105 mm Self Propelled Gun, Priest

Suggestions Ground
21

Here’s what I’ve got. Although I must admit I’m not sure if the rounds were tested on the Birch Gun specifically, they are however ammunition used for the armament at various times.

The APHE has eluded me. I’ve only seen a bit about the AP-T.
According to Jaegerplatoon, in Finnish use the 18-pdr had an AP-T round. According to Wikipedia, the gun had an APHE round developed for it. It is unknown if these are the same and simply labeled differently.
Stats given for the Finnish AP-T: Projectile weight 8.32 kg, Muzzle velocity of 583 m/sec.
Credit to Jaegerplatoon: FINNISH ARMY 1918 - 1945: ARTILLERY PART 3 .

I found stats in my document about a shrapnel round but not a specific source.
“Shrapnel Shell: 374 lead and antimony balls, 40 to the pound (11.34g per ball), making a payload of 4,241 grams. The shell used the No. 80 fuze, a time & percussion dual use type.”

Initially, high explosive ammunition was only provided for the field howitzers, but an 18-pdr HE round proved successful during 1914 and entered production. The original ‘HE’ was lyddite, but early 18-pdr shells contained pure trinitrotoluene (TNT), later replaced by a TNT/amatol mixture in varying proportions. Other specialist ammunition eventually included star shell (4.5-in. howitzer), smoke (18-pdr and 4.5-in.), gas (18-pdr, 4.5-in. and 60-pdr) and incendiary (18-pdr and 4.5-in.).
Excerpt from “British Artillery 1914–19” by Osprey Publishing.

From rummaging through Wikimedia I found some old drawings of shells with some data on them, as following:
HE Mk II Shell
Total Projectile Mass: 8,391.456 grams, +/- 8.86 grams. Basically 8.4 kg.
ExplosiveType: Lyddite. But could also be TNT or Ammatol.
Explosive Weight: 368.54 grams.
Fuzes: No.100 w/ Gaine; No.4 w/ Gaine & Adapter; No.80 Adapter & Gaine; No.80/44,44/80 & Adapter.
Source: File:QF 18 pdr HE Mk II Shell Diagram.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
QF 18-pounder gun - Wikipedia
^Assembled piece

Unknown Name WW1 HE Shell
Total Projectile Mass: 8,391.459 grams (18.5 lbs). Basically 8.4 kg.
ExplosiveType: Lyddite. But could also be TNT or Ammatol.
Explosive Weight: About 8% of shell weight, i.e. about 671.3 grams.
Fuzes: Unknown. See other shells.
Source: File:Shell 18pdr HE.jpg - Wikipedia

Mk VI Shrapnel shell
Total Projectile Mass: 8,391 grams, +/- 9 grams. Basically 8.4 kg.
Shrapnel Mass: 3,596 grams, approx 327 balls (41 to a pound, 11 grams per ball).
Bursting Charge: Black Powder, 70.9 grams. Usually Rifle Fine Grade (R.F.G) type.
Source: File:18pdrShrapnelDiagram1.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Fuze types and round in 1939: File:18-pr rds 1939.jpg - Wikimedia Commons .

That’s all I got, hope it helps. :)

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22

This, personally I would prefer the Sexton over this.

23

Oh I’d definitely want both. But this one in the US tree. Less copy paste more unique mods/variants!

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25

Unfortunately, if your adding spgs used in British service your going to end up with a lot of American ones. In this case though the british would be getting the original priest, and the americans have access to the previously mentioned better version with imporved gun and machinegun elevation.

26

The priest and the sexton as previously mentioned will be over a full br different just due to shell penetration, the 25 pounder is not a very good gun for AT XD

27

25-Pdr is fine.

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It’s got better penetration than the US M61 round. There’s also experimental HEAT and HESH ammo, which were never fielded but that’s never stopped Gaijin before. See the T45 APCR. There’s also an APCBC round, but I can’t find the source on that one at the moment.

28

It’d be perfectly able in an AT role. We don’t need to add every single vehicle that was ever in service or considered for every single nation. Sure some of the minor nations need some copy paste, but the brits have so many unique vehicles and variants we could get instead of just copies of other stuff.

29

The issue with pen sheets are they are worthless when gaijin calculates them with their formula

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The issue with the heat round for the 25 pounder is it was abandoned more or less immediately and we know even its projected pen was worse than the hesh, so it would be redundnant in that regard. And the hesh round only offers sub 100mm of pen, which in game is just kind of meh. compare that to teh 7.5 inches of pen from the m7 priests 105 your looking at basically double the pen

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30

Im not saying it wouldent, but the priest and the sexton are apples and oranges, they would ligit have a full br gap between them as seen above

31

Not saying they aren’t. Just saying we should have vehicles in their country of origin/main user and in the small trees if they have gaps at that br. Britain is 0 for 2 on the priest

32

I dont think you realize how many M7 priests the british operated, as in theater we normally had more of them then the americans. The British recieved 832 Priests through lend-lease plus another 200 which were given to free french forces, plus a 102 which were provided to the canadians for kangeroo conversions, and thats before you start factoring in stuff like the defrocked priests donated from the 1st army when they replaced them with B2’s. The british Priests saw service through north africa, into italy and finally into europe, along with service in burma at battalion level, so its not like we had 3 in a corner somewhere, as the SPG complimented the Sexton and wasnt fully replaced by it.

I am just saying if we accounted for about a third of total production, i dont think its unfair or unreasonable to request its addition to the tree. Especially when the one most americans picture in their heads is not even the M7, its the M7B1 which was the main variant used by the US in the war in western europe eg the battle of the bulge. In truth if the USA were to recieve the a priest i would want them to get the M7B2, due to its aforementioned improved gun angles and the fact the 50 cal has a mounting allowing it to engage targets over a much wider range. There is also the oft forgotten M37, which was the improved design intended to replace the priest.

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33

The brits did use a lot of them sure. But primarily as a stopgap to make up the numbers lost in the early years of the war and got replaced by even towed 25pdrs when available due to logistics. IF we are to have a priest for Britain it should be a premium or event vehicle not something in the main tree

34

Ironically even the americans were switching to the 25 pounder by the late war in nw europe with it beeing well documented at the Rhine crossing, as the logistics train for that ammunition was way faster. They suffered a quite bad logistical issue for howitzer ammo in late 1944 so the brits gave them 100 25 pounders.

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35

That is actually rather ironic, but this isn’t enlisted so towed artillery probably won’t ever become a thing.

36

Aye, just a point though, the reason the m7 were being replaced by towed arty in nw europe was literally because the us was not shipping enough ammo for their 105 howitzers XD

in places where this was not an issue, such as Burma and Italy the m7 was used more prolifically.

37

+1, I don’t see why the UK and US can’t both get it

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38

Yeah, why not for both nation?

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39

Did Uk use it
Yes
Then it goes to the UK
End of

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40

I see their point, the US did use it and still used it even in the Korean war. Makes sense for the Priest to go into both trees.

41

Should go both as both used it

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