram tank|Ram]] or [[Grizzly I cruiser|Grizzly]] tank chassis.

===Yeramba===
The [[Yeramba (artillery)|Yeramba]] was an Australian self-propelled 25-pounder using the [[M3 Lee]] tank chassis.
(contracted; show full)[[ar:أوردنانس 25 رطل]]
[[cs:Ordnance QF 25 pounder]]
[[fr:Ordnance QF 25 pounder]]
[[it:Ordnance QF 25 lb]]
[[he:תותח 25 ליטראות]]
[[ja:QF 25ポンド砲]]
[[pl:Haubicoarmata 25-funtowa]]
[[ru:QF 25 pounder]]