Latest / First Offensive- The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal / 010 - SIDEBARS 75mm Pack HowitzerWorkhorse of the Artillery The Japanese Model 89 1929 50mm Heavy Grenade

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010 - SIDEBARS 75mm Pack HowitzerWorkhorse of the Artillery The Japanese Model 89 1929 50mm Heavy Grenade · First Offensive- The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five side bars of First Offensive the Marine Campaign
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  Speaker 1: for Guadalcanal by Henry Shaw. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. Seventy five millimeter pack howitzer workhourse of
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  Speaker 1: the Artillery. During the summer of nineteen thirty, the Marine
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  Speaker 1: Corps began replacing its old French seventy five millimeter guns
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  Speaker 1: Model eighteen ninety seven with the seventy five millimeter pack
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  Speaker 1: howitzer Model nineteen twenty three E two. This weapon was
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  Speaker 1: designed for use in the army primarily as mountain artillery.
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  Speaker 1: Since it could be broken down and manhandled ashore in
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  Speaker 1: six loads from ship's boats, the pack howitzer was an
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  Speaker 1: important supporting weapon of the Marine Corps landing forces in
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  Speaker 1: pre war landing exercises. The seventy five millimeter pack howitzer
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  Speaker 1: saw extensive service with the Marine Corps throughout World War
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  Speaker 1: II and almost every major landing in the Pacific. Crewed
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  Speaker 1: by five Marines, the howitzer could hurl a sixteen pound
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  Speaker 1: shell nearly ten thousand yards. In the D series table
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  Speaker 1: of organization with which the first Marine Division went to
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  Speaker 1: war and through the following E and F series, there
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  Speaker 1: were three pack howitzer battalions for each Artillery Regiment Anthony
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  Speaker 1: Wayne Tammel and Kenneth L. Smith Christmas. The Japanese Model
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  Speaker 1: eighty nine nineteen twenty nine fifty millimeters heavy grenade discharger
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  Speaker 1: borne out of the need to bridge the gap in
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  Speaker 1: range between hand grenades and mortars. The grenade discharger evolved
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  Speaker 1: in the Imperial Japanese Army from a special purpose weapon
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  Speaker 1: of infantry assault and defense to an essential item of
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  Speaker 1: standard equipment with all Japanese ground forces. Commonly called jateechi
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  Speaker 1: by the Japanese, this weapon was officially designated Hachiku Shiki
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  Speaker 1: Jettakardarto or eleven eighty nine model Heavy Grenade Discharger, the
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  Speaker 1: term heavy being justified by the powerful one pound twelve
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  Speaker 1: ounce high explosive shell it was designed to fire, although
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  Speaker 1: it also fired the standard model ninety one fragmentation grenade.
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  Speaker 1: To the American marines and soldiers who first encountered this
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  Speaker 1: weapon and others of its kind and combat, they were
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  Speaker 1: known as knee mortars, likely so named because they generally
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  Speaker 1: were fired from a kneeling position. Typically, the discharger's concave
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  Speaker 1: base plate was pressed firmly into the surface of the
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  Speaker 1: ground by the fire's foot to support the heavy recoil
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  Speaker 1: of the fired shell. But unfortunately, the term knee mortar
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  Speaker 1: suggested to some untutored captors of these weapons that they
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  Speaker 1: were to be fired with the base plate resting against
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  Speaker 1: the knee or thigh. When a marine fired one of
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  Speaker 1: these dischargers from his thigh and broke his upper leg bone,
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  Speaker 1: efforts were swiftly undertaken in the field to educate all
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  Speaker 1: combat troops in the safe and proper handling of these
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  Speaker 1: very useful weapons. The Model eighty nine nineteen twenty nine
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  Speaker 1: fifty millimeters heavy grenade discharger is a muzzle loaded high
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  Speaker 1: angle of fire weapon which weighs ten to one quarter
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  Speaker 1: pounds and is twenty four inches in overall length. Its
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  Speaker 1: design is compact and simple. The discharger has three major components,
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  Speaker 1: the rifled barrel, the supporting barrel, pedestal with firing mechanism,
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  Speaker 1: and the base plate. Operation of the Model eighty nine
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  Speaker 1: was easy and straightforward, and with practice, its user could
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  Speaker 1: deliver accurate fire, registered quickly on target. Encountered in all
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  Speaker 1: major battles in the Pacific War. The Model eighty nine
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  Speaker 1: grenade discharger was an uncomplicated, very portable, and highly efficient
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  Speaker 1: weapon operated easily by one man. It was carried in
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  Speaker 1: a cloth or leather case with a sling, and its
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  Speaker 1: one piece construction allowed it to be brought into action
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  Speaker 1: very quickly. This grenade discharger had the advantage over most
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  Speaker 1: mortars in that it could be aimed and fire mechanically
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  Speaker 1: after a projectile had been placed in the barrel, projectile
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  Speaker 1: firing not being dependent upon dropping down the barrel against
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  Speaker 1: a stationary firing pin, as with most mortars, where barrel
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  Speaker 1: fouling sometimes caused dangerous hang fires. Although an instantaneous fuse
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  Speaker 1: employed on the Model eighty nine high explosive shell restricted
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  Speaker 1: the shells used to open areas, the Model ninety one
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  Speaker 1: fragmentation grenade, with its seven second fus, made this discharger
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  Speaker 1: effective in a jungle or four setting, with complete safety
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  Speaker 1: for the user from premature detonation of projectiles by overhanging foliage.
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  Speaker 1: Smoke and signal shells in an incendiary grenade were special
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  Speaker 1: types of ammunition used with this versatile and effective weapon,
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  Speaker 1: which won the respect of all who came to know it.
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  Speaker 1: Edwin F. Libbey, end of Chapter five sidebars read by
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Bennett,