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Upstarts
charge, the faster and farther the shell goes. So there are two different ways to
control the range (distance) the shell will travel: the angle of elevation of the howitzer
tube, and the charge used.
After the round is fired, the cannoneer tosses any leftover bags onto a pile to be
destroyed later by burning. The stuff is really quite safe to handle at normal temperatures.
Even when ignited, it does not explode unless it is confined, but burns with an intense
flame. It is often used to heat water for swabbing the inside of the tube of a howitzer at
the end of a day's firing.
I was the commander of B Battery at the time of the Service Practice in question.
I was also assigned as safety officer. A commanding officer is held responsible for
everything his unit does, so I was doubly responsible. And I was doubly careful to check
everything.
And since I was being extra careful, I was astounded to get a phone call saying an
artillery round had exploded within fifty yards of a farmhouse nearly a mile beyond the
far edge of the impact area, and that the farmer's wife had gathered up her family and
taken to the tall timber.
"That's terrible," I said, "but it couldn't have been us. I've checked everything. Try
somebody else. The 915th wasn't the only battalion firing on the range."
When an officer went out to investigate, he asked the farmer if any artillery had
landed on his farm.
"Yeah. One bullet." A pause, then, "We just moved in, and now my wife wants to
move out again. "
He took the investigating officer to the crater the shell had made in the farmyard,
and the officer found the nose cone of the projectile, which bore the lot number of the
ammunition. My battery was the only one using ammunition from that lot. Furthermore,
although (so far as I knew) we had not fired that distance, we had been firing in that
direction at about the right time.
The evidence became more and more conclusive. We had been firing Charge 4 all
day, but somehow one round had been fired with Charge 7.
But who fired it? The army likes to assign responsibility, and it should have been
a simple matter to find out. But by the time I realized the problem and went to check the
little piles of powder bags at each howitzer position to see who was short three bags, the
fires were already burning merrily and the swabbing water was boiling.
A howitzer fired at a higher charge makes more noise and jumps farther when it
recoils, so someone (me, for instance) should have noticed. However, as nearly as could
be determined, it happened in a battery volley, when all four howitzers had fired at once,
and in the general noise and confusion no one did notice - unless it was the gun crew, and
they weren't talking.
We never found the culprit. In the absence of any individual to punish, the entire
battery was restricted for two weeks, and the battery exec and I were fined $100 apiece
and given an official written reprimand.
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