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More excellent images in this most interesting thread. Just look at the effort those matelots are required to put into moving that gun. It’s no wonder that the Royal Navy attach so much importance to the Field Gun event. I only ever ran the Brickwoods version which was deemed a safer alternative and continues to this day without the obstacles used in the traditional Field Gun event and that was exhausting enough, but so much fun. These poor guys look exhausted and they’ve only just left the dockyard.

Four views of one of the twelve 6-inch BL Howitzers that saw service in South Africa. These photographs were taken by Captain Stephen Slocum, US Military Attaché with the South African Field Force. Probably taken at, or near, Paardeberg.

Captain Slocum's report states that on 26 February 1900 "Three Vickers-Maxims and four 6-inch howitzers arrived [at Paardeberg] and were placed in position with the other guns south of the [Modder] river, making a total of 98 guns of all kinds, exclusive of the Maxim machine guns, which were not classed as artillery". The final photograph, also by Slocum, shows these four guns in position.














At my prep-school we were lucky enough to have one of the last surviving howitzers as our war memorial. Taken in the late 60s, this very grainy "Instamatic" photograph shows the gun before it was restored and removed to a museum.



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