Black Sunday for 3BAM
What follows is a recap of our mission and I am certain never to forget it! No sooner had we arrived at the armoury then we found we had a problem with our transportation. We had planned to take both 25-pdr howitzers to salute the Korean destroyer Dae Jo Yeong that was visiting the port of Montreal that day. I wanted to take no chances whatsoever; if we had a problem with one gun, we could transfer the unfired ammo to the other one. Unfortunately, as neither FAT wanted to start up we had to content ourselves with using a pick-up as a gun tractor, meaning we could take only one gun. En route with our lone gun, the 5lb fire extinguisher in back of the truck went off as a result of the truck braking too suddenly, leaving a snowy white coating of dry chemical powder over EVERYTHING.
Arriving at the port, we took up our place near the old clock tower, thinking our problems were finally over. The ship duly arrived and fired its allotted 11 shots and it was our turn to reply. Again, no problems until the 8th shot was loaded and the firing lever pulled. We had a misfire right in front of the navy boys with Commodore at the head of the delegation. We had no choice but to enact misfire drill and 30 minutes later, upon examination of the misfired cartridge, that the cause of the misfire was a complete absence of gunpowder in the casing. The person who prepared the 12 cartridges obviously forgot to load the powder into that one.
The lesson drawn from this event: from this moment on, the person preparing the ammo will always be watched over by another member when preparing the ammo.
Aside from these little problems, everything was fine.
P.S. I forgot to mention that I am the one who prepared the ammo.
Gilles
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