Royal Navy Field Gun Competition
This video shows a competition where participants race with artillery. This brings a completely new meaning to the phrase “Race Gun”. The race is set up with some basic obstacles. However not only does the entire team have to traverse the course and its obstacles, so does the cannon. Every part of it. It looks like the cannon is setup purely for this race. The wheels are quick disconnect as well as the barrel.
Here is a description from Wikipedia:
The Royal Navy Field Gun competition was contested by teams from the Royal Naval commands of Portsmouth, Devonport and the Fleet Air Arm (although teams from Chatham and the Royal Marines have also competed). At each performance of the Royal Tournament, two crews competed to transport a 12 pounder field gun and limber over a series of obstacles.
From the start line in front of the Royal Box, the crews pulled the guns and limbers to the end of the arena where they turned and carried themselves and the equipment over a 5-foot (1.5 m) wall. The guns and limbers were then dismantled and carried to the top of a ramp on the “home side” of a 28-foot (8.5 m) “chasm”. The crew set up a wire and traveller so all 18 members of the crew and their equipment could cross the chasm. The team and equipment then passed through a hole in the “enemy wall” at the end of the arena. Each crew then fired three rounds to end the “Run Out”. The average time for the “Run Out” was 85 seconds.
The second part of the competition (the “Run Back”) involved the crews taking all their equipment back over the 5-foot (1.5 m) enemy wall and then back across the chasm. Once all the crew and equipment were back on the home side of the chasm, the wire and traveller were dismantled and three more rounds were fired in a rear guard action. The average time for the “Run Back” was 60 seconds.
In the final stage, the “Run Home”, men, guns and limbers passed back through the hole in the home wall and then the teams “hook up and pull for home”. The clock was stopped as the teams crossed back over the start line. The average time for the “Run Home” was 21 seconds.
Here is a recent video of this competition from 2013
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Gun runs are a very common form of PT in most Arty regiments. They generally involve pulling an actual artillery piece for some outrageous distance.
Watching this artillery parkour has been the highlight of my day! It really shows how serious firepower can be moved into some quite unusual places very quickly.