M2 105mm Howitzer - Lafayette, IN
Posted by: KC9PDY
N 40° 28.346 W 086° 53.198
16T E 509610 N 4480200
This M2A1 Howitzer is on guard at the Indiana Old Soldiers Home, in Lafayette, Indiana, looking out over the Wabash River Valley.
Waymark Code: WMRB3N
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 06/02/2016
Views: 4
This is M2A1 105mm Howitzer, made at the Rock Island Arsenal in 1945. It is mounted on a M2A2 Standard Carriage, also dating from 1945.
It looks out over the Wabash River valley, from a bluff, by the winding main entrance drive to the Indiana Old Soldiers Home, from Indiana State Road 43.
The M2 was a 105mm howitzer fielded by the US Army in World War II and the Korean War. It was a towed gun with a maximum range of 7 miles (11 km), weighing 2.5 tons with the shield. It was rugged and simple, but accurate and powerful, firing high explosive (HE), white phosphorus, and smoke shells. Fitted with rubber-tired wheels, it was designed to be towed by trucks only. By 1943, this American gun had become the most common howitzer used by the Allied forces both in the European and the Pacific theaters. (
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The 105 mm M2A1 (M101A1) howitzer was a howitzer developed and used by the United States. Entering production in 1941, it quickly gained a reputation for accuracy and a powerful punch. All of these qualities of the weapon, along with its widespread production, led to its adoption by many countries after the war. Its ammunition type also became the standard for many foreign countries' later models.
By the end of the Second World War, 8,536 105mm towed howitzers had been built and post-war production continued at Rock Island Arsenal until 1953, by which time 10,202 had been built. (
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