Суық соғыс дәуірінің американдық ауыр артиллериясы – M107

Cold War era American heavy artillery

Long thin barrel without a fume extractor or muzzle brake. Gun is in an unprotected mount towards the rear of the hull with a large spade at the rear that is raised for traveling. Chassis is same as M110 self propelled howitzer with five large road wheels on each side, a drive sprocket front wheel and has no track return rollers.

The M107 has a larger open working space than the closed space of tank like self propelled artillery such as the M109 howitzer. This allows for faster reload times and its high maneuvering speed and fast reload time allows the M107 to practice shoot and scoot, redeploying before the firing position can be zeroed in on. One drawback of the M107 in combat was that laying the gun involves skilled minute movements of the entire vehicle. The gunner uses hand signals to the driver, who views them in the left rear view mirror and moves the vehicle left or right by tapping on the steering bar. The other cannoneers (aka "Gun Bunnies") set the collimator and aiming stakes under the direction of the gunner. Only two rounds are carried with its gun tractor on "loading trays". These rounds can be fired by the onboard crew of five (Section chief, driver, gunner, assistant gunner, Number one cannoneer) out of a total crew of thirteen. The rest of the ammunition and crew follow in the M548 Ammunition Carrier. If the gun was facing hostile artillery, the gun would fire and relocate where these crewmen would reload the M107 at the new location to avoid enemy counter battery fire. Each member of the M107 crew has specific duties when the vehicle is firing. The Section chief operates the hydraulic load and ram, verification with "Gunner's Quadrant", as well as operating the rear spade and left spade unlock. The driver operates the positions spade and the barrel travel lock. The gunner controls deflection (the horizontal direction in which the gun is pointing). The Assistant gunner controls elevation. The Number one cannoneer opens and closes the breech, verifies ramming of the round with ram rod and powder load red on the rag (which means he can see the red igniter patch to verify that the powder is not put in backwards), There, it proved its effectiveness by having one of the longest ranges of any mobile artillery piece operated during that theater of combat in the Cold War, outranging the Soviet 130mm M46 heavy field guns employed by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). Maximum range with M437A2 or M437A1 projectile is approximately This long range advantage, along with its ability to rapidly move from its previous position, made it an effective weapon for destroying North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong command and control sites, communications facilities and supply columns, while evading counter battery fire from its Soviet counterparts in service with North Vietnam. This was proven in 1968 at the Battle of Khe Sanh, where American forces came under a long and intense siege by North Vietnamese troops and were constantly bombarded by accompanying artillery fire. The M107 also had its disadvantages. It was noted for its relative inaccuracy at longer ranges. The gun was assigned to corps level artillery units and a number of M107/M110 composite formed units were created, allowing the option of responding with the longer ranged M107 or the more accurate M110. In addition, as noted above, the gun barrel on the M107 required frequent changing on early versions of the weapon. Individual batteries did not have the necessary equipment and parts for changing the barrel, so higher level maintenance support was required, taking two hours in addition to the transportation time. The M107 had an extremely low rate of fire of two rounds per minute. Due to the enormous size of the shells, the ammunition storage inside the vehicle only contained two rounds. Additional ammunition was supplied by the M548 ammunition transporter vehicles. The M107 suffered losses during the Vietnam War, with a considerable number of them destroyed by North Vietnamese troops. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) also captured several M107s, mainly from ARVN forces. Four M107s were captured during the battle at Quảng Trị in April 1972 and another 12 were taken during the Central Highlands offensive in 1975 towards the end of the Vietnam War. These captured M107s were used by the PAVN during their last offensives against the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) between March and April 1975. With these M107s, the PAVN established a strategic artillery battalion after the war. When these guns were outranged by rocket fire from Tyre, they were upgraded with the addition of extended range, full bore ammunition and new powder supplied by Gerald Bull's Space Research Corporation. This allowed operations over with increased accuracy. The IDF acquired over 200 vehicles. In IDF service, the M107 is known as the Romach (spear or lance).