Field Gun

Royal Navy Field Gun

Brickwoods 1991/2

In October 1899, Boer Commandos had attacked Ladysmith using 40-pounder guns with great devastation. Captain Percy Scott, of HMS TERRIBLE, which was lying at Simonstown, was ordered to provide guns to assist in the support of British troops at Ladysmith.

He landed a number of 4.7 inch guns to have carriages made for them. Two of these together with four 12cwt 12-pounders were sailed to Durban where they were put on the last train to reach Ladysmith before it was completely cut off by the Boers. These guns were used by a Naval Brigade of 280 men from HMS POWERFUL.

These immediately silenced the Boer 40-pounders using only eight rounds. Such was the speed with which they were brought into action, the Boers were completely taken by surprise.

When the relief of Ladysmith was ordered, more 12-pounders were landed for use by a second Naval Brigade, part of the troops-under the command of General Buller. In a magnificent effort to relief the besieged town, the Bluejackets marched and fought over extremely rugged terrain. It was during this campaign that one of the wheels collapsed whilst being hauled into position. The Bluejackets manhandled the gun over two miles to the top of a hill and into action. On many subsequent occasions, their skill and speed in bringing their guns to bear was largely the reason for evading capture by the enemy.

It is these feats which today’s Field Gun competition re-enacts...........

The Brickwoods competition is held annually in HMS COLLINGWOOD and is the 2-dimensional version of the event that used to take place in the Royal Tournament at Earls Court every year. While the gun and limber are exactly the same, the actions are completely different.

Most Command Field Gunners cut their teeth ( or lose their fingers) with Brickwoods before moving up to the Command event.

The record for the run is 1min 18.3s ~ our fastest run was only 0.2s slower than the record.

I was lucky enough to run for HMS COLLINGWOOD in 1991(B Crew) and again in 1992(A Crew) as the firing number. The training regime was quite severe. During the early days, over 100 people used to turn up for training - that number quickly gets whittled down to the 40-odd 'hard-core' and a few hangers on. This is intentional; something about being cruel to be kind.

I remember after one particularly brutal session, a fit, young hopeful approached one of the 'old-hands', who was breathing normally and looking remarkably fresh. The youngster, by now sucking in air through every orifice and sweating profusely asked the lag for the secret of his field gun success.

"Son" replied the master, "it's all about working yourself to the limit, then beyond............or as long as you can pace yourself!"

During the years I ran, the practice for the 'extractor' number to remove the shells from the breech with his fingers had been outlawed - too many fingers had been lost the previous few seasons. The use of the extractor tool was now mandated. However, this slowed proceedings - so now every good extractor number at least 'carry's' the tool in his hand !

Scrapes and worse were the norm for both myself and he as we tried to load, fire and extract the 3 shells in the quickest time (my record was 1.8s). This comes at a price....the zinc oxide tape was definitely not for effect!.......it took months for my fingers / knuckles to heal properly.

Would I do it again ? . . . . BURNING, 2,3,4, . . . oh yes !