Blacker Bombard – Wikipedia

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29 mm Spigot mortar (Blacker Bombard)
Image illustrative de l'article Blacker Bombard
The men of the Home Guard of Saxmundham preparing to shoot with a Black Bombard during training with War Office instructors, July 30, 1941.
Presentation
Pays Drapeau du Royaume-Uni United Kingdom
Type Anti Char mortar
Period of use 1940
Service duration 1941-
Production About 22,000 [ first ]
Weight and dimensions
Cannon length Caliber: 1 inch (29mm)
Technical characteristics
Practical scope 90 m
Rate of fire 6-12 shots per minute
Variants Hedgehog
modifier Consultez la documentation du modèle

The Blacker Bombard , also known as Spigot mortar 29 mm [ first ] , was an anti-tank infantry weapon designed by Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart Blacker in the first years of the Second World War.

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With the end of the Battle of France and the evacuation of the British expeditionary force from the port of Dunkirk between May 26 and the , a German invasion of Great Britain seemed likely [ 2 ] . However, the British army was not well equipped to defend the country in such a possibility; In the weeks following the evacuation of Dunkirk, she could only align twenty-seven divisions [ 3 ] . The army was particularly lacking in anti-chairs cannons, 840 had been left in France and only 167 were available in Great Britain; The ammunition was so rare for the remaining cannons that it was forbidden to draw a single shell for training [ 3 ] .

Given these gaps, the modern weapons available were allocated to the British army, and the Home Guard was forced to complete his low endowment with obsolete anti-chairs weapons with improvised weapons [ 4 ] . One of them was the Blacker Bombard , designed by Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart Blacker, whose origins went back to the 1930s [ 5 ] . In the early 1930s, Blacker began to take an interest in the concept of Spigot mortar. Unlike conventional mortars, the Spigot mortar did not have a barrel, but a steel rod called “spigot” fixed at a base; The shell had a propulsive load inside its tail. To fire, the shell was pushed down the spindle, which exploded the propulsive load and propelled the shells into the air [ 5 ] .

Blacker began to experience the concept in the hope of creating a peloton mortar which was to be lighter than that used by the British army at the time. Thus appeared the Arbalest , which he presented to the army, but which was rejected for a Spanish model [ 5 ] . Without being discouraged by this rejection, Blacker returned to his studies and had the idea of ​​an anti-tank weapon. He was initially hampered in his attempts to design an anti-tank weapon because the Spigot design was unable to generate the initial speed necessary to penetrate the shields [ 5 ] . However, he finally managed to create an anti-tank mortar, which he appointed Bombard Blacker [ 6 ] .

When the Second World War started, Blacker was a lieutenant-colonel in the territorial army [ 7 ] . He had proposed his Bombard At War Office For two years, without success, but was faced with the Ministry of Research for Military Intelligence ( Military Intelligence Research – MIRC) [ 8 ] later known under the acronym MD1, which had given it the task of developing and providing weapons for guerrilla and resistance groups in occupied Europe [ 9 ] . Blacker showed his list of ideas to the chief of MD1, Major Millis Jefferis, who was interested in the conception of Bombard [ 7 ] , [ 8 ] . He argued that he could serve in an anti-tank role and as an artillery, and claimed that he would have anti-tank properties similar to the anti-tank barrel of 2 pounds coupled within the reach of 3-inch mortar [ ten ] . Objections were raised by the director of artillery and other officials of the government, but the , Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, attended a demonstration of the weapon. Churchill appreciated the weapon and ordered its production. It would serve as a temporary anti-tank weapon for Home Guard until more 2 pound cannons can be made available to them [ ten ] .

He was decided by the headquarters of the Home Forces that Bombard would have an anti-tank role and would be used both by the regular forces and by the Home Guard . General Alan Brooke had doubts about the effectiveness of the weapon, but thought that its simplicity would allow him to be used by young soldiers. In the southern command region ( Southern Command ), 14,000 were ordered for use by the forces of this region. Twenty-four were delivered to the anti-chairs regiments, twelve to the troops assigned to the defense of aerodromes, and eight per brigade and two for each company of the Home Guard . However, the RAF staff did not have the authorization to use these weapons, a restriction which was extended to Royal Air Force Regiment when it was created in 1942 [ first ] .

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Black Bombard flagship

The Bombard was a Caliber 29 spigot mortar mm [ first ] , weighing between 51 [ 11 ] and 163 kg [ ten ] , placed on a pivot. He was able to draw an explosive bomb from 20 books at a distance of 100 meters. When the bomb exploded, it was able to inflict significant damage on a tank, but it was unlikely that it pierces the shielding of a vehicle because the projectile did not have a sufficient initial speed [ 5 ] . It was served by a crew of three [ first ] to five men [ ten ] . The Bombard was considered more effective in short range, objectives were engaged with a “considerable success” at a distance by 75-100 meters [ first ] . It was a loading weapon through the mouth, therefore it had a low rate of shooting, on average between six [ twelfth ] And twelve shots per minute, so that it was considered essential that the weapon was well camouflaged and that it reach the target from the first shot. Two types of ammunition were provided for the weapon-an anti-tank bomb of 20 Books and a lighter anti-personal bomb of 14 pounds [ twelfth ] . Each weapon was delivered with 150 anti-chairs ammunition and 100 anti-personal [ first ] . Defects on anti-tank shells appeared quickly. They had insensitive detonators, which means that they often crossed an unmanned target without detonating, and when they exploded fragments were often projected towards the servants [ ten ] . The Bombard was either fixed on a large cross platform or on a concrete pedestal [ 11 ] ; In both cases it was to be placed in a defensive position, such as on roadblocks [ 6 ] . It seems that there was a preference to use the Bombard mainly in a static role, with additional frames built by the body of the Royal Engineers in order to fire from other positions [ first ] . In a static position, the weapon was usually implemented in a depression with nearby ammunition lockers [ twelfth ] .

Soldiers of the Home Guard training with a Bombard Mounted on a concrete frame (May 1943)

An abandoned location of Bombard , in Brompton in Kent (2007)

The first Blacker Bombard appeared at the end of 1941 [ 13 ] , and was given in the endowment to both regular units and units of the Home Guard . In the southern command, no more Blacker Bombard was not delivered after . At that time, around 22,000 Blacker Bombard had been produced and distributed across the country. In , concerns had appeared on the relevance of the weapon and it was unpopular with a certain number of units, some tried to swap their Blacker Bombard For Thompson machine guns or refused to use them [ first ] . However, Mackenzie cite [Ref. incomplete] the argument of the historian of the battalion of the department of supply of the Home Guard , who declared that having been equipped with Blacker Bombards demonstrated the importance of Home Guard for the government.

Mackenzie also argued that the Blacker Bombard had had a positive side because he had not only equipped unarmed staff of the Home Guard , but had been a success in terms of public relations [ ten ] . It seems that a number of Blacker Bombard were used in combat by the British army, in an anti-personal role in the desert war, although its use could have been limited due to its weight [ twelfth ] . A CERTAIN NAME OF Blacker Bombard were also modified for the Royal Navy, and were used as an anti-sous-marine weapon known as the hedgehog [ 7 ] .

A large number of static bases, in concrete, for Blacker Bombard were sunk and a significant number of them remain in many regions of the United Kingdom. THE Defence of Britain Project , a field survey conducted in the late 1990s in the footsteps of the military landscape of the XX It is century, by the Council for British Archaeology , retrieve a total of 351 [ 14 ] .

Users of Blacker Bombard included:

  1. ↑ A b c d e f g h i j and k Clifford, Phillip, ‘ Pillbox Study Group: Spigot Mortar » , Pillbox Study Group, (consulted the )
  2. ↑ Mackenzie 1995, p. 20.
  3. ↑ a et b Lamp 1968, p. 3
  4. ↑ Mackenzie 1995, p. 90-91.
  5. ↑ A B C D and E Hogg 1995, p. 42
  6. ↑ a et b Hogg 1995, p. 43
  7. ↑ A B C and D Stuart Macrae , ‘ Blacker, (Latham Valentine) Stewart (1887–1964) » , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, (DOI  10.1093/ref:odnb/31907 , consulted the )
  8. ↑ a et b Macrae 1971, p. 78
  9. ↑ Hogg 1995, p. 44.
  10. ↑ a b c d e and f Mackenzie 1995, p. 95
  11. ↑ a et b Lowry, p. 21
  12. ↑ A B C and D Lowry, p. 24
  13. ↑ Mackenzie, p. 94
  14. ↑ ‘ Archsearch: Defense of Britain Database: Search anti-invasion » , Defense of Britain Archive , Archaeology Data Service, (consulted the )

On other Wikimedia projects:

Bibliography [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

  • (in) Ian Hogg , Tank Killers: Anti-Tank Warfare by Men and Machines , London, bread macmillan, (ISBN  978-0-330-35316-8 , OCLC  40474807 )
  • (in) David Lamp , The Last Ditch: Britain’s Secret Resistance and the Nazi Invasion Plan , Londres, Greenhill Books, (ISBN  978-1-85367-730-4 )
  • (in) Bernard Lowry , Chris Taylor et Vincent Boulanger, British Home Defences 1940-45 , Oxford, Osprey Publishing, , first re ed. (ISBN  978-1-84176-767-3 )
  • (in) S.P. Mackenzie , The Home Guard: A Military and Political History , Oxford, Oxford University Press, (ISBN  978-0-19-820577-7 , LCCN 94043350 )
  • (in) Stuart Macrae , Winston Churchill’s Toyshop , Roundwood Press, (ISBN  0-900093-22-6 , OCLC  196653 )

external links [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

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