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M110 SP Guns of 39 Heavy Regiment Royal Artillery
During the Cold War, the role of the British Army of the Rhine was to delay a potential Soviet Russian invasion across the North German Plain, and numbered up to 60,000 personnel. Constantly exercised to full readiness it carried out large-scale manoeuvres, and the Germans were accustomed to seeing military vehicles and guns taking up positions in farmyards and woods.
In March 1989 a section (two guns) has arrived at a farm and is coming into action. The trail spade of each gun has been dug into the ground (to brace it against recoil when it fires). The boxes, rolled camouflage nets, swab and buckets, etc have been removed and laid on the ground. The gunners’ SLR rifles, Light Machine Gun (LMG) and webbing are placed on top. The gunners wear the new pattern combat helmet (though the No.1, a bombardier who commands the gun, wears his beret). All wear their NBC suits. A soldier with his webbing and rifle, and carrying a gun marker, is running out a line to the command post. Beside the left-hand gun, which arrived first and is ready to fire, can be seen the prism fixed into the ground.
The M110 gun has a muzzle brake and a shorter gun barrel than the M107. Rearwards of the slipper (the bulge on the gun barrel) the chassis and mechanism, etc of the M107 and M110 are identical. There were six guns in each battery. At high elevation the guns would fire at a target 15 to 20 km away.
The depiction of a pair of horses’ heads on top of the barn is typical of the farms in the Hanover area.
39 Regiment RA was based at Paderborn and carried out live firing on the ranges at Hohne. In summer 1990, the regiment was re-equipped with the Multi- Launch Rocket System (MLRS) instead of the M110 guns, and moved to Menden.
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Printed image size(s): B2 only (58 x 38 cm)
Owner: 39 Regiment Royal Artillery
Price(s): £70
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