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THE HISTORY OF THE SCREW GUN By Colonel J.R.M. Hubel, CD AdeC BA M Ed The Screw Gun or 2.5 inch RML (Rifled Muzzle Loading) Mountain Gun is one of the most famous guns ever in service in the Royal Artillery and in Indian Mountain batteries. Introduced in 1879, it saw service on the 'North-West Frontier', North-East India, Burma, Afghanistan, Tibet, the Middle East, Africa, and during the Great War – in Mesopotamia, Gallipoli, East Africa, Persia and Palestine. After the Great Mutiny in 1861, the Indian Army was re-built with one exception: there would be no more native artillery. The defection of the artillery of the Bengal Army to the rebels had very nearly brought about a separatist victory. So from 1861 onwards it became the task of the Royal Artillery to provide artillery support to the Indian Army. The ‘pack’ or mountain batteries were exempted under the 1861 order. After the Sikh wars, the Indian government created the famous Punjab Irregular Force (PIF), a fierce band of mercenaries, which had its own artillery. Thus there were two types of mountain batteries in India: units in which the gunners were British and units in which the gunners were Indian. The former batteries were units of the British Army that were 'temporarily' assigned to India. The latter were units of the Indian Army. The picture is complicated by the fact that the British mountain batteries rarely served outside of India. At the outbreak of the war, for example, eight of the nine mountain batteries of the British Army were serving in India. British mountain batteries had numbers that ran from '1' through '9'. The numbers of Indian mountain batteries ran from '21' through '32'.
Indian Army Screw Gun in action The Tribal Threat and the Army in India The basic characteristics of Frontier fighting had long been known to Imperial troops. Following the annexation of the Punjab in 1849, they were first brought into direct contact with the heavily-armed trans-border Pathan tribes, who repeatedly raided areas now under direct British administration, and attacked trading caravans. The Punjab Irregular Force quickly learnt, during a long series of ‘butcher and bolt’ punitive military expeditions, that fighting in mountainous terrain against tribal lashkars (war parties) posed a range of difficulties very different from those encountered in conventional warfare. When operating in tribal territory, Indian troops were tied to protecting long, vulnerable and cumbersome columns of pack transport, carrying food, water and ammunition, on which they depended in the barren hills. Freedom of movement was restricted to the valley floors while lightly-equipped opposing tribesmen operated with comparative freedom on the hill sides. A lack of reliable intelligence and maps made it difficult to select suitable objectives, while the difficult climate and endemic diseases in tribal territory often inflicted heavier casualties than the opposing tribesmen. The tribesmen were well acquainted with fighting in their native mountains, matching their relative strengths of mobility, cunning tactics and superior marksmanship in elusive guerrilla warfare against the cumbrous British columns.
Map of Tribal Areas in Waziristan When operating in tribal territory, the heart of the tactical problem for the British and Indian troops lay in successfully bringing the tribesmen to battle and preventing their harassment of the main body of the Imperial columns. Offensive tactics were emphasized at all stages of a campaign to bring the enemy to battle and to demoralize tribal opposition. Yet this often proved impossible forcing recourse to the destruction of villages and crops. It was quickly discovered that the key to success lay in controlling the flanking high ground and dominating the surrounding terrain by fire. Outlying piquets would be posted to shield vulnerable British columns by ‘crowning the heights’ on either side of the route of march, withdrawing to rejoin the main body only when it had passed by. Initially, the short range of the inferior Pathan firearms (300 yards) meant that piquets were seldom overlooked from other positions within effective rifle range and were secure except from direct assault. The evacuation of a piquet was often, however, the point of greatest danger when tribesmen normally seized the vacant position and attacked its retreating garrison. To prevent successful tribal attacks, the posting and withdrawal of piquets involved considerable skill and led to the development of elaborate codes and drills by the PIF. At night, encampments located on the valley floors would be surrounded in a similar manner by piquets intended to keep the tribesmen at arm’s length. Elaborate field defences, consisting of a perimeter wall constructed from rocks, stores or bales of fodder, encompassed each camp to stop rushes by swordsmen, provide cover from sniping, shelter sleeping troops and prevent infiltration by rifle thieves. The withdrawal of British and Indian columns represented the biggest tactical difficulty for any expedition. Tribal attacks on rearguards normally intensified making their extraction under fire the greatest problem for commanders. The brutal treatment meted out by tribesmen to British or Hindu wounded and dead necessitated rapid counter-attacks to recover them as they could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands. By trial and error the Punjab Irregular Force evolved a series of specialized principles and minor tactics tailored to local conditions in tribal territory. To meet the tribesmen on equal terms, its infantry regiments developed light infantry skills - skirmishing, skill-at-arms, marksmanship, self-reliance and fieldcraft - modeled on those of their opponents. Mountain artillery batteries equipped with light guns transported into the hills on pack mules served as Close Support artillery and were an indispensable force multiplier. The Screw Gun was the first gun whose barrel and breech could be disassembled into “two bits”. All subsequent mountain artillery guns thereafter adopted this separate breech-barrel pattern. Construction of the Screw Gun In 1877, Colonel le Mesurier, RA proposed an RML (Rifled Muzzle Loading) 7-pounder (2.5-inch) steel gun made in two parts which threaded together, and hence 'Screw Gun', the piece eulogised by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) in his famous poem and gunner song. Twelve guns of le Mesurier's design made by the Elswick Ordnance Company (Armstrong's firm) were sent to Afghanistan in 1879 and proved so satisfactory that a large number of a similar design were made at the Royal Gun Factory. The basic design of the gun was that it was to be mule transportable in order to ensure mobility when fighting in mountainous terrain. An artillery mule was deemed capable of carrying a load of approximately 200 pounds. Thus the breech and barrel sections, the heaviest components, had to meet this weighting. Gun and carriage dismantled were carried by five mules. Two mules each carried a third of the piece, a third the carriage, a fourth the wheels, and the fifth the rest, i.e. the axletree, elevating gear, rammer and other stores. Rifling consisted of eight grooves, 0.05 inches deep, with a twist increasing from one turn in 80 calibres to one in 30 at 3.53 inches from the muzzle, the remainder being uniform at that pitch. The Screw Gun remained the armament of British mountain batteries until after the South African War (1899-1902) and a few saw service later in WWI. Although cordite had been introduced in 1892, Screw Gun cartridges were still filled with gun powder, the smoke from which advertised a gun's position every time it fired. In its day, however, the Screw Gun was considered the best mountain gun of its kind in the world.
The Screw Gun, i.e. the RML 2.5-inch Mountain Gun Mark 4 Breech portion - 201 pounds
Muzzle portion, 199 lbs
Gun Detachment assembling Barrel and Breech Tradition of Excellence Throughout their history, the reputation of Indian Mountain Batteries was enhanced by the fact that they were officered by the very best the Royal Artillery had to offer. Such talented men competed to join because a tour in an Indian Mountain Battery, unlike other branches of artillery, virtually guaranteed seeing active service. Indian officers (VCOs or Viceroy’s Commissioned Officers, formerly known as Native Officers) and other ranks were also the best available, and also of large stature, as the relatively small number of batteries and their role as the only Indian artillery meant that there was always a surplus of volunteers, and this in turn meant that only the highest quality of recruit was accepted. The Mules
A mule is the hybrid product of the mating of a male ass with a mare, both male and female offspring being produced. Large mules are not as durable as medium-sized ones, especially for military service. Mules moderately sized from 13 to 14 hands have greater longevity than larger animals and frequently live to more than twenty years old. Older mules are very often mares. Young mules are naturally timid and easily startled, but they are, as a rule, docile and easily broken in if treated with great kindness and patience. Rough treatment of any kind must be avoided as likely to prove fatal to successful training. In leading a mule, the rein must always be left loose and a whip should not be used. The mules’ small hooves give it a surefootedness that is invaluable in mountainous terrain. To protect their hooves, they were usually shod as horses are. A loaded mule can walk along the narrowest of rocky paths with the certainty of a mountain goat where a misstep would mean death hundreds of feet below. When encountering nonnegotiable terrain, by using a gyn (tripods and block and tackle normally used for demounting barrels from carriages), the gunners could lift or drop the mule to a manageable location. For mountain warfare the mule was by far the best beast of burden. Mules are well adapted for transport being smaller, more surefooted, and shorter-paced than horses. A loaded mule will walk a little more than 3 miles an hour though the pace will much depend upon the roads. The pace is slower moving down hill, quicker up hill. Mules sleep from three to four hours in the twenty-four, the soundest sleep being towards dawn. The male mule can carry more weight than the female, though the latter is steadier for work, being more docile. The carrying power of the mule varies from 100 pounds to 300 pounds, the average being about 200 pounds. One of the favorable qualities characteristic of the mule is its quick power of recovery after strenuous effort. If a day’s work has pushed it close to the limit of its strength, a night’s rest seems to restore it completely and morning finds it ready to undertake another day’s labour. In this respect the mule is quite different from the horse. Although mules can endure hunger and thirst better than horses can, and are commonly supposed to eat less, they should receive the same rations as horses when subjected to the rigours of active service. When watering horses and mules, RA veterinary officers counseled that mules should always be watered first. The mule has more than its share of admirable qualities. It is courageous and intelligent, hard of hide, sure of foot, sound of constitution and able to resist changes in climate and withstand thirst and hunger better than the horse. Such perfection is marred by a few minor drawbacks. It will not accept injustice or irrational treatment but meets them with instant rebuff. The common phrase “a kick like a mule” shows how well known is the animal’s major means of protest. The mule can also be self-willed to the point of unreasonableness, as is attested by “stubborn as a mule.” Like their masters, however, mules acquire their unattractive traits of stubbornness and ill temper only when they have been badly brought up. They are essentially sensitive spirits in robust bodies, and when their early training has been sympathetically carried out, their behaviour is incomparable. “The mountain gunners’ boast was that they could go where a man, or a mule, could put a foot. It was a remarkable sight to see a battery coming into action. What would appear to the uninitiated eye to be a disorderly herd of mules and muleteers would stream onto the position, there would be a brief pause for much exertion and the heaving of lumps of metal and in two or three minutes the animals would be led off at a run leaving six little guns with their detachments kneeling smartly round them.” 4 176 (Abu Klea) Battery, Royal Artillery is the junior currently-existent regular battery of the Royal Artillery. Its name is pronounced "One Seven Six", and the battery is commonly referred to as "The Abus", and its members as "Abus", after the battery's Honour Title. The battery is one of the sub-units of 39th Regiment, Royal Artillery. It was formed in 1860 and since then has participated in many campaigns, most notably the Battle of Abu Klea in 1885, where it earned a Victoria Cross and later its Honour Title. In 1884, the Nile Expeditionary Force was organized with the purpose of relieving General Gordon and his British forces at Khartoum in the Sudan. Now renamed as part of an RA reorganization as 1 Battery, Southern Division, Royal Artillery, the battery joined the force at Cairo being equipped with the 2.5 inch RML Mountain Gun (the "Screw Gun"), and camels for transport. While the main part of the force headed up the River Nile by steamer, a camel corps of about two thousand men was detached to move directly cross-country, at best speed, bypassing the waterfalls along the Nile. Half of the battery was detached to support this column. On 16 January 1885, a force of approximately 12,000 Mahdists was encountered by the column and engaged on the morning of 17 January in the Battle of Abu Klea. During the battle, the battery's guns were pushed out to the edge of the British square to fire at the charging enemy. The guns each managed to fire one round of case-shot, cutting down many of the enemy, before they reached the square and engaged in hand-to-hand fighting. Lieutenant D.J. Guthrie was attacked by several Sudanese and was seriously wounded in the leg. One of his soldiers, Gunner Alfred Smith, saved his life by killing his assailant with a handspike, and remained standing over him fighting off others. Although Lieutenant Guthrie was later to die of his wounds, Gunner Smith was awarded the Victoria Cross for this act of bravery. On 22 June 1955, 176 Battery was awarded the Honour Title "Abu Klea" in recognition of its distinguished service in this action. After the Great War, 176 Battery served under the nomenclature of 20th Pack Battery in Hong Kong with 3.7 inch Mountain Howitzers, still using mules for transport, the last British battery to do so. SCREW GUNS By Rudyard Kipling (annotated version Smokin’ my pipe on the mountings, sniffin’ the mornin’ cool, I walks in my old brown gaiters, along o’ my old brown mule, With seventy gunners be’ind me, an’ never a beggar forgets It’s only the pick of the Army that handles the dear little pets – Tss! Tss! Chorus For you all love the screw guns – The screw guns they all love you! So when we call round with a few guns O’ course you will know what to do – hoo!hoo! Jest send in your Chief an’ surrender – It’s worse if you fights or you runs: You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees, But you don’t get away from the guns!
They send us along where the roads are, but mostly we goes where they ain’t, We’d climb up the side of a sign-board an’ trust to the stick of the paint: We’ve chivied5 the Naga6 and Looshai7, we’ve give the Afreedeeman8 fits; For we fancy ourselves at two thousand, we guns that are built in two bits – Tss! Tss!
If a man doesn’t work, why, we drills ‘im an’ teaches ‘im ‘ow to behave. If a beggar can’t march, why, we kills ‘im an’ rattles ‘im into ‘is grave. You’ve got to stand up to our business an’ spring without snatchin’ or fuss. D’you say that you sweat with the field-guns? By God, you must lather with us – Tss! Tss!
The eagles is screamin’ around us, the river’s a-moanin’ below, We’re clear o’ the pine an’ the oak scrub, we’re out on the rocks an’ the snow, An’ the wind is as thin as a whip-lash what carries away to the plains The rattle an’ stamp o’ the lead-mules – the jinkety jink o’ the chains – Tss! Tss!
There’s a Wheel on the Horns of the Mornin’ an’ a wheel on the edge o’ the Pit, An’ a drop into nothin’ beneath you as straight as a beggar can spit: With the sweat runnin’ out o’ your shirt sleeves, an’ the sun off the snow in your face, An’ ‘arf o’ the men on the drag-ropes to hold the old gun in ‘er place – Tss! Tss!
Smokin’ my pipe on the mountings, sniffin’ the mornin’ cool, I walks in my old brown gaiters along o’ my old brown mule, The monkey can say what our road was – the wild goat ‘e knows where we passed. Stand easy, you long-eared old darlin’s! Out drag-ropes! With shrapnel! Hold fast! Tss! Tss!
For you all love the screw guns – The screw guns they all love you! So when we call round with a few guns O’ course you will know what to do – hoo! hoo! Just send in your Chief an’ surrender – It’s worse if you fights or you runs: You may hide in the caves, they’ll be only your graves, But you can’t get away from the guns! ENDNOTES Note 1 - Ring Shell Steel shell with driving band; Note 2 - Case Shot Tinned cylinder filled with musket balls or bullets. The cylinder disintegrated when the gun fired and the balls were projected forward by kinetic energy in a shotgun-like pattern. Case shot had a very short effective range (100-300 yards). A pattern of about 30 yards in width and nine feet high could roughly be achieved at a range of 200 yards. Since 30 yards was the frontage of a company of infantry of the time, and nine feet about the height of a mounted soldier, it was a very effective anti-personnel weapon shell Note 3 - Shrapnel Spherical shot filled with bursting charge, time fuze and metal balls (shrapnel) and could be fired at much greater ranges than case. Note 4 – Bidwell, Brigadier Sheldon, Royal Artillery. Gunners At War. Arms and Armour Press, London. 1970. Note 5 - “Chivvied”. Corruption of ‘chevvied’ (not now used) – chased Note 6 - “Naga”. An agrarian tribe of northwest India, presently living in an area astride the Bangladesh-Burma border. In former times the tribe was known for its extensive tattoos, ritual human sacrifice and head hunting. Note 7 - “Looshai”. One of the most troublesome tribes on the northeast frontier of India. Their first attack on British territory occurred in 1849. Note 8 - “Afreedeeman”. A member of the Afreedi tribe on the now Pakistani side of the Afghan border where hostile action between local tribes and Indian and British troops often took place. |
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