In the mid 60's a total of 500 25Pdr's were removed from the "company's " books and sold to RSL Sub-Branches all over the country for the princely sum of 25 quid each.
The big part of the job was to render them safe from prying fingers and such like. A gas-axe hole had to be blown through the jacket and the barrel directly into the chamber. A steel plug had to be welded into the bore and the breech block and mechanism immoveable by continous welds. The sight bracket had to be welded in the full right over position as well.
After all that had been carried out the gun was elevated to the "travelling" position and the travel stay was welded into position so that everything was locked tight and no matter how much force was applied to the traverse and elevation handwheels there would be no movement.
There you go Lozza, a little bit of history's useless information.
Radish, unfortunately the gun is facing the wrong way to hit Parliament House.
Some juicy targets on its current bearing are Karakatta Barracks at about 2500 metres, the very swish suburb of Mt Claremont at about 4500 metres and the Cottlesloe Golf Course at about 6000 metres. After that, it is all "splash, over" into the Indian Ocean.
Such a well looked after Gun, i wonder how many 25 pounders are scattered around OZ in Parks, memorials, RSL's and so on. We had one in the local park where i grew up, not as shiny as this one, but still a interesting piece for youngsters.
Memories. The old girl is one of the later models with the all welded trail and carriage and she was modified with the muzzle brake and counterweight as seen on the top rear of the jacket. She was most likely modified at 3 Base Wksp in the mid 60's .
After another successful Diggers Reunion (in the City of Churches), the decision has been made to hold the tenth anniversary reunion in Alice Springs - weekend of October 1-4, 2010. Make no small plans!
