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Login to post Forums » Off-topic discussion » It's bigger in real life!!

May 4, 2009 6:29 a.m. 914Driver Dork

I spent last week at an Army proving ground in Yuma, Az.; now I have to redouble my post-whoring efforts....

I went wandering out through the bone yard and found a cannon I worked on in 1979, it was a 175mm gun that had another 175mm screwed to the front of it making it so long that it couldn't be turned around inside the building. We took a window out and kinda K-turned it to flip it around.

I also saw the HARP gun.

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/H/HARP.html

Holy Berkeley !!! It's huge! It was last fired in 1992 and even though Yuma is measured in square miles, it was pointed at 89 degrees to keep the round on the property. My POC in Yuma witnessed the 1992 shot, he said the ground "rippled" like waves on water and the resulting fire ball blotted out the sky.

Interesting stuff.....

Dan
May 4, 2009 7:06 a.m. stan Dork

Is it laying on the ground as scrap now or what?
May 4, 2009 7:18 a.m. 914Driver Dork

It's strapped into its holster just sucking up the sunshine. It rains there about five days a year.

Dan
May 4, 2009 9:55 a.m. 4cylndrfury HalfDork

holy geebus...that gun can fire 111 miles up?

wonder how far it can shoot a miata? Modern Trebouchet FTW!!!
May 4, 2009 10:04 a.m. CrackMonkey HalfDork

I thought the HARP was in Barbados?
May 4, 2009 10:54 a.m. Duke Dork

Oh holy crow. I went on Youtube looking to see if I could find any HARP gun firing videos (no luck). What I fell into was a complete morass of chemtrail/HAARP conspiracy theories.

Do these morons really believe that crap, or are they just goofing around?
May 4, 2009 11:08 a.m. Ian F Reader

914Driver wrote: Interesting stuff.....

Indeed... one should never under-estimate the US military when it came to building HUGE stuff back in the 50's and 60's...
May 4, 2009 3:51 p.m. slantvaliant Reader

Indeed... one should never under-estimate the US military when it came to building HUGE stuff back in the 50's and 60's...

Like Atomic Annie?
May 4, 2009 4:00 p.m. mel_horn HalfDork

4cylndrfury wrote:

holy geebus...that gun can fire 111 miles up?

When you consider that the first two Americans into space (suborbital) (Shepard and Grissom) went like 115 miles up, all the more impressive...
May 4, 2009 4:47 p.m. mad_machine SuperDork

but I doubt that Shepard or Grissom would have survived 25,000gs
May 4, 2009 5:37 p.m. thatsnowinnebago HalfDork

slantvaliant wrote:

Indeed... one should never under-estimate the US military when it came to building HUGE stuff back in the 50's and 60's...

Like Atomic Annie?

Is that a nuclear cannon?
May 4, 2009 5:44 p.m. aircooled SuperDork

Well, not the cannon, but the shell had a small nuclear warhead in it. You might be able to see the video of it firing on UTube. The footage was used in the movie Trinity and Beyond, which was a rather interesting documentary of the US's atomic testing program (Willy Shatner narrated it).
May 5, 2009 5:56 a.m. 914Driver Dork

A hand-held nuclear device. Problem is you can't shoot it far enough to be uneffected.

Never underestimate the ability of the U.S. Military of the 50s and 60s to underestimate.
May 5, 2009 6:07 a.m. 4cylndrfury HalfDork

914Driver wrote:

A hand-held nuclear device. Problem is you can't shoot it far enough to be uneffected.

Never underestimate the ability of the U.S. Military of the 50s and 60s to underestimate.
May 5, 2009 6:19 a.m. mad_machine SuperDork

914Driver wrote:

Holy Berkeley !!! It's huge! It was last fired in 1992 and even though Yuma is measured in square miles, it was pointed at 89 degrees to keep the round on the property. My POC in Yuma witnessed the 1992 shot, he said the ground "rippled" like waves on water and the resulting fire ball blotted out the sky.

Interesting stuff.....

Dan

I can believe it. My Father was in the navy in the 60s through the early 70s. While never stationed aboard the Jersey or any of it's sister ships, he did get to go around the horn in a flotilla with her and when he was in the Brown Water Navy, got to witness a naval bombardment from the Jersey into Viet Cong held riverbanks.

He said the sound from the shells coming overhead and down into the emplacements the Vietnamese had was hellish and could not be described to anybody who had not witnessed it.

I can only wonder how the HARP gun would sound and act, considering a broadside from the Jersey would physically move the ship several feet in recoil... and that is a LOT of ship to move.
May 5, 2009 8:30 a.m. Duke Dork

mad_machine wrote:

He said the sound from the shells coming overhead and down into the emplacements the Vietnamese had was hellish and could not be described to anybody who had not witnessed it.

A family friend was on the ground in Viet Nam, and I remember him telling a story about being pinned down by Viet Cong snipers. They got on the horn and asked for artillery or air support. The guy at the other end asked for the exact coordinates of the target. My friend said, "Well, it's about here, send something over and we'll talk you in." The other guy chuckled and asked for more accurate coordinates.

About 5 minutes later, it sounded like a bunch of freight trains going overhead, and the entire top of the hill disappeared. Turns out the New Jersey was just about 20 miles offshore, and they were the fastest support available...
May 5, 2009 7:15 p.m. spdracer315 New Reader

I want to know who wakes up in the morining and decides to design/build things like "Atomic Annie" and the "HARP" That must be the best job in the world...

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