Members of the American Ordnance Association and Honored Guests: It is my function in this program to discuss the engineering development of the 280-mm. weapon, better known as the atomic gun, in the limited time of a few minutes.
Since the task of talking about this weapon in a few minutes is just impossible, all I can do is to highlight its history, some salient features and add a few comments regarding the future.
The first record of which I am aware regarding this weapon is in the report of the Caliber Board of 1919. In this report, the characteristics of a 240-ram. gun, including 360 ยฐ traverse, muzzle velocity and range, were recommended. As in many other projects, interest in this weapon lay dormant until revived during World War II.
In the early part of World War II, Drs. Henry B. Allen and Rupen Eksergian of The Franklin Institute cooperated with General Gideon Barnes in organizing an Ordnance Design Office at The Franklin Institute to exploit the engineering personnel available in the Philadelphia area. This group became a Sub-Office of the Office, Chief of Ordnance in Washington.
In the Fall of 1944, this Sub-Office was instructed to develop a 240ram. gun with 360 ยฐ traverse, and the other characteristics stipulated were practically the same as recommended in the Caliber Board Report of 1919.
During World War I, a large caliber gun, using a double recoil carriage, was designed, constructed and successfully tested. This gun, largely the work of Dr. Ekserglan who was, at that time, an officer in the Ordnance Department, had become dormant after the close of World War I. This previous design indicated however, that with the use of a double recoil system, the horizontal ground force, during firing, could be made relatively small.
Consequently, it was immediately decided to incorporate a double recoil system into the 240-ram. gun in order to gain the desired mobility required in modern fluid warfare.