Екінші дүниежүзілік соғыстағы британдық 25 фунттық артиллериялық қаруы

British field gun and howitzer used during the Second World War

The Ordnance QF 25 pounder, or more simply 25 pounder or 25 pdr, with a calibre of 3.45 inches (87.6 mm), was a piece of field artillery used by British and Commonwealth forces in the Second World War. It was often described as being durable, easy to operate and versatile. It was the major British field gun and howitzer during the War. It was introduced into service just before the War started, and combined both high angle and direct fire abilities, a relatively high rate of fire, and a reasonably lethal shell, with a highly mobile piece. Initial production was slow but, by 1945, over 12,000 had been manufactured. It remained the British Army's primary artillery field piece well into the 1960s, with smaller numbers used in training units until the 1980s. Many Commonwealth countries used theirs in active or reserve service until about the 1970s, and ammunition for the weapon is currently (2020s) being produced by Pakistan Ordnance Factories.

Many different companies manufactured the guns and component parts in the UK. Vickers Armstrongs in Scotswood, Baker Perkins in Peterborough and Weirs in Glasgow were some of the most significant. The various Royal Ordnance factories produced most of the ordnance components. In Canada, Sorel Industries built complete guns and provided the ordnance for fitting to the Sexton. Australia also built complete guns, choosing to weld the carriages rather than rivet, as was the practice in the UK and Canada. In all, over 13,000 were made worldwide.

The 25 pounder fired "separate" or two part ammunition – the projectile was loaded separately from the propelling charge in its (usually brass) cartridge case with its integral primer. Typically for a quick firing gun, the cartridge case provided obturation. There were two types of cartridge. The normal cartridge contained three cloth charge bags (coloured red, white and blue). White or blue bags would be removed from the cartridge to give "charge one" or "charge two", leaving all three bags in the cartridge case gave "charge three". The cartridge case was closed at the top with a leatherboard cup. The second type of cartridge was "super", which provided one charge only. The cup could not be removed from the cartridge case. In 1943, an incremental charge of of cordite ("super plus") was introduced to raise the muzzle velocity when firing armour piercing shot with charge super; this required a muzzle brake to be fitted. Adoption of "upper register" (high angle) fire needed more charges to improve the range overlap. This led to the development of the "intermediate increment" of 4oz cordite, which was introduced in 1944. The bags were striped red and white to indicate that they should only be used with charges one and two. When one bag was used with charge 1 it provided charge 1/2. When one was added to charge 2 it provided charge 2 1/3, and two bags, charge 2 2/3. This allowed a range of seven different charges instead of four. There were many marks of cartridge, mostly differentiated by propellant type. Double base propellant (nitrocellulose/nitroglycerine) was the UK standard but one mark used US single base (nitrocellulose only). However, triple base nitrocellulose/nitroglycerine/picrite was used throughout the war and eventually replaced all others. The 25 pounder's main ammunition was the high explosive (HE) streamlined shell with a 5/10 CRH ogive and boat tail. The explosive filling was of TNT or Amatol. It was also provided with base ejection smoke (white and coloured), star shells, and chemical shells. Incendiary and coloured flare shells were developed but not introduced into service, and smoke shells were sometimes reloaded with propaganda leaflets or metal foil "window". The UK did not develop a WP smoke shell for the 25 pounder. For anti tank use, the 25 pounder was also supplied with a limited amount of solid armour piercing (AP) shot, later replaced with a more potent version with a ballistic cap (APBC). The AP shot was fired with maximum charge, charge No. 3, super, or super with Super increment depending on the ordnance mark, as muzzle velocity was critical in direct fire for penetration and a flat trajectory. A shaped charge anti tank shell was under development in Canada, but the introduction of the three inch (76.2 mm) calibre QF 17 pounder, an anti tank gun, in 1944 ended its development. After the Second World War, the UK replaced AP shot with a HESH shell. Coloured marker shells (dye and PETN) were also developed but not introduced. The standard fuze was No 117 direct action (DA). No 119 (DA and graze) was also used. Combustion or mechanical time fuzes were used with base ejection shells and mechanical time with graze were used with HE. Proximity fuzes were used from the end of 1944 and subsequently replaced by CVT fuzes.

The 25 pounder was the main field artillery weapon used by British Commonwealth and colonial infantry and armoured divisions of all types during the Second World War. It was also used by the RAF Regiment in North Africa. Throughout the war, each British pattern infantry division was established with 72 25 pounders, in three field artillery regiments. Armoured divisions were eventually standardised with two field artillery regiments, one of which was self propelled (see below). Before mid 1940, each regiment had two batteries of twelve guns; after that date, regiments changed to batteries of eight guns and added a third battery, a process that was not completed until early 1943. In the late 1950s, the British Army reverted to batteries of six guns. Field artillery regiments had two batteries of 25 pounders and one of 5.5 inch guns. The early 18 and 25 pounders had been towed in the field by the Morris CDSW or the earlier Vickers Light Dragon Mk. III, a tracked vehicle derived from the Vickers VA50 which was also the basis of the Bren or Universal Carrier. Throughout most of the Second World War, the 25 pounder was normally towed, with its limber, behind a 4×4 field artillery tractor called a "quad". These were manufactured by Morris, Guy and Karrier in England, and, in greater numbers, as the Canadian Military Pattern field artillery tractor by Ford and Chevrolet in Canada. In the 1950s, the British Army replaced the various "quads" with a new Bedford three ton gun tower fitted with a specialist body. In 1941, the British Army improvised a self propelled 25 pounder named the Bishop, on the chassis of the Valentine tank. This mount proved unsatisfactory and the Bishops were replaced in 1942 by the American M7 Priest, which did not use the 25 Pounder complicating the supply of ammunition in the field. The Priests were replaced in 1944 by the Sexton, which used the 25 Pounder. The Sexton was designed, and mostly manufactured, in Canada (some two thirds of the ordnance and mountings were imported from the UK due to limited Canadian production capacity) and was the result of mounting a 25 pounder on a Ram or Grizzly tank chassis. By Second World War standards, the 25 pounder had a smaller calibre and lower shell weight than many other field artillery weapons, although it had longer range than most. (Most forces had entered the war with even smaller designs but had quickly moved to and larger weapons.) It was designed for the British practice of suppressive (neutralising) fire, not destructive fire that had proved illusory in the early years of the First World War. Nevertheless, the 25 pounder was considered by all to be one of the best artillery pieces in use. The effects caused by the gun (and the speed at which the British artillery control system could respond) in the North West Europe Campaign of 1944–1945 made many German soldiers believe that the British had secretly deployed an automatic 25 pounder. In UK service, during the 1960s, most 25 pounders were replaced by the 105mm Abbot SPG, some by the Oto Melara 105mm pack howitzer, and the remainder by the 105mm L118 light gun. The last British military unit to fire the 25 pounder in its field role (as opposed to ceremonial use) was the Gun Troop of the Honourable Artillery Company on Salisbury Plain in 1992.

In addition to Commonwealth and colonial forces, other Second World War users included the free forces of France, Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The first shot fired by US artillery against the German army in the war was from a 25 pounder of the 34th Infantry Division. After the Second World War, 25 pounders remained in service with many Commonwealth armies into the 1960s. They were used in Korea by British, Canadian and New Zealand regiments 213 of the shortened guns were produced, starting in 1943. These were declared obsolescent and placed in storage in 1946.

The gun was called G1 by the South African Defence Force. It was extensively used in the early stages of the South African Border War, including Operation Savannah. The G1 is still used in the ceremonial role.

The Rhodesian Army used the weapon during the Bush War but by this stage the round could not penetrate enemy bunkers.

The Ordnance QF 25 pounder Mark III was added to the Sri Lankan Army inventory in 1985 supplied by Pakistan at the early stages of the Sri Lankan civil war and was fielded by the 6th Field Regiment, Sri Lanka Artillery which was raised in September 1985. It was replaced by 122 mm Type 60 howitzers, but still remains in service with the Ceremonial Saluting Battery of the 6th Field Regiment.

In 1949, 48 ex British Army Mark III 25 pounders were acquired by the Irish Defence Forces and were in service with the reserves until 2009, having been replaced in the army by the 105 mm Light Gun in 1981. The Irish Army maintains a six gun ceremonial 25 pounder battery for use on state occasions.

The Indian Army used 25 pounders against Pakistan during the Indo Pakistani War of 1947, the Indo Pakistani War of 1965 and the Indo Pakistani War of 1971 and against China during the Sino Indian War in 1962.

The Jordanian Arab Legion deployed eight 25 pounder field guns during the fighting in 1948. Later, the Royal Jordanian Army deployed several batteries of 25 pounders during the Six Day War.

The Lebanese Army aligned twenty one QF Mk III 25 Pounders on its inventory in 1975, with most of them being subsequently seized by the Tigers Militia and the Kataeb Regulatory Forces (KRF) militia in February 1976 and passed on to its successor, the Lebanese Forces in 1980, who employed them during the Lebanese Civil War.

During World War II, the Free Luxembourgish Forces fielded four 25 pounders, which were named after the four daughters of Grand Duchess Charlotte: Princesses Elisabeth, Marie Adelaide, Marie Gabriele and Alix. Post war, the Luxembourg Army used a number of 25 pounder guns. In 1955–1957, they were rebarrelled to and fitted with new sights. The First Artillery Battalion with 18 guns was placed at the disposal of the 8th Infantry Division of the United States from 1963 to 1967. The last shots fired by the First Luxembourg Artillery Battalion left the tubes on May 31, 1967. Some are maintained for gun salutes.

The 25 pounder first entered service with Greek forces in North Africa during WWII. Three (numbered I, II and III) field artillery regiments of 24 pieces each were raised as part of the Greek infantry brigades raised by the Greek government in exile. Their only significant actions were at El Alamein in 1942 and Rimini in 1944. After the end of the Second World War, the 25 pounder served as part of the Greek Army during the Greek Civil War. A total of 125 25 pounder guns were used by the Greek artillery during the civil war of 1946–1949, in various organizational schemes. After the civil war, they were organized into seven independent regiments of 18 guns each. Following Greece's entry into NATO in 1952 and the standardization on American calibres in 1953, the 25 pounders, unlike other models, were not retired but reorganised into 13 battalions of eight guns each, as part of divisional artillery formations. In 1957, the influx of American artillery pieces permitted an increase from 8 to 12 guns per battalion. In 1964, 54 25 pdr guns were handed over from Greece to Cyprus, where they entered service with the Cyprus National Guard organized into four battalions of 12 guns each ( numbered 181, 182, 183 and 185) and one independent battery of six guns (184). They saw action during the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974. The 25 pounders remained in Greek Army service until 1992, when they were retired as part of the CFE agreement. The guns of the Cyprus National Guard remain in storage.

During World War II New Zealand Gunners of 2nd New Zealand division made extensive use of the 25 pr in Greece, North Africa and Italy. The 16th Field Regiment of the Royal New Zealand Artillery, equipped with 25 pounders, was formed to join the United Nations force in the Korean War. The 25 pdr was replaced in first line units by the OTO Melara L5 gun. The guns were withdrawn from operational service with Territorial Force Artillery by 1977. Today, 25 pounders remain in service as ceremonial gun.

The Nigerian Federal Army used 25 pdr guns during the Biafran War. The Nigerian Army still fielded them in 2002.

A 2015 news report shows at least one 25 pounder in service with Kurdish Peshmerga forces, employed against ISIS positions in Mosul, Iraq.

In 1953, the Vietnamese National Army was equipped with 122 QF 25 pounders.

Known officially as the "Ordnance, Quick Firing 25 pounder Mark I on Carriage 18 pr Mark IV", or "Ordnance, Quick Firing 25 pounder Mark I on Carriage 18 pr Mark V" and commonly called the "18/25 pounder". The Mark I was a 25 pounder barrel and breech in the modified jacket of an 18 pounder gun, as a 'loose liner'. The jacket provided the interface to the 18 pounder carriage. The earliest versions retained 18 pounder type elevation sights but later ones had Probert pattern calibrating sights on the right side of the saddle. The Mark IV P, carriage was a box trail, Mark V P, was a split trail. These conversions of the 18 pounder first entered British service in 1937. A few were lost in the Norwegian campaign and 704 in France, leaving about the same number in UK's global stocks. They served in North Africa (until about late 1941) and India. This mark of 25 pounder was limited to charge 3 due to its 18 pounder carriage.

The Bishop was a British self propelled 25 pounder using the Valentine tank chassis, soon replaced by better designs.

The Sexton was a Canadian self propelled 25 pounder using the Ram or Grizzly tank chassis.

The Yeramba was an Australian self propelled 25 pounder using the M3 Lee tank chassis.