GUN EXPERIMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 76, 31 March 1941, Page 8

GUN EXPERIMENTS.

PNEUMATIC TYRES FITTED. VERY SUCCESSFUL RESULTS. (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Not only has the Public Works Department manufactured its first tank in the Dominion. ,but. at the direction of the Minister, it has undertaken the work of converting certain types of artillery to pneumatic tyres. That work has now been completed with eminently successful results, the speed of gains for transport to places where they might be required having been pushed from about five miles to 40 miles or more an hour. The tyres used are of ordinary commercial sizes and there are eight to a gun, so that five tyres would have to be punctured before the gun would be crippled for transport purposes. The wheels are so designed that they can bo pivoted to enable the carriage to become a turntable for the gun, which can be revolved on its pneumatic tyres to fire in any direction.

Reports are that the conversion has proved highly satisfactory, enabling guns to be rushed to certain points in a very short space of time. As with the tanks, the gun experiments were conducted at Temuka under the supervision of the District Public Works Engineer, Mr. T. G. Beck. Other guns are now being converted at Wellington. 11l discussing the work on the guns. Mr. Semple said this morning that the conversion of 60-pounders had arisen from a visit he had paid to Hamilton, where he had seen guns being manoeuvred on old-fashioned wheels. Ho and Mr.. Beck consulted and came to the conclusion that the guns could be converted to pneumatic tyres. He secured permission to send a gun to Temuka, where it was converted, and later was successfully tried out in the North Island,