BIG gun at Suffield

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Grizzly Adams

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This is really BIG milsurp:D, but I thought I'd raise it here. When I was kid in the late 60s, early 70s, there was an 18 " naval rifle, lying along the railroad tracks at Suffield, just west of Medicine Hat. Story was, it was a spare off a British battle ship that had been sent there for ballistics experiments. Thing fell off the rail car and they just left it there. Always wondered if it was still there or what had happened to it. My thoughts are it should have ended up in a military museum somewhere. Lots of knowledgeable people here, so I'm wondering if anybody knows anything?

Grizz
 
I had heard about that barrel, but by the time I started looking for it it was gone.

Another big milsurp I noticed out there was a 155mm Long Tom, sitting in the DRES compound. Not sure why they have it, but there are certainly no others in service anymore. We do have one out front of the Shilo museum here though.
 
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There was a lot of experimentation with High Altitude Artillery back in the 1970s or thereabouts. I think Bull did some of the testing of his theories in Southern Alberta..

Did some of these guns go for scrap? You betcha. I personally saw cut up pieces of one of these guns in a Scrap Yard in Lethbridge, Alberta. This would have been in the 1980s.

When you look at old movies of these guns being fired for experiments, you will notice black and white bands painted on the barrels of some of these guns. The cut up scrap one had such bands, and rifling inside the tube. As I was trained on 25 pounders, I certainly know a gun tube when I see one.
 
I always thought they left it there as some sort of a monument. It was a really big gun. Probably melted down and made into razor blades
 
My uncle worked at Suffield for 30 years. I saw the barrel many times. He said two barrels had been off loaded but only one was needed at the time so the other was just left by the tracks.
 
The only 18 inchers outside the Yamato and the Musashi were on HMS Furious, one of "Fisher's Follies". When they fired they used to shear off so many rivets they gave up on them and made her class into aircraft carriers.! I forget what happened to the barrels in the end. Smellie probably knows...;)
 
RRCo. said:
The only 18 inchers outside the Yamato and the Musashi were on HMS Furious, one of "Fisher's Follies". When they fired they used to shear off so many rivets they gave up on them and made her class into aircraft carriers.! I forget what happened to the barrels in the end. Smellie probably knows...;)
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That could very well be. :D It was taken there, during WW ll. There was mention of it in a book by that Liberal Senator, military author, whose name escapes me right now and my library is under renovation. That's actually what re-awakened my interest and where I got the size from.

Grizz
 
Suffield has some neat stuff and cool stories come out of it.
I had a Minneapolis Moline 'U' tractor that was used to tow target vehicles into place. Battleship grey(with a paintbrush no less).Picked it up for 300 bucks at a Med Hat garage sale. It was in a pile of parts. Assembled it over a winter.
MM 'U' tractor was pretty sophisticated, high end power after WW2.
Worked out in various locations on the base for 5-6 years total, cool place but the Range Control guys...umm...not casual.
Not at all, LOL. Like deep breaths guys; in with the butterflies & out with the bee's deep breaths.
 
I'll be there for a few months from this weekend.. Seems they need my assistance in the workshop.. Or should i just admit i wanted to get back to the sunshine and mosies!!!
Will have to take a look around and see what 'Gate gaurds' they still have on display..
 
dave9252 said:
I'll be there for a few months from this weekend.. Seems they need my assistance in the workshop.. Or should i just admit i wanted to get back to the sunshine and mosies!!!
Will have to take a look around and see what 'Gate gaurds' they still have on display..
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That will be interesting, because if it is the DRDC "Model shop", that was eliminated 2 weeks ago as part of the 50 jobs that were eliminated by the current gov't cutbacks.
 
sail32 said:
I seem to remember Canada did some experiments in high altitude research in the Caribbean with a 16 inch navel gun.
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I seem to remember Bull had an experimental facility in Quebec, as well. Does that stillexist ? Guess he learned not to offend the Israelis. :D

Grizz
 
Gun tube at Suffield

I too spotted this barrel many years ago in the 1970s, climbed on it and took photos.

It was US Navy and dated 1941 as I recall. 16-inch? No breech mechanism. I suspect that it came off of a US battleship.

I tried to interest a US military museum in it for a coastal defence restoration. Never heard back from them.

Canada was indeed doing launchings at Suffield using big barrels - I recall seeing a photo of one with two barrels joined end to end. Not sure how that would work!

If it was scrapped that is typical of Canada. More history destroyed. Who knows what ship it might have come off of and where it was used?
 
Yes, I remember the range control fellas, really nice fellas,(sarcasm) even when my truck broke down a -27 below 0 all they did was make sure I was still alive every half hour until the mechanics arrived from Calgary. Still, I loved working on the range.
 
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