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75mm Pack Howitzer - WW2


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Mods, sorry if this is in the wrong spot, but FIREARMS just did not seem like the place to make a post about a pack howitzer... feel free to move it if you want. Maybe add "ARTILLERY" onto this section or the firearms section??

 

At any rate, here are some pics of a nice little pack howitzer. This one is in a city park in the small town of Hayfield, Minnesota. One does not often see these, so I figured I'd post some pics of it. Looks like carriage is dated 1941 - I'm not sure what I was thinking that I did not get pics of the nice big data plate on the left side of the thing!

 

MW

 

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There is one like it on display in Tacoma, Washington. It's displayed in the same fashion, with the barrel and recoil mechanism in the travel position. Makes the howitzer look even more stubby than it is.

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I don't know why, but I've always found this little field-piece to be aesthetically pleasing. The model company, Tamiya, used to do a finely detailed, white-metal casting of it years ago. May still be available?

 

Sabrejet

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General Apathy

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Hi MWalsh, thanks for posting some good detailed shots of the Pack Howitzer. :thumbsup:

 

One of our forum members Dennis ( Old Marine ) did a great model of one of these towed behind a Jeep a while ago and posted his finished model on the forum here, the link is below.

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...showtopic=40506

 

Cheers Lewis

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There is one like it on display in Tacoma, Washington. It's displayed in the same fashion, with the barrel and recoil mechanism in the travel position. Makes the howitzer look even more stubby than it is.
You should head out toward the coast, I know there are several in local communities, one along the highway at Aberdeen and two on a side street in Hoquiam facing toward each other. I know of more than a few others as well. Plenty of them in WA state, it seems. Most seem to be displayed like this as well. At least the carriages do well outdoors as they’re very sturdy if they’re painted.
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Fixbayonets!

There are two of these sitting in front of town hall right up the street from me, I will see if I can snap some photos later.

 

Rob

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There's one in my collecion.

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I remember drooling over this at the last MVCCO Camp Withycombe event when you brought it. You did a good job on your restoration. Did you ever get it working or have tried to fire it at all since then? I don’t think I could stand owning a ATF-registered functional Pack Howitzer and not regularly firing at least blanks out of the thing!

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El Bibliotecario

These weapons survived longer than most WW2 artillery pieces--as saluting guns. As late as 1990 one was being used as such by the IA NG--and for all I know, maybe still is.

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These weapons survived longer than most WW2 artillery pieces--as saluting guns. As late as 1990 one was being used as such by the IA NG--and for all I know, maybe still is.
Yeah, at Ft Lewis, I Corps has an entire signal battery of them. 4th region ROTC command (who also puts on advanced camp) also has a set, named, “Duty,” “Honor,” and “Country” if memory serves, part of the official cannonade ceremony. The guns were painted gloss dark green with gold painted hardware. They looked terrible like that. In camp, everyone has to go through this cheesy ceremony where they fire each one and someone talks about each concept. I remember every few days at camp, you’d hear them off in the distance doing it for the following groups, we’d be doing whatever we were doing and each time we heard one, we all chimed off with the right word in sequence. (muffled boom)… “Duty!” Ah, the memories come flooding back. Why can’t I suppress them? It was so cheesy then, ten times more so now that I look back on it many years later. On active duty, we seriously considered snatching at least one, taking it apart and putting it back together in the halls of one of the barracks buildings, but thought better of it.

I had one of the casings from one of them in the tube for a while, I can’t for the life of me remember what I did with it. I either sold it or gave it to someone. I once volunteered to bring my WW2 Jeep onto the post and haul each gun into place, but they weren’t interested. Philistines.

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At Ft Holabird, Baltimore MD, in 1970 trhere were two pack 75s used for firing retreat. They were crewed by the MPs and used 10 gauge shotgun blanks (brass casings). The MPs said this ammo was from the Coast Guard (big shipyard/depot at Curtis Bay off Balto harbor), as they were used for naval salute guns. Have no idea it that is true. I asked if there was a breech liner of some sort to hold the shells, but they did not know....or were tired of chatting with a lousy 2LT...

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We use the same thing at my post. 12 Ga regular shotgun shell blanks. Breech has been modified to fit the shell, but otherwise work fine. Cannon still fires @0600 and 1700 every day without fail. Dated 1944, 75mm Pack Howitzers. We have 2.

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Mike

nice pics.

 

We had a75 in a litle town park.I forst saw it in the early 70s.Went through the town last fall and no park no cannon.Im going to talk to the mayor there and see what happned to it.

 

RON

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