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The Ordnance BL 12 pounder 7cwt〔British military traditionally denoted smaller ordnance by the weight of its standard projectile, in this case approximately . "7 cwt" referred to the weight of the gun and barrel to differentiate it from other "12 pounder" guns. 1 long hundredweight (cwt) = .〕 was the British Army's field gun, which succeed the RML 13 pounder 8 cwt in 1885. ==History== The gun was initially adopted by both the Royal Field Artillery and Royal Horse Artillery, and was in full service by 1885. It marked a return to breech-loading guns, after the British Army had reverted to muzzle-loaders in the late 1860s following the failure of the Armstrong screw breech guns. Problems arose when it was used by the Horse Artillery in the great Indian cavalry manoeuvres of 1891. The carriage was found to be too complicated and dust caused the metal surfaces of the axle traversing device to seize.〔Clarke 2004, page 17-18〕 It also proved too heavy to manoeuvre for horse artillery, which was intended to support cavalry in battle. The 12 pounder 6 cwt gun was thus developed in 1892, when the new more powerful cordite replaced gunpowder, as a lighter alternative. It had a barrel 18 inches (460 mm) shorter, on a lighter and simpler carriage, and it entered service with the Royal Horse Artillery in 1894. The introduction of Cordite also led to the decision that the 12 pounder was capable of firing a heavier shell up to . A 14 pound shell was adopted and the gun became a "15 pounder" from 1895.〔Clarke 2004, page 17-18〕 At that point the 12 pounder 7 cwt became redundant. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ordnance BL 12 pounder 7 cwt」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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