Arty Barrel Life

[Knouterer]

J. Campana, chef d'escadron d'artillerie, wrote in 1923 in his book Les Progrès de l'Artillerie about the lessons of WWI (page 6, my translation):

" ... we have seen 75 mm guns, well maintained and handled with proper care, which were still in decent shape (encore vaillants) after firing 20,000 rounds; others, which had been neglected, were worn out after only 4,000."

This referred to the recoil system and other parts of the gun as well as to the barrel, presumably.

[Clive Mortimore]

The numbers above refer to barrel life under optimal conditions, but prolonged firing in combination with poor maintenance and lack of cleaning could reduce that considerably.
The Musée Royal de l'Armée in Brussels has an interesting exhibit, the barrel of a German 15 cm gun of WWI, cut lengthwise, which was apparently fired under such suboptimal conditions during the retreat in 1918. The inside of the barrel at the transition between chamber and bore is very badly eroded, it looks like it has been attacked by steel-eating termites or something like that, deep jagged grooves, really impressive.

Hi Knouterer

I have seen far worse than that. The photo shows fairly normal wear pattern, the rifling at the chamber end is slightly heavily eroded but for most the length looks in good condition. That is typical of a variable charge gun where the velocities can below maximum. That is why it was important we measured just past the commencement of the rifling. Too much wear at the start of the shell's travel allows propelling gasses to escape around the shell decreasing the oomph behind it and its range.

When I was training to be a gun fitter we had examples of the barrels of the WW2 AA guns from Malta, not only was the rifling eroded at the chamber end but most of the rifling had been worn away by the driving bands of the shells.

[Clive Mortimore]

J. Campana, chef d'escadron d'artillerie, wrote in 1923 in his book Les Progrès de l'Artillerie about the lessons of WWI (page 6, my translation):

" ... we have seen 75 mm guns, well maintained and handled with proper care, which were still in decent shape (encore vaillants) after firing 20,000 rounds; others, which had been neglected, were worn out after only 4,000."

This referred to the recoil system and other parts of the gun as well as to the barrel, presumably.

Hi again

Most the damage to a barrel comes form the heat and corrosive effect of the propelling gases, there is not much anyone can do about that. Cleaning the barrel after a fire mission to remove any traces of unburnt or partly burnt propellant will prevent additional corrosion therefore lengthening the barrel life. Many guns, especially screw breach ones, the barrel would be swabbed between each time the gun fired. This removes any embers which could potentially ignite the next charge bag and fire the gun prematurely. It also helps in barrel life. Therefore good barrel maintenance does help.