Artillery Ammunition Comparison (by Caliber)

the 200some-odd-mm Paris had its shells numbered in firing order, as each shell had to be a bit larger in diameter than the one preceding it. Each shot took some of the barrel with it, so the next shell had to make up for the new diameter to keep the pressures it was designed for. Someone has probably explained it better before me, but I'm not going thru all the comments..... (fixed) They say memory is the second thing to go...... I can't remember what the first was.

I worked with the US artillery pieces M110 (203mm self propelled ), M109 (155mm self propelled ), M114 (155mm toed ), and the M102 (105mm toed). Although a fun video, I was about to pull the rest of my hair out. Millimeters and caliber are not the same. They are NOT 155mm caliber shells. They are 155mm shells. Thanks for listening

23mm 30mm 100mm 125mm 152mm where are all of these?

The 16" Naval Cannon is an experience to hear/feel fired. It shakes everything for miles around. That is around and even behind the cannon. The effect of shell impact is devastating.

"Adolf" gun in Harstad, Norway is 40.6 cm (16" inches). Every shell was numbered, and had increasingly larger wear rings on the outside, to compensate for loss of material from the barrel. The lock (breech?) in the back was possible to move using only 1 hand, although it weighed 2.5 tons. A shell weighing 600 kg could fly for 2 minutes and reach a target 56 km away. Max height was 21.8 km. The guns was going on 2 battleships, "Friedrich der Grosse" and "GrossDeutshland" but they were halted and guns was then installed in Harstad. The guns in Harstad is the only ones left of this type, and 1 gun is maintained for display. The aiming equipment with optics and mechanical "computer" was dismantled, i dont know where that went, but it is said to have been very advanced and accurate. It is not certain how many russians died building the site, and the buildings and roads, but probably thousands. In total, close to 14000 russians died in Norway during ww2, they suffered terribly.

"Different artilleries requires different caliber...like the Gustav gun requires a huge caliber amunition, while the M61 Vulcan requires a smaller Juan." Thanks for the breakdown lol, you really know your stuff. Especially grammar and English.

When talking about ammo, rounds below 20mm have a calibre ie 20mm, 0.50, 9mm etc. Above 20mm, in this videos case from 40mm upwards the gun has the calibre measurement which is a function of the shell diameter. EG the 40mm round is used by the Bofors L/60, this means the guns calibre is 60 ( the barrels length is 60 x the round diameter), so the barrel is 2.4m long

The calibers up to 5" (127mm) were shown with their propellant cases while 5" and above only showed the projectile.

This video skipped over 25mm, 37mm, 152mm, and about a dozen other high-caliber rounds. In addition, it completely missed the primary users of some of the most common rounds, such as the 20mm being used in countless aircraft, and the 105mm was used on dozens of armored vehicles (not just howitzers).

Missed a bunch of calibers. But still was interesting. The one i wouldnt had left out though was the 18in Naval cannon. It played a huge role in ww2, Korea, and Vietnam. They used the high explosive ordinance to clear helicopter landing spaces in the jungle. Would totally flatten 150m diameter area and came with the added benefit of exfoliating 200m more creating a clear field of fire for the landing troops. Not to mention the 20m deep hole. Lol

Humping 155mm HE shells during fire missions is already tiring, I can't imagine loading the even bigger ones lol

You could have mentioned that rocket artillery and aerial bombs have largely supplanted large barreled artillery. Rockets can launch large warheads from relatively small vehicles and ships because they don't have the heavy weight and recoil of the large cannons that would be necessary to fire a shell of the same diameter. This principle applies to man-portable weapons as well. A foot soldier can fire a much larger warhead from a rocket launcher than from a hand-held gun.

An interesting addition to the usage of the (in-) famous 8-8: It was also the standard caliber for the deck gun of the german submarine Force in WWII.

You won't see anything over 155mm these days, modern 155mm shells have the range and yield of older 203 and 240mm shells. 5 inch or 130mm on Russian ships is the largest naval gun you will see as gun cruisers and battleships are no longer in service. Also missed 122mm which was a very common Russian heavy tank gun and also for their medium sized artillery and 152mm which is the standard size for Russian and Chinese heavy artillery dating back decades. 152mm was also extensively used on cruisers all over the world until the missile cruiser replaced the gun cruiser. 305mm is the 12 inch naval gun, it was used EXTENSIVELY by early dreadnought battleships of the early 20th century.

In old-school naval guns 8 inch and up were considered “major caliber”. Below 8 inch were considered “minor caliber,” and shore bombardment from minor caliber was (and is) usually considered “harassment fire”.

The 105mm Howitzer Gun (And It's Shell) Was Also Used On "Improved" Versions Of American Converted-From-Landing Craft Riverine Monitors During The Vietnam War (Along With Those Monitors That Used A Modified 40mm Bofors AA Gun In A Specially-Designed Turret.) The Turret Used For The 105mm Gun On These Monitors Were Adapted From USMC Personnel Landing Craft That Needed It Own Artillery Support As It Disgorged Troops.

what about the 125mm and the 152mm?

2:14 "...more static anti-aircraft gun for home defense." When you take "GET OFF MY LAWN" to the max.

No 175mm long range US Gun shell noted? The old cannon cockers must have worn out all the 175 Tubes years ago.

The list is weird. 20 mm got like six different rounds in said caliber, Russian 23mm is missing, 25mm is missing (You know, Bradley and shiet?), 30mm is missing, 35mm is missing (You know, the go-to autocannon?) soviet 57 is missing, 60mm mortar is missing, 76mm is missing, 73mm soviet is missing (BMP-1/SPG-9), 81(NATO)/82(Soviet) mortar is missing, 100mm (Soviet) is missing, 106 recoilless (M40) is missing, 115mm (Soviet) is missing, 122mm is missing, 125mm is missing. Half of them are cornerstones. Bulk of them are iconic. And the problem is that ALL of shells/shots I mentioned are actively used across the globe. Also, dipping down to 19th century cannons, but not mentioning even in passing the 37mm which was a go to anti-tank shot at times before tanks stopped being high mobility MG nests, which were produced in such large numbers brass across the world tried to squeeze some of these to simply deal with the surplus?