The Ordnance QF 4.5-inch howitzer was the standard British Empire field (or "light") howitzer of the First World War era. It replaced the BL 5-inch howitzer and equipped some 25% of the field artillery. It entered service in 1910 and remained in service through the interwar period and was last used in the field by British forces in early 1942. It was generally horse drawn until mechanisation in the 1930s.
The QF howitzer was used by British and Commonwealth forces in most theatres, by Russia and by British troops in Russia in 1919. Its calibre and shell weight were greater than those of the equivalent German 105 mm field howitzer. France did not have an equivalent artillery piece. In the Second World War, it equipped some units of the British Expeditionary Force in France and British, Australian, New Zealand and South African batteries in East Africa and the Middle East and Far East.
History Origin and use During the Second Boer War (1899–1902), the British government realised its field artillery was being overtaken by the more modern "quick firing" guns and howitzers of other major powers. The Krupp field howitzers used by the Boers had particularly impressed the British. The usefulness of field howitzers and the need for them to form part of an infantry division's artillery were reinforced by reports from the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. In 1900, the British Cabinet ordered Field Marshal Lord Roberts, the commander-in-chief in South Africa, to send home artillery brigade and battery commanders "selected for their eminence and experience" to form an equipment committee. It was formed in January 1901 with wide-ranging terms of reference concerning artillery equipment from guns and howitzers to harness design and instruments.Headlam, 1937, Appendix B It was chaired by General Sir George Marshall, who had been artillery commander in South Africa.Headlam, 1937, p. 73
The committee swiftly established requirements and invited proposals from British gun makers. None were satisfactory, and all compared poorly with a captured Krupp 12 cm howitzer. A purchase of Krupp howitzers was discussed, including visits to Essen. However, by 1905, the committee was sufficiently satisfied to recommend the production of trial equipments from ordnance factories, Armstrong, Vickers and the Coventry Ordnance Works (a joint venture by several Coventry engineering companies). Testing in 1906 showed the Coventry design was by far the most satisfactory and a battery's worth were ordered for trials. In 1908, after trials, the 4.5-inch howitzer was recommended for service, albeit with a shortened barrel.Headlam, 1937, pp. 81–82
The 4.5-inch howitzer was used on most fronts during the First World War. On the Western Front, its normal scale was one battery to every three batteries of 18-pounder field guns. Initially, 4.5-inch howitzers equipped a howitzer brigade of the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) in each infantry division. In the original British Expeditionary Force in 1914, this brigade had three batteries each with six howitzers. Subsequent batteries had only four howitzers. In 1916, all batteries on the Western Front began to be increased to six howitzers and, later that year, the howitzer brigades were disbanded and a howitzer battery added to each RFA field brigade as the fourth battery. This organisation continued between the wars.
The weapon remained in service during the inter-war period and was used in various campaigns. Apart from changes to its ammunition, the howitzer itself remained unchanged except for carriage modifications to enable mechanisation.
During the Second World War, they served with the British Expeditionary Force in France. Although many were lost, they were the most widely available artillery piece until QF 25-pounder gun-howitzer production developed. They were used in the Middle East and Far East theatres as well as for training. They were gradually replaced by the 25-pounder.
Description Features
QF stands for "quick firing", a British term for ordnance that fires ammunition with a metal (usually brass) cartridge case containing the propellant charge. The cartridge case also provides obturation (sealing of the chamber). This howitzer was the largest calibre of British QF field artillery ordnance.
Apart from extensive experimentation with shell and rifling designs, two problems slowed development; both were howitzer-specific issues. The first was the need for an adjustable quick firing recoil system to prevent the breech striking the ground when fired at high elevation angles. The second was the suitable design for a range scale in yards able to accommodate a choice of propelling charges. The first was solved by use of a "cut-off gear" that allowed of recoil when the barrel was horizontal but only when it was at 45 degrees of elevation. The second led to the range scale being designed for charge four and a "range rule" provided to convert the actual range for other charges to a false range set on the charge four scale.
The gun carriage was designed to be towed behind a limber and six horses; the lower carriage comprised a box trail. The QF 4.5 fired a separate round (i.e. shell and cartridge were loaded separately). The barrel was of built-up type, with a horizontal sliding-block breech. A limited traverse saddle supported the elevating mass and a shield. It was designed for one-man laying with both traverse and elevation controls and sights on the left. The recoil system was below the barrel and used a hydraulic buffer with a hydro-pneumatic recuperator to return the barrel to its firing position.
Originally fitted with rocking bar open sights including a deflection scale and a strip elevation, by 1914 the Number 7 dial sight in Carrier Number 7 Dial Sight Number 1 had been introduced. This carrier was reciprocating (i.e. it could be cross-levelled), it had an integral elevation scale drum and a mounting for the sight clinometer (used for the angle of sight).Handbook of the 4.5-in QF Howitzer, Land Service, 1914 The Number 7 dial sight was a modified version of the German Goertz panoramic sight. The only changes to the ordnance, creating the Mark II in 1917, had a reduced twist in the rifling (from 1:15 to 1:20) and changes to correct design defects in the breech to reduce the effect of firing stresses.
From the 1920s, the carriage was upgraded; first to Mk 1R (solid rubber tyres) then to Mks 1P or 1PA (new wheels, axles, brakes and pneumatic tyres) for vehicle towing. The Mk 1P was a British conversion which involved cutting off the ends of the axle and fitting a new axle beneath the carriage which utilized 9.00 X 16 tyres. The Mk 1PA was the American Martin-Parry (Buquor) conversion in which "drop down" stub axles were fitted, secured by means of sleeves fitted over the ends of the original axles. These had larger 7.50 X 24 tyres. The No. 26 artillery trailer was similarly converted. Unlike most other guns and howitzers in British service, calibrating Probert sights were not fitted to the 4.5-inch howitzer.
Production By the outbreak of war in 1914, 192 guns had been produced, 39 being for Imperial forces, which was less than ordered.Hogg, Ian V, Allied Artillery of World War One,1998 Coventry Ordnance Works was the main supplier, with the Royal Ordnance Factory Woolwich producing substantial numbers. Other suppliers of complete equipments were Bethlehem Steel in the US and, before the outbreak of war, a small number from Vickers. The Austin Motor Company produced some carriages. Total wartime production was 3,384 guns (i.e. barrels) and 3,437 carriages.
Combat service British Empire service
First World War
The QF 4.5 served throughout the Great War, principally with the Royal Field Artillery, beginning with 182 guns in 1914, with 3,177 more produced during the war.
At the beginning of the First World War, a brigade of three six-gun howitzer batteries was part of each British infantry division. In February 1917, divisional artillery batteries were consolidated into two field brigades each with three batteries (A, B, C) of 18-pounder guns and one battery (D) of 4.5-inch howitzers. The surplus batteries were formed into army field brigades with the same organisation.
Following experience gained in the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916, its role on the Western Front was defined in January 1917 as "neutralising guns with gas shell, for bombarding weaker defences, enfilading communications trenches, for barrage work, especially at night, and for wire cutting in such places which the field guns could not reach".Farndale 1986, page 158, quoting from Artillery Notes No. 4 – Artillery in Offensive Operations issued by the War Office in January 1917
During advances such as at the Battle of Messines in June 1917, the gun was typically employed in "standing barrages" of HE on the enemy forward positions ahead of the 18-pounders' creeping barrage, and gas shelling following bombardments.Farndale 1986, page 188, 190
There were 984 pieces in service on the Western Front at the Armistice, where 25,326,276 rounds had been fired by them,Farndale 1988, page 342 and over 230 howitzers were in Egypt, Russia and other fronts.
The 4.5-inch howitzers were also used by British batteries in the campaigns in Gallipoli, the Balkans, Palestine, Italy and Mesopotamia.
A section (two guns) of D Battery, 276 Brigade RFA held off a German counter-attack at Little Priel Farm, southeast of Epéhy, during the Battle of Cambrai on 30 November 1917. Sergeant Cyril Gourley was awarded the Victoria Cross for "most conspicuous bravery when in command of a section of howitzers" and saving the guns from the enemy.Farndale 1986, page 250
Between the wars Several batteries of 4.5-inch howitzers arrived in North Russia shortly before the armistice on the Western Front and remained there through much of 1919.History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery – Between the Wars 1919–39, Hughes, Major General BP, 1992
In 1919, small numbers were used in the Third Anglo-Afghan War,The Third Afghan War 1919 Official Account, General Staff Branch, Army HQ India, 1926 the Waziristan Campaign,Operations in Waziristan 1919–20, General Staff, Army HQ India, 1923 and in Mesopotamia from 1920 to 1921 to suppress the Iraqi revolt against the British.
Second World War 4.5-inch howitzers equipped some batteries of the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940. Ninety-six were lost, leaving 403 in worldwide service (only 82 outside the UK) with the British Army, plus those held by Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. The British holdings were expected to increase to 561 by August 1940 due to the completion of reconditioning and repairs. The Germans designated captured British guns as 11.4 cm leFH 361(e) and Russian guns as 11.5 cm leFH 362(r).
4.5-inch howitzers equipped British and Australian batteries in the Western Desert in 1940 and 1941, and Australian units in Syria.Horner, David The Gunners – A History of Australian Artillery, 1995 Two guns that had decorated the main gate at Habbaniya aerodrome in Iraq were refurbished by the RAF and used by Habforce in the Anglo-Iraqi War in May 1941.Buckley, Christopher "Five Ventures", p. 19, 1977. The batteries with the 4th and 5th Indian divisions went with them to East Africa and South African batteries with 4.5-inch howitzers also fought in this campaign.History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery – The Years of Defeat 1939–41, Farndale, General Sir Martin, 1996