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The 5.5 inch field gun, equivalent to foreign 140 mm guns, was introduced in 1939 to the British army's arsenal. Relatively modern, its capacities were roughly equivalent to that of a 155 mm gun. Despite a decreased rate of fire compared to the 25 pdr. gun, it has greater range and fires shells that were more effective against buildings and light troops. It too can fire over obstacles to hit unidentified targets. Heavy and cumbersome, it is towed and therefore will be slow to deploy.

In-game, these guns should be used to crack major enemy positions, as shells from these can make Swiss cheese of all but the toughest enemy tanks. The only significant weaknesses of these units are close range assault and air attack. As long as the player accommodates for these deficiencies, though, the howitzer 140mm can and will succeed. Bunkers and large enemy formations should be the target of these guns.

The British and Free French used these big guns during the war's major battles, including El Alamein and the Normandy campaign.

History[]

In January 1939 a specification was issued for a gun to replace the 6 inch 26 cwt howitzers in use with most medium batteries. The first units were equipped in UK in the summer of 1941 and in North Africa a year later, 20 guns equipped British and Free French batteries at El Alamein. Subsequently it also equipped Canadian, Australian, South African, Polish and Indian regiments, and after the war, it was also used by New Zealand. In the Second World War the normal organisation was a regiment of 16 guns organised into two batteries. All 5.5 guns were manufactured in the UK.

The 5.5 was retained in service after the war. It was used by the Royal Artillery on operations in Korea, South Arabia and Borneo. It was (probably) used by the Indian Army in wars against Pakistan. The South African Defence Force used it extensively in the early stages of the South African Border War, including Operation Savannah, calling it the G2.

Strategies and Tactics[]

  • Defend them with armored recon/light tanks and anti tank guns.
  • Heavily defend these with heavy hitting anti air units. If using a less powerful anti-air unit (e.g. Bofors) deploy them in groups since these units are prime targets for planes and bombers,
  • Spread these units out, since if ambushed, all of the units could be destroyed at once.
  • If used in large enough numbers, these guns can destroy tank assaults before they get in range of your anti-tank guns

Pros & Cons[]

+Affordable.

+/- Being a french made game, it's understandable they wouldn't give the UK a compenent unit ground units.

-The gun requires research and replaces the 25-Pdr.

  • It's all they got. none of the heavier guns are noted in the game, but the heavier guns in the UK tended to have shorter range, be of ww1 designs and have the "BL" designation over the "QF".
  • This gun had a range of about 18km, more than 3km the effective range of Mörser

Weapons[]

Weapon Infantryyesicon Engineernoicon Buildingsyesicon Armor1yesicon Armor2yesicon Armor3yesicon Armor4yesicon Armor5yesicon Aircraftnoicon Rangeicon
Cannon2icon
Med cal. HE shell
23 23 23 5 2 1 1 0 1.6 km

Gallery[]

See also[]

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