This British howitzer is perhaps a classic example of how not to design a weapon. In 1942, a decision was made by the British to design a new support howitzer for the infantry. The gun was made up of parts from several existing weapons, including a 94mm anti-aircraft gun, a 25-pdr field gun and 6-pdr anti-tank gun. Despite being listed as a 95mm weapon, it was actually 94mm, and used the HE and smoke shells of the old 94mm pack howitzer. Not surprisingly, this mishmash of components had problems, not the least of which that the cradle (from the 6-pdr AT gun) was really too light for the job. Also, the gun was designed to be broken down into 10 loads for pack transport, but it was discovered that repeated firings could shake the parts loose. All this could possibly have been overcome if not for one problem. No one had yet asked the infantry if they actually wanted the weapon; when they were finally asked, the answer was “No.” The infantry was quite happy with their support weapons and weren’t interested in a one-ton howitzer. This finally killed the project. Several hundred had been built, but only a few were ever used in action (mostly in field trials). Almost all were scrapped after the war.
In an alternate history setting, the British may have been forced to use the weapon due to loses of existing guns, or the infantry may have been consulted at the start of the project and, perhaps with a warmer reception, may have entered action as a reliable weapon.
Subassemblies: Motorcycle Wheeled chassis +2, two off-road wheels
-1.
Powertrain: –
Occupancy: –. Cargo: 0.
| Armor | F | R/L | B | T | U |
| Body | 4/25 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 |
| Wheels | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2/3 |
Weaponry
95mm Very Short Howitzer [Body:F] (0).
Statistics
| Size: ? | Payload: 0 tons | Lwt: 1.05 tons |
| Volume: 3.9 | Maint.: 121 hours | Price: $2,750 |
HT: 9.
HPs: 40 Body, 15 each Wheel.
| gSpeed: * | gAccel: * | gDecel: 9 | gMR: 0.75 | aSR: 4 |
Design Notes
The cost, weight and HPs of the chassis were doubled; design weight
still was increased by 35%.
The chassis is technically too small for the gun, but the next larger chassis in the MVDS is far too large. Historically, the gun was too large for the carriage, so the smaller Motorcycle chassis was used. The overall volume of the weapon includes the excess by which the gun exceeds the available chassis space.