Darren Baker shares with us some pictures and a video of a 25pdr gun being fired by his daughter. The gun being fired is one of a number that they as part of a team maintain and restore.

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Neat, not to many people can say the fired an artillery piece, thanks for sharing Darren!


cheers

Nice one Darren.

Al

Great Storyline and pics!
Bravo Zulu for your and your daughter's volunteer work!
Thanks for sharing!
Guido

Nice one! Wish I lived closer as I might have found some free time.

Served on 105mm, not 25pdrs; but it still a great feeling when you let it off!

They make one heck of a bang! I was at Dover when they test-fired their 25pdr (they test it before Remembrance Day each year) and enjoyed the show. The guy announced "ready to fire", the gun went off, and then a huge 1000-strong cloud of seagulls rose angrily from the cliff-face below, pooing on anyone unfortunate enough to be exposed in the harbour!

Tom

Thank you for the comments and Tom I would have paid to watch that.

Fantastic.

I served on L119s and M198s in Aus, fired an M2A2 once and have carried parts of an L5 up a mountain. I still love the sound, the feel and the smell of Arty!

would love to get my hands on one of those.

Used to live near Edinburgh Castle when a wee boy, they used a 25lbr for the 1 o clock gun don't know if this is still the case. You could here it for miles.

What a great experience

After a wink & a nod i was lucky to Fire 1 live round a few years ago on an exercise, I'll never forget the moment I pulled that kittle brass handle!

I'm not an arty guy but i loved the buzz!!!

Irish army have retired these altogether now, even from reserve!
All the Indian produced ammo purchased some years ago finally ran out!

Now it's just the 105mm Howitzers but I'll miss hearing that familiar thump from the 25 Pounders down in the Glen of Emal!
Glad to see some folk taking the time to preserve a working gun, bravo!!

It was still there when I last visited Edinburgh a few years ago, but sadly Tam the Gun wasn't, having shuffled off this mortal coil a few years earlier. Now there was a right old character!

Tom

Roy the gun we are working on at the moment was a Southern Irish gun I am told. Here is an image of the badge on the shield, does it ring any bells?

I've seen this badge before, very very interesting!!
I'll do my homework, have a chat with a few people & I'll get back to you tomorrow with an update! (friend of mind is working on an Irish Arty book soon to be released so will be very interested in this too)

..might I be as cheeky to aak how you acquired the gun, was it at auction? No pressure to answer, Most Irish equipment get destroyed after use but some items always turn up in the hands of reliable restorers & military collectors! (which I favour!)

I'm back already after doing a little homework

It appears the gun served with the 5th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Western Brigade, Renmore Barracks, based in Galway City.
It was an FCA unit, or what is know today as the RDF, Reserve Defence Forces (Army)

The gun would have been a front line artillery piece with a full time unit but likely got handed down to the reserve unit with the introduction of the first 105mm's in the late 70,s early 80's!

It is said that a handful of these guns served in North Africa during WWII with British or Commonwealth forces. If you can send me the breech number (if that's the correct term) I'll try do some additional snooping to see if something turns up

Roy I will get the number as soon as possible (Saturday). I do not know how the gun was aquired, it is currently being stripped down to bare metal before re-assembly and painting begins. I can tell you the gun will be repainted with its Southern Irish badge, and I should also tell you that the Irish gunners really looked after this gun.

Thanks for the update Darren, keep up the good work!

Thanks for your kind words, I've no doubt the gun was well maintained here as much as was possible considering its age, those gunners would have been well schooled and had pride in keeping they're equipment in top shape!

The last batch I saw fire was around 2006 and they were still in great shape!
25pdr's were still used by artillery school up until recently to train & familiarise students in the Art of artillery before moving on to the 105's.
I know the army celebrated the retirement of the 25's with a live battery fire only back in 2009, I'll post a photo tomorrow.

I'm just as sure now though that this gun is once again in trusted & caring hands

..considering you guys are stripping and repainting this 25 pdr it's quite humbling to see you are refurbishing it again with it's Irish Markings, thank you

As promissed earlier, photos of last Irish Army 25pdr shoot.
Glen Of Emal 2009.















photos courtesy of Defence Forces Flikr site

Thank you for those pictures Roy.

Wow Roy. Those photos are awesome. Talk about maintained. They look like they have just rolled off of the factory floor not firing their last mission.
In the last BW photo, if wasn't for the modern uniforms, you could swear you were looking at a WW2 print. Lovely work and I'm sure the restored gun will look as just good going by the earlier photos of the teams work. Master Gunners and Articifers one and all.

John