Drag Ropes: How are they used??

[rob love]

Robin: The lifespan of an answer like this is only as long as the website stays alive. There are very few perpetual sites.

Just to double the odds of it surviving though, I posted the same photos and answer over on the modeller's site where the 6 pounder photo and explanation came from. One of the first google searches I did on the subject led me to there. After all, our interests are similar, I just prefer 1:1 scale modelling.

I would still like to find the answers in a manual, although, after attaching the ropes today to the guns, I am pretty certain I have it right. The 25 pdr manual does mention that the little tabs on the rims are for the drag ropes, it just doesn't say how.

[tankbarrell]

Originally Posted by rob love

I would still like to find the answers in a manual, although, after attaching the ropes today to the guns, I am pretty certain I have it right. The 25 pdr manual does mention that the little tabs on the rims are for the drag ropes, it just doesn't say how.

I am certain you are right, it's the only way I have been able to make it work. It's the only logical way really.
I have seen a more detailed explanation in a manual, somewhere..... I'll try to find it.

[Private_collector]

Hopefully more detailed than these entries.
2017-02-28 19.02.01-resized-1024.jpg 2017-02-28 19.00.58-resized-1024.jpg
Complete bollock, so far as useful information goes.

And it took two different manuals to tell so little.

[Andrew Davis]

This photo taken from the Internet. British ww2 or Korea, 5.5" gun I believe.

[rob love]

Excellent photo Andrew, thanks, and certainly supports my theory on how the ropes were attached.

If there ws ever a need for mechanical advantage, pulling a 5.5" over rough ground would be it.

[motto (RIP)]

The photos that Lionel posted on #16 are a good illustration of the reason for the development of the short 25 pdr. The ability to quickly get a gun to where it is needed in difficult terrain would be greatly enhanced by such a variant.
Plenty of rope used on that job.

David

[rob love]

The official answer is in the Gun Drill Manual. I have copied the relevant para below:
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394. Dragropes.--These may be used for a direct pull attached to the drag washers, or a double leverage may be obtained by the use of a wheel purchase.
In attaching dragropes to the drag washers, the back of the hook should be downward, for ease of attaching and because the hook cannot then catch in obstacles such as undergrowth or wire.
In making a wheel purchase, the rings at the ends of the dragrope chains are attached to the hooks on either side of the wheel, as low down as possible on the side away from the direction of the required pull. The dragrope is then laid upon the circumference of the tyre, and the pull must be in line with the wheel. In moving the gun uphill or across heavy ground by wheel purchase, it is often best to move one wheel at a time.
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Note that in the Queen's English, purchase means: noun: a hold or position on something for applying power advantageously, or the advantage gained by such application.
verb: haul in (a rope or cable) or haul up (an anchor) by means of a pulley, lever, etc.

As a sidenote, I ordered in a pair of the dragropes from Tim at Empire trading, and they were here within a week. Mint condition, although there is a variation in the size of the hook from the Canadian dragrope.