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Old 26-06-12, 19:08
Mike Cecil Mike Cecil is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Cody, Wyoming, USA
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Yes, Alex, sums it up nicely.

The existence of the 106RCL may already have been given away by the 'tap tap tap' of the .50cal spotter rounds from the M8C hammering on the outside of the intended target ...... but by then it should be toooo late anyway!

Maybe that's why the Land Rover 106mmRCL carrier had stowage for only 6 rounds on the basis that, after each shot, you are less and less likely to get another! The Law of Diminishing Returns ...

Of course the development of the SPLINTEX round known commonly as 'beehive', gave the 106RCL a whole new dimension. Their deployment with Aust Infantry in South Vietnam was mainly for defence (there not being any enemy armour around those parts of SVN) so the Splintex and HEP rounds were the most commonly deployed.

The back blast is quite extraordinary, and develops an 'nth' of a second before the round leaves the barrel. I have one very lucky image taken of a 106mm shoot, with the back blast quite well developed, and nothing coming out of the muzzle. It was the last shoot of 5/7RAR's anti-armour platoon, before they gave the M40A2 (as it was by then) away.

I'm curious, Dianna: the source for the 105RCL round stowage tubes: not within Australia, I presume, but from OS? The 105mm M27 was not a weapon adopted by Australia.

Mike C
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