“The Mirbat Gun”
The gun was visited in the early 80’s by the webmaster. There were three plaques that had been applied to the gun.
The left hand side of the gun shield, viewed from the breech, seems to have taken almost all of the incoming rounds from the dissidents and has been pierced by them. To my inexpert eye, there does appear to be at least one round that had a calibre of about 0.5″. The adoo were known to have weapons of 12.7mm and 14.5mm calibre.
The comments above were turned upside down when the webmaster visited Oman in December 2010 and in the course of conversation it transpired that only the barrel – identified by its serial number – was the actual lump of metal that took part in the battle. Any comments made about the gunshield therefore are also probably incorrect and have to be viewed with caution. The gunshield came from another gun and was “doctored” on the ranges at Arzat before being attached to the gun carriage. The breech block came from ?? and may be a spare bit. It is labelled for “Training Purposes Only”
” Cracker Battery “
There are details of the 25pdrs and the ammunition they used in Oman on the Cracker Battery document/webpage. This was originally a direct URL link to the Royal Artillery Association webpage but it is now “broken” and the document has been inserted as a*.pdf
A good number of gunners from 1st Regiment RHA found their way to Dhofar some of whom were familiar to the webmaster who had been their RMO in Colchester from 1967 to 1969. It seems like a good idea to publish photographs from 1RHA to contrast conditions in Europe and in Dhofar. They were stationed in Detmold in 1972 just to the south of BMH Rinteln. The slides have degraded over the years but may have some interest for those were associated with 1RHA at the time.
Not yet enabled 14th April 2021
The Firepower Museum
The Firepower Museum in Woolwich is now closed. Those who would wish to see a 25 pdr might like to go to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. Not only is there a sizeable landwarfare hall there but there are huge displays of British and American aircraft. There are also frequent days when both vintage and modern aircraft give displays.
If anyone feels the urge to make a model of a 25pdr Armortek make a splendid metal model 31 inches long and weighing 20 pounds which they will be happy to dispatch it to you in exchange for about £500……
Current Situation 27/05/2020
FirepowerMuseum in Wolwich closed.
Some archives and exhibits went to Larkhill in preparation for the opening of the new Artillery Museum in 2022. There is, as far as I know currently, no museum which is dedicated solely to the Royal Artillery.
