U.S. M1 240mm Howitzer

The U.S. M1 240mm Howitzer entered service in 1943 and first saw operational use at Anzio Beachhead, Italy, in January 1944. Mounted on the same carriage as the 8-inch Gun M1, it helped destroy the railway gun Anzio Annie. The 240mm howitzer saw extensive service in the European Theater of Operation and in the Pacific, especially against reinforced masonry targets. It was highly valued for counter-battery fire and for its ability to destroy key bridges at long range, isolating enemy troops on the battlefield, and it was used in the attack on the monastery at Monte Cassino. During the Korean War, two battalions fielded these howitzers after they were brought out of mothballs and sent to the front lines to attack deep bunkers and fortifications built by the Chinese that smaller artillery weapons on hand could not effectively attack. The 240mm howitzer traveled on two large trailers pulled by tracked tractors, and its emplacement was sped up by a battery crane with a clam-shell bucket. It was transported with tube and carriage carried separately on six-wheeled trailers. It had a caliber of 9.4 inches or 240 millimeters, weighed 64,700 pounds or 29,347 kilograms, had a range of 25,224 yards or 23,056 meters, fired a 360-pound or 163-kilogram shell, had a muzzle velocity of 2,300 feet per second or 701 meters per second, an elevation of -15 to +50 degrees or -267 to +1156 mils, a traverse of 30 degrees or 533 mils, and a rate of fire of 1 round per minute.

Lawton, Oklahoma · United States