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Originally posted by AmmoSgt: Books are good and helpful things ..but books often don't address the problems being discussed I agree to the 250lb per minute per tube calculation by Paul ..But 155mm at 120-150 lb per round and 3 rounds a minute is at least 360lb ..and.. 105mm at 60 lbs ( with powder on average ) at 5 rounds per minute is 300 lbs meaning that the 8" is the least weight of logictics required per minute per barrel .. I learned this moving ammo for 15 years and planing Corp supply and fires and stuff .. BUT I OBJECT to any hint that moving 8" is as hard as Mortar ammo the tiedowns the dunnage the shear labor involved in getting mortar ammo straped down on a truck is unreal..8" takes less men and less time for the equal weight ... anyway 2 1/2 ton trucks are rated 5 tons on paved roads but that would be wasteful of men unless the tactical situation demanded it Most ammo was mmoved on 12 ton stake and platform towed by 5 ton tractors or tank transport lowboys and 12 ton tractors for arty also bear in mind each tube had a tracked ammo carrier Normandy was a choke point for all supplies as was Beluguim before Antwerp ..but that ws for all supplies I think tha fact the Higher HQ would issue a ammo usage advisory as vague and as full of the implication of discertionary usage at lower levels of command as the one cited only strengthens my contention that 8" was used in direct support ... as Pauls figures prove it certainly was the lightest ammo to move per tube per minute and 15 years experience tells me that it is the easiest to load up and tie down taking less men to move than smaller calibers .. But books are nice

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Originally posted by drob: No commander ever gets what they want. Weather wise, troop condition wise, equipment or enemy capability.

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Originally posted by Paul Vebber: To paraphrase Ian Hogg in "The guns - 1939-45" You can do a little back of the envelope figuring and if an 8in round with powder was ~250lbs that is 8 per ton, and a 2 and 1/2 ton truck could carry about 20 rounds - say 25 if you bent the sprngs a bit, so if you had 6 guns firing a bit better than 1 round per minute, you had a battery of 6 guns expending maybe 400 rounds an hour, requiring an hourly convoy of 16 trucks to supply or if firing continuously 384 truckloads of ammo per day. A truck convoy over a 3 and half miles long. That would be a rather serious logistics drain for 1 battery. [This message has been edited by Paul Vebber (edited March 08, 2001).]