| 翻訳と辞書 |
Smith Gun
The Smith Gun was an ''ad hoc'' anti-tank artillery piece used by the British Army and Home Guard during the Second World War. With a German invasion of Great Britain seeming likely after the defeat in the Battle of France, most available weaponry was diverted to the regular British Army, leaving the Home Guard short on supplies, particularly anti-tank weaponry. The Smith Gun was designed by a retired Army Major named William H. Smith as a makeshift anti tank weapon, and was put into production in 1941 following a demonstration to the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
The weapon consisted of a 3-inch smoothbore barrel approximately 54 inches long mounted on a carriage and capable of firing both anti-tank and anti-personnel rounds to ranges of approximately 500 yards. Despite the promising-sounding nature of the weapon it had several problems; the effective range was only around 100–300 yards, it was a heavy and awkward weapon to move around and it developed "a terrifying reputation for killing its crew."〔 Production problems meant that it was not introduced until 1942, when it was issued mainly to Home Guard units and those units in the regular Army tasked with guarding airfields, and ammunition shortages meant that the guns had only six or seven rounds each. Despite these problems many Home Guard units developed an attachment to the weapon, later claiming it was "one of the best pieces of equipment ever issued to the force."〔
==Development==
With the end of the Battle of France and the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from the port of Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940, a German invasion of Great Britain seemed likely.〔Mackenzie, p. 120〕 However, the British Army was not well-equipped to defend the country in such an event; in the weeks after the Dunkirk evacuation it could only field twenty-seven divisions.〔Lampe, p. 3〕 The Army was particularly short of anti-tank guns, 840 of which had been left behind in France and only 167 were available in Britain; ammunition was so scarce for the remaining guns that regulations forbade even a single round being used for training purposes.〔
Given these shortcomings, those modern weapons that were available were allocated to the British Army, and the Home Guard was forced to supplement the meagre amount of outdated anti-tank weapons and ammunition they had with ''ad hoc'' weapons.〔Mackenzie, pp. 90-91〕 One of these was the Smith Gun, which had what Mackenzie describes as an "unorthodox" origin,〔 like many of the other weapons that were produced for use by the Home Guard during the conflict. It was invented by retired British Army Major William H. Smith, the director of a civil engineering company that produced toys, and was intended to be a cheap and easily manufactured anti-tank weapon.〔Mackenzie, pp. 120-121〕 The weapon design was submitted to the Ordnance Board, who were not convinced of its merits, but the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, witnessed a demonstration of the weapon in 1941 and ordered that it be put into production.〔
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「Smith Gun」の詳細全文を読む
スポンサード リンク
| 翻訳と辞書 : 翻訳のためのインターネットリソース |
Copyright(C) kotoba.ne.jp 1997-2016. All Rights Reserved.
|
|