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25 pdr gun being fired

For the last three months or so my daughter and I have been volunteering our free time maintaining and restoring Artillery guns that are in private hands and stored at the Royal School of Artillery, Larkhill. So far we have worked primarily on 25pdr guns Mk II and III and their limbers. The restoration of these guns involves stripping each gun down to its individual parts, cleaning off all the paint and corrosion and then slowly putting everything back together again. At various stages during the process the assemblies are under coated and painted depending on where it is going next each gun will either be shown in combat service or as a gate guard.

Guns that are going to be gate guardians look fantastic when wheeled out of the workshop for the last time before going to their new homes. The one that has been finished so far has been finished in high gloss green paint and the handles in a high gloss red, all the bare metal is polished and really is something you can be proud of being a part of. There are a few pictures on the next page of a new guardian getting its final inspection before going to a new home, and I have included a shot of some of the guns and vehicles there are to work on.

One of the benefits of volunteering to do work like this is the ability from time to time to fire the guns, and here you can see my daughter being initiated as a gunner (yes she loved it). The two guns shown here are both Mk II’s and have a manufacturing date of 1942 and have been updated, with the muzzle brake being the most obvious alteration.

Some of these guns and vehicles will be displaying in Normandy commemorating D-Day and the part they and their crews played in it. If you are attending I hope you enjoy your day and remember the sacrifices made by people during World War Two.