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95-589: Use continued post-war, with the last known major operational use being during the Aden Emergency in 1964, where Hawker Hunters flew 642 sorties and fired 2,508 RP-3s in support of Radforce. Use continued until the withdrawal from Aden Protectorate in November 1967, at which point the RP-3 was withdrawn from service in favour of the newer SNEB . Concerned about the possibility of shipboard radar setting off

190-414: A Cromwell cruiser tank, however little is known about it for certain. Within a week all the tanks of Number 2 Squadron had been fitted with launch rails, some tanks had two launching rails, others had four. The rails were at fixed elevations and the rockets had fixed ranges either 400 or 800 yards (370 or 730 m). The rockets were highly inaccurate when fired from a tank as they were being fired from

285-483: A Saab B 18B was also modified. The first firing trials took place at F 14 Ringenäs (belonging to Halland wing) during July 1946. Twenty six '60 lb Practice' rockets were fired from the B 18B and three from the B 17A. Six '25 lb AP' and '60 lb SAP' rockets each were also fired from the B 17A. The trials were successful and the RP-3 entered service with the Swedish Air Force. In Swedish service

380-417: A 25-pound (11 kg) concrete practice head and a 27.2 kg (60.0 lb) concrete practice head. Once the rocket had been mounted on the rails, an electrical lead (or "pigtail") connected the rocket to the firing controls. Four large tailfins 4 by 5 in (100 by 130 mm) induced enough spin to stabilize the rocket, but as it was unguided, aiming was a matter of judgment and experience. Approach to

475-690: A U-boat in the Mediterranean, the first destroyed solely by rocket. These rockets were, among other factors, credited with making it too dangerous for the Germans to continue operating their Flak U-Boats , which were fitted with heavy anti-aircraft weaponry and acted as escorts for U-boats crossing the Bay of Biscay. From then until the end of the Second World War in Europe, Coastal Command and

570-558: A campaign against British forces in Aden, relying largely on grenade attacks. One such attack was carried out against RAF Khormaksar during a children's party , killing a girl and wounding four children. The guerrilla attacks largely focused on killing off-duty British officers and policemen. Much of the violence was carried out in Crater , the old Arab quarter of Aden. British forces attempted to intercept weapons being smuggled into Crater by

665-782: A mothballed World War I Government-owned cordite factory. 35% of British cordite produced between 1942 and 1945 came from Ardeer and these agency factories. ICI ran a similar works at Deer Park (which was also confusingly known as Ardeer after the adjacent suburb) near Melbourne in Australia and in South Africa. Additional sources of propellant were also sought from the British Commonwealth in both World War I and World War II. Canada , South Africa, and Australia had ICI-owned factories that, in particular, supplied large quantities of cordite. Canadian Explosives Limited

760-456: A new ballistite-like propellant in 1889. It consists of (by weight) 58% nitroglycerin , 37% guncotton (nitrocellulose) and 5% petroleum jelly . Using acetone as a solvent , it was extruded as spaghetti -like rods initially called "cord powder" or "the Committee's modification of Ballistite", but this was swiftly abbreviated to "Cordite". Cordite began as a double-base propellant. In

855-696: A panel to study "Methods of Attacking Armoured Vehicles". The types of weapons investigated included the 40 mm Vickers S gun and related weapons manufactured by the Coventry Ordnance Works , as well as the Bofors 40 mm and the US 37 mm T9 cannon fitted to the Bell P-39 Airacobra ; it was already recognised that these weapons were only capable of dealing with light tanks and motor transport. Using larger weapons on fighter-bombers

950-551: A result, Crater was occupied by rebel forces. Concerns were heightened regarding the ability to give sufficient security to British families in the midst of the increased violence, resulting in evacuation plans for families being sped up considerably. Following the mutiny, all British forces were withdrawn from Crater , while Royal Marines of 45 Commando took up sniping positions on the high ground and killed 10 armed Arab fighters. However, Crater remained occupied by an estimated 400 Arab fighters. NLF and FLOSY fighters then took to

1045-491: A rocket attack was U-752 (commanded by Kapitän-Leutnant Schroeter), on 23 May 1943, by a Swordfish of 819 Naval Air Squadron (819 NAS). The rockets used on this occasion had solid, cast-iron heads and were known as "rocket spears". One of these punched right through the submarine's pressure hull and rendered it incapable of diving; the U–boat was scuttled by its crew. On 28 May 1943, an RAF Hudson of 608 Squadron destroyed

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1140-523: A smokeless propellant that had some success. It was made out of collodion ( nitrocellulose dissolved in ethanol and ether ), resulting in a plastic colloidal substance which was rolled into very thin sheets, then dried and cut up into small flakes. It was immediately adopted by the French military for their Mle 1886 infantry rifle and called Poudre B (for poudre blanche , or white powder ) to distinguish it from black powder (gunpowder). The rifle and

1235-507: A stationary point and had little slipstream over the fins. Despite this, the RP-3 was valued by tank crews for the destructive effect of its 60-pound warhead. In combat, they were also used for short-range, saturation bombardment of an area and were effective as an immediate counter to German ambushes. The RP-3 rocket saw use with the Swedish Air Force from 1946 to 1957. Sweden had been experimenting with caseless ammunition as

1330-455: A substitute for air-to-ground rockets during WWII as it was thought that caseless ammunition would be cheaper to produce. This however proved false and by the end of the war the Swedish air force had moved to rocket development instead. The Swedish weapons company Bofors had been developing rockets on their own initiative since 1943 but, due to lack of funding, did not have a design by the time

1425-504: A time. In 1945, some British M4 Sherman tanks were fitted with two or four rails – one or two either side of the turret – to carry 60-pound headed rockets. These were used at the Rhine Crossing by tanks of the 1st Coldstream Guards . The tanks were called "Sherman Tulips". The tanks fitted included both conventional Shermans and the more heavily armed Sherman Fireflies . The modifications were first tried out by two officers of

1520-413: Is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and consequently low brisance . These produce a subsonic deflagration wave rather than the supersonic detonation wave produced by brisants, or high explosives . The hot gases produced by burning gunpowder or cordite generate sufficient pressure to propel a bullet or shell to its target, but not so quickly as to routinely destroy

1615-538: Is classified as an explosive , it is not employed as a high explosive. It is designed to deflagrate , or burn, to produce high pressure gases. Alfred Nobel sued Abel and Dewar over an alleged patent infringement. His patent specified that the nitrocellulose should be "of the well-known soluble kind". After losing the case, it went to the Court of Appeal . This dispute eventually reached the House of Lords , in 1895, but it

1710-510: Is not clear to what extent Nasser directly incited the revolt in Aden, as opposed to the Yemeni guerrilla groups drawing inspiration from Nasser's pan-Arabist ideas but acting independently themselves. There were a number of different nationalist groups fighting the British. Often, they fought each other. The most well known groups are: 1. The South Arabian League (S.A.L.) 2. The Front for

1805-507: The 105 mm L118 Light Gun ) is now manufactured in Germany. Gunpowder , an explosive mixture of sulfur , charcoal and potassium nitrate (also known as saltpeter ), was the original propellant employed in firearms and fireworks . It was used from about the 10th or 11th century onward, but it had disadvantages, including the large amount of smoke it produced. With the 19th-century development of various "nitro explosives", based on

1900-794: The 14 October Revolution ( Arabic : ثورة 14 أكتوبر , romanized :  Thawrat 14 ʾUktūbar , lit.   '14th October Revolution') or as the Radfan Uprising , was an armed rebellion by the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY) against the Federation of South Arabia , a British Protectorate of the United Kingdom , which led to

1995-622: The Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) had to develop tactics for all the individual aircraft types which were to be armed with the RPs. Aiming was through a standard GM.II reflector gunsight . A later modification enabled the reflector to be tilted with the aid of a graduated scale, depressing the line of sight, the GM.IIL. For rockets only the Mk IIIA was the most successful – it

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2090-479: The Explosive Company of Stowmarket introduced EC Powder , which contained nitro-cotton and nitrates of potassium and barium in a grain gelatinised by ether alcohol. It had coarser grains than other nitrocellulose powders. It proved unsuitable for rifles, but it remained in long use for shotguns and was later used for grenades and fragmentation bombs. In 1884, the French chemist Paul Vieille produced

2185-621: The Federation of South Arabia ceased to exist when the People's Republic of Southern Yemen was proclaimed. In 1967 Israel defeated Egypt in the Six-Day War thus obliging Egypt to evacuate its troops from Yemen. FLOSY, now without any military support from its Egyptian ally, continued fighting the NLF. However FLOSY's fate was sealed when the NLF managed to persuade the Yemen's Federal army to join

2280-589: The Malayan Emergency , Korean War and the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation . The last known use in combat is by Hawker Hunters in Aden from 1964 to as late as 1967 in support of Radforce. When these aircraft moved to Bahrain in November 1967, the remaining RP-3s were withdrawn from service and replaced by the newer SNEB . Soon after some encouraging results from the initial deployment, trials of

2375-743: The Martin-Baker Company . Cordite was also used in the detonation system of the Little Boy atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima in August 1945. The term "cordite" generally disappeared from official publications between the wars. During World War II, double-base propellants were very widely used, and there was some use of triple-base propellants by artillery. Triple-base propellants were used in post-war ammunition designs and remain in production for UK weapons; most double-base propellants left service as World War II stocks were expended after

2470-613: The Ministry of Supply (MoS). The company of ICI Nobel , at Ardeer, was asked in 1939 to construct and operate six factories in southern Scotland. Four of these six were involved in cordite or firearm-propellant manufacture. The works at MoS Drungans ( Dumfries ) produced guncotton that was converted to cordite at MoS Dalbeattie (triple-base cordite) and at MoS Powfoot (monobase granulated guncotton for small-arms). A smaller site at Girvan, South Ayrshire, now occupied by Grant's distillery, produced cordite and TNT . The ICI Ardeer site also had

2565-587: The Quebec Arsenal . By November 1915 production had been expanded to 350,000 lb (159,000 kg) of cordite per month (approximately 1,900 tonnes per year). The Canadian Explosives Limited cordite factory at Nobel, Ontario , was designed to produce 1,500,000 lb (681 tonne) of cordite per month (approximately 8,170 tonnes per year). HM Factory, Gretna , and the Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath , both closed after

2660-481: The Royal Aircraft Establishment , Farnborough. Hawker Hurricanes were fitted with rockets and rails and flown during June and July 1942. Further tests were undertaken from 28 September to 30 November to develop rocket-firing tactics. Other aircraft used were a Lockheed Hudson , a Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bomber, a Douglas Boston medium bomber and a Sea Hurricane. At the same time

2755-516: The Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath . Acetone for the cordite industry during late World War I was eventually produced through the efforts of Dr. Chaim Weizmann , considered to be the father of industrial fermentation . While a lecturer at Manchester University Weizmann discovered how to use bacterial fermentation to produce large quantities of many desired substances. He used the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum (the so-called Weizmann organism) to produce acetone. Weizmann transferred

2850-840: The Scotland - England border at Gretna , and the Royal Navy Cordite Factory, Holton Heath . A factory was also established by the Indian Government at Nilgris. Both the Gretna and the Holton Heath cordite factories closed at the end of World War I. By the start of World War II, Holton Heath had reopened, and an additional factory for the Royal Navy, The Royal Navy Propellant Factory, Caerwent , opened at Caerwent in Wales . A very large Royal Ordnance Factory , ROF Bishopton,

2945-575: The barrel of the gun . Cordite was used initially in the .303 British , Mark I and II, standard rifle cartridge between 1891 and 1915. Shortages of cordite in World War I led to the creation of the "Devil's Porridge" munitions factory ( HM Factory, Gretna ) on the English–Scottish border, which produced around 800 tonnes of cordite per week. The UK also imported some United States–developed smokeless powders for use in rifle cartridges. Cordite

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3040-485: The "Explosives Committee", chaired by Sir Frederick Abel , monitored foreign developments in explosives and obtained samples of Poudre B and Ballistite; neither of these smokeless powders was recommended for adoption by the Explosives Committee. Abel, Sir James Dewar and W Kellner, who was also on the committee, developed and jointly patented (Nos 5,614 and 11,664 in the names of Abel and Dewar) in 1889

3135-445: The 1930s, triple-base was developed by including a substantial proportion of nitroguanidine . Triple-base propellant reduced the disadvantages of double-base propellant – its relatively high temperature and significant flash. Imperial Chemical Industries 's (ICI) World War II double-base AN formulation also had a much lower temperature, but it lacked the flash reduction properties of N and NQ triple-base propellants. Whilst cordite

3230-542: The 1960s, so there was a discontinuity in the propellant geometry numbering system. An important development during World War II was the addition of another explosive, nitroguanidine , to the mixture to form triple-base propellant or Cordite N and NQ . The formulations were slightly different for artillery and naval use. This solved two problems associated with the large naval guns fitted to British Navy's capital ships : gun flash and muzzle erosion. Nitroguanidine produces large amounts of nitrogen when heated, which had

3325-482: The 1st Armoured Battalion, Coldstream Guards, 5th Guards Armoured Brigade , who obtained rockets and launching rails from an RAF base and carried out the first test firings on 17 March 1945. They were inspired after hearing the idea had been earlier tried, but abandoned, by a Canadian reconnaissance unit, the 18th Armoured Car Regiment (12th Manitoba Dragoons) , who had fitted RP-3 rails to a Staghound Armoured Car in November 1944. There are photos of four such rockets on

3420-634: The 2-inch model had been slowed in favour of the 3-inch models which offered performance similar to the QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun . Tests in Bermuda in 1939 suggested that the accuracy was not high enough to be used in a fashion similar to a gun, and development was slowed. After the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 it was clear an attack on the UK was coming, and production was quickly ramped up. Still considering

3515-550: The 60-pound warhead could be devastating. The rocket installations were light enough to be carried by single-seat fighters, giving them the punch of a cruiser . Against slow-moving large targets like shipping and U-boats , the rocket was a formidable weapon. The weight and drag of the all-steel rails initially fitted to British aircraft blunted performance. Some aircraft such as the Fairey Swordfish biplane used against submarines had steel "anti-blast" panels fitted under

3610-409: The British began development of new anti-aircraft weapons, including cordite -powered surface-to-air rockets. Several models of these Unrotated Projectile (UPs) were introduced, starting with a 7 inches (180 mm) diameter model that saw use both in ground batteries and on larger ships. In 1937, new models at 2 inches (51 mm) and 3 inches (76 mm) diameters were introduced. By 1938, work on

3705-587: The British had helped Israel in the war, and this led to a mutiny by hundreds of soldiers in the South Arabian Federation Army on June 20, which also spread to the Aden Armed Police . The mutineers killed 22 British soldiers and shot down a helicopter (The pilot had to abandon take off from a ledge near Crater, Aden after being hit in the knee by a bullet. The Sioux crashed and burnt out but all three occupants escaped), and as

3800-534: The Fleet Air Arm used the rockets as one of their primary weapons (alongside torpedoes , which, to a certain extent they replaced) against shipping and surfaced U-boats. As part of the initial bombardment of the landing areas for the Normandy landings June 1944, Landing Craft Tank (Rocket) each armed with about 1000 RP-3 rockets were used. The LCT(R) fired the rockets in large salvoes of around 40 RP-3 at

3895-883: The Liberation of South Yemen (F.L.O.S.Y.) 3. The Organization for the Liberation of the Occupied South (O.L.O.S.) 4. The People's Liberation Party (P.L.P.) 5. The National Liberation Front (N.L.F.) Among the main players, the S.A.L. was backed by Saudi Arabia , the F.L.O.S.Y. by Egypt and the Aden Trade Unions . All the major groups were based in Yemen, and they regularly combined or broke up with other groups. For instance, S.A.L joined with P.S.P. to become O.L.O.S. in 1965, and then broke away in 1966. The N.L.F. joined with O.L.O.S. in January 1966 to form F.L.O.S.Y. then broke away in December 1966. Such movement

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3990-595: The NLF and FLOSY on the Dhala road, but their efforts met with little success. Despite taking a toll on British forces, the death toll among rebels was far higher, largely due to inter-factional fighting among different rebel groups. In 1964 the British 24th Infantry Brigade arrived to conduct land operations. It remained in Aden and the Aden Protectorate until November 1967. By 1965, the RAF station RAF Khormaksar

4085-481: The RP-3 and its components were given Swedish Air Force designations. The RP-3 system as a whole was designated " 8 cm raket m/46 ". The RP-3 rocket engines that Sweden acquired were most likely the Mk.4/TH type based on available photos and descriptions. These were designated 8 cm raketmotor m/46 (8 cm rakmo m/46). The square fins were designated 8 cm fena m/46 . The Swedish Air Force adopted four warheads for

4180-476: The RP-3 rocket: the 25 lb AP No.1, 25 lb AP No.2, 60 lb SAP No.2 and 60 lb Practice. In combination with the engine and square fins these warheads would produce the following rockets: In 1952 Sweden had developed a whole line of indigenous rockets and started phasing out the RP-3. All models but the 8 cm prak m/46B disappeared before 1953. The remaining 8 cm prak m/46B rockets were modified with new sloped fins around 1953. Around 30% of

4275-683: The SNEB's electrical ignition, the Royal Navy replaced their RP-3s with a new design, sometimes known as the 2-inch RP . The first use of rockets fired from aircraft was during the First World War . The "unrotated projectiles" (UPs) were Le Prieur rockets mounted on the interplane struts of Nieuport fighters. These were used to attack observation balloons and were reasonably successful. Sopwith Baby , Sopwith Pup and Home Defence B.E.2 fighters also carried rockets. Starting in 1935,

4370-767: The Suez Canal in 1956 had been forced to withdraw following intervention from both the United States and the Soviet Union. Nasser enjoyed only limited success in spreading his pan-Arabist doctrines through the Arab world , with his 1958 attempt to unify Egypt and Syria as the United Arab Republic collapsing in failure three years later. A perceived anti-colonial uprising in Aden in 1963 provided another potential opportunity for his doctrines, though it

4465-502: The Swedish air force gained interest. As it would take years to develop indigenous rockets for the Swedish air force it was decided to buy rockets from abroad to gain operational experience which could be used in indigenous development. The RP-3 was chosen, and Sweden ordered a batch in 1946 for trials on the Saab B 17A dive bomber as it was readily available. In May a B 17A was fitted with rocket mounts for ground trials, and shortly after

4560-436: The accuracy to be low, they were to be fired in salvos from the " Z-Batteries ". Consisting largely of light metal tubes on a rotating platform, 7,000 launchers were available by August 1940, although production of the rockets themselves lagged and only 10 rockets each were assigned to 840 launchers. Several updated models of the launchers were introduced and the system claimed a small number of aircraft. When German forces under

4655-459: The addition of stabilizers, which was based on German RP C/12 propellant featuring significant amounts of centralite (Called "carbamite" in British parlance) and led to the type commonly used in World War II as the main naval propellant. In Great Britain this was known as Cordite SC (= Solventless Cordite), and it required production facilities separate from classical cordite. Cordite SC

4750-573: The area. Following the independence of India in 1947, Aden became less important to the United Kingdom. The Emergency was precipitated in large part by a wave of Arab nationalism spreading to the Arabian Peninsula and stemming largely from the socialist and pan-Arabist doctrines of Egyptian leader Gamel Abdel Nasser . The British , French and Israeli forces that had invaded Egypt following Nasser's nationalisation of

4845-408: The battle, Army and 2nd TAF Operational Research Sections studying the battleground came to the conclusion that far fewer vehicles, 17 in total, had been destroyed by rocket strike alone. What was clear was that in the heat of battle it was far harder for pilots to launch the weapons while meeting the conditions needed for accuracy. Smoke, dust and debris in the target areas made accurate assessment of

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4940-429: The benefit of reducing the muzzle flash, and its lower burning temperature greatly reduced the erosion of the gun barrel. N and NQ were also issued in limited amounts to ammunitions used by the British 25-pdr and 5.5-inch land-based artillery pieces. After World War II production of double-base propellants generally ended. Triple-base propellants, N and NQ, were the only ones used in new ammunition designs, such as

5035-493: The cartridge developed to use this powder were known generically as the 8mm Lebel , after the officer who developed its 8 mm full metal jacket bullet . The following year, 1887, Alfred Nobel invented and patented a smokeless propellant he called Ballistite . It was composed of 10% camphor , 45% nitroglycerine and 45% collodion (nitrocellulose). Over time the camphor tended to evaporate, leaving an unstable explosive. A United Kingdom government committee, known as

5130-890: The cartridges for 105 mm Field and for 155 mm FH70 . In Great Britain, cordite was developed for military use at the Royal Arsenal by Abel, Dewar and Kellner, Woolwich , and produced at the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills from 1889 onwards. At the start of World War I, cordite was in production at Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills and by seven other suppliers (British Explosives Syndicate Ltd, Chilworth Gunpowder Company Ltd, Cotton Powder Company Ltd, Messrs Curtis's and Harvey Ltd, National Explosives Company Ltd, New Explosives Company Ltd and Nobels Explosive Company Ltd). Existing factories were expanded and new ones built, notably by Nobel's at Ardeer, HM Factory, Gretna , which straddled

5225-597: The command of Erwin Rommel intervened in the Western Desert campaign from early 1941, it became clear that the Desert Air Force lacked weapons capable of damaging or destroying the large numbers of armoured fighting vehicles , particularly the heavier Panzer III and Panzer IV medium tanks used by the Germans. In April 1941 Henry Tizard , the chief scientist of the British government, called together

5320-442: The damage caused almost impossible. It was also clear that rocket attacks devastated the morale of enemy troops – many vehicles were found abandoned intact, or with only superficial damage. Interrogation of captured prisoners showed that even the prospect of rocket attack was extremely unnerving for them. Large stocks of RP-3s remained at the end of the war and they were used well into the jet age. They were used operationally during

5415-612: The eight already fitted. RP-3s were widely used during the battle the Falaise pocket in mid-August 1944. During the battle German forces, retreating to avoid being trapped in a pincer movement by Allied ground forces, came under air attack. Amongst the waves of light, medium and fighter bombers attacking the German columns the Typhoons of 2 TAF attacked with their rockets, claiming hundreds of tanks and "mechanised enemy transport". After

5510-429: The end of British rule in the territory which had begun in 1839. Aden was originally of interest to Britain as an anti- piracy station to protect shipping on the routes to British India . With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, it further served as a coaling station. Over the period since the annexation of Aden, the British had signed many protection treaties with the emirs of the inland to secure British rule over

5605-406: The entire district overnight with no casualties. Nevertheless, repeated guerrilla attacks by the NLF soon resumed against British forces, causing the British to leave Aden by the end of November 1967, earlier than had been planned by British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and without an agreement on the succeeding governance, effectively abandoning the South Arabian government. On November 30, 1967

5700-423: The fight against FLOSY. On November 7, 1967 FLOSY tried to attack a federal army base but the army defeated FLOSY with the NLF's help, inflicting heavy losses on FLOSY. After the defeat FLOSY´s fighting force disbanded although some cadres and leaders remained outside the country. Most of the opposing leaders reconciled by 1968, in the aftermath of a final royalist siege of San'a'. British military casualties in

5795-412: The fin surface area was removed. This decreased the chance of the fins breaking off during launch and also increased accuracy. These fins were designated 8 cm fena m/46C and when equipped on the 8 cm prak m/46B the suffix changed to C, then becoming 8 cm pansarraket m/46C (8 cm prak m/46C) . The 8 cm prak m/46C remained in service until 1957. During its service life in the Swedish air force

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5890-455: The ground attack role until replaced by the SNEB podded rocket (RAF) and the 2-inch podded RP (RN). Post war operational use included the Malayan emergency , the Korean War , the Suez crisis , and the Radfan campaign . RP-3 rockets were used by Australian armed forces into the 1970s Aden Emergency Yemeni NLF victory [REDACTED]   United Kingdom 1964 1965 1967 The Aden Emergency , also known as

5985-505: The military. Prior to World War I , most of the cordite used by the British Government was produced in its own factories. Immediately prior to World War I, between 6,000 and 8,000 tons per year of cordite were produced in the United Kingdom by private manufacturers; between 1,000 and 1,500 tons per year were made by Nobel's Explosives , at Ardeer. However, private industry had the capability to produce about 10,000 tons per year, with Ardeer able to produce some 3,000 tons of this total. At

6080-402: The people on board. At one point toward the end of the rebellion in early 1967 the NLF killed at least 35 members of FLOSY in 32 days. The FLOSY guerrillas first asked the British for protection, and then 80 actually flew to the UK using the British passports they had as citizens of a British Colony. The emergency was further exacerbated by the Six-Day War in June 1967. Nasser claimed that

6175-434: The period 1963 to 1967 were 90 to 92 killed and 510 wounded. British civilian deaths were 17. Local government forces lost 17 killed and 58 wounded. Casualties among the rebel forces stood at 382 killed and 1,714 wounded. Cordite Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in Britain since 1889 to replace black powder as a military firearm propellant . Like modern gunpowder, cordite

6270-433: The post-war years. The 3-inch rocket motors (less warhead) were used in the 'bunker buster' " Disney bomb " (official name: 4500 lb Concrete Piercing/Rocket Assisted bomb), 19 of them propelling the 4,500-pound (2.0 t) bomb to 990 mph (440 m/s) at impact with the target. Before the new weapon was released for service extensive tests were carried out by the Instrument, Armament and Defence Flight (IADF) at

6365-413: The proclamation of the People's Republic of South Yemen . Partly inspired by Gamal Abdel Nasser 's pan-Arab nationalism , it began on 14 October 1963 with the throwing of a grenade at a gathering of British officials at Aden Airport . A state of emergency was then declared in the British Crown colony of Aden and its hinterland, the Aden Protectorate . The emergency escalated in 1967 and hastened

6460-494: The rails to protect the wing, which further increased weight and drag. Aluminium Mark III rails, introduced from late 1944, reduced the effect. American experience with their own rockets (the USAAF 's 3.5-Inch Forward Firing Aircraft Rocket (FFAR) and the US Navy 's 5-inch FFAR and HVAR ) showed that the long rails and anti-blast panels were unnecessary; zero-length launchers were introduced in May 1945. British aircraft started being fitted with "zero-point" mounting pylons in

6555-518: The reaction of nitric acid mixtures on materials such as cellulose and glycerin , a search began for a replacement for gunpowder. The first smokeless powder was developed in 1865 by Johann Edward Schultze . At the time of this breakthrough, Schultze was a captain of Prussian artillery. Schultze eventually rose to the rank of colonel. His formulation (dubbed Schultze Powder ) was composed of nitrolignose derived from nitrated wood grains, impregnated with saltpetre or barium nitrate . In 1882,

6650-416: The rights to the manufacture of acetone to the Commercial Solvents Corporation in exchange for royalties. After the Shell Crisis of 1915 during World War I, he was director of the British Admiralty Laboratories from 1916 until 1919. Cordite RDB was later found to become unstable if stored too long. Research on solvent-free Cordite RDB technologically extremely similar to ballistite continued primarily on

6745-403: The riots. As soon as the NLF riots were crushed, pro-FLOSY rioters took to the streets. Fighting between British forces and pro-guerrilla rioters lasted into February. British forces had opened fire 40 times, and during that period there were 60 grenade and shooting attacks against British forces, including the destruction of an Aden Airways Douglas DC-3 , which was bombed in mid-air, killing all

6840-457: The rocket came to serve on several Swedish aircraft. To allow universal usage of the RP-3 the first and second generation of Swedish air-to-ground rockets used the same mounting system as the RP-3. The RP-3 rocket engine was updated a number of times during its lifespan, which gave rise to a number of variants. For example, it was necessary to modify the rocket engine's propellant charge in order to be able to use several types of warheads. Initially

6935-499: The rocket engine was only designed to use warheads up to 25 lb (11 kg), but when warheads up to 60 lb (27 kg) were introduced the propellant charge had to be modified in order to use them. Variants capable of carrying warheads up to 60 lb were then given the supplementary designation TH after the mark number. As well as operational use, a number of aircraft were fitted with RP-3s on an experimental basis. The 3-inch RP continued to be used on RAF and RN aircraft in

7030-470: The same muzzle velocity, due to the inherently less powerful nature of Cordite MD. During World War I, acetone was in short supply in Great Britain, and a new experimental form was developed for use by the Royal Navy . This was Cordite RDB (= R esearch D epartment formula B ); which was 52% collodion , 42% nitroglycerin and 6% petroleum jelly . It was produced at HM Factory, Gretna ; and

7125-544: The start of World War I, private industry in the UK was asked to produce 16,000 tons of cordite, and all the companies started to expand. HM Factory, Gretna , the largest propellant factory in the United Kingdom, which opened in 1916, was by 1917 producing 800 tons (812 tonne ) of Cordite RDB per week (approximately 41,600 tons per year). The Royal Navy had its own factory at Holton Heath . In 1910, Canadian Explosives Limited produced 3,000 lb (1,362 kg) of rifle cordite per month at its Beloeil factory, for

7220-574: The streets and engaged in gun battles, while arson, looting, and murder was also common. British forces blocked off the two main entrances to Crater. They came under sniper fire from an Ottoman fort on Sira island, but the snipers were silenced by a shell from an armoured car. Order was restored in July 1967, when the 1st Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders entered Crater under the command of Lt. Col. Colin Campbell Mitchell and managed to occupy

7315-501: The target needed to be precise, with no sideslip or yaw , which could throw the RP off line. Aircraft speed had to be precise at the moment of launch, and the angle of attack required precision. Trajectory drop was also a problem, especially at longer ranges. The rocket was less complicated and more reliable than a gun firing a shell and there was no recoil on firing. It was found to be a demoralising form of attack against ground troops and

7410-609: The war. For small arms it has been replaced by other propellants, such as the Improved Military Rifle (IMR) line of extruded powder or the WC844 ball propellant currently in use in the 5.56×45mm NATO . Production ceased in the United Kingdom around the end of the 20th century, with the closure of the last of the World War II cordite factories, ROF Bishopton . Triple-base propellant for UK service (for example,

7505-399: The weapon were conducted against targets representing U-boats. It was discovered that if the rockets were fired at a shallow angle, near misses resulted in the rockets curving upwards in seawater and piercing the targets below the waterline. Soon Coastal Command and the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm aircraft were using the rockets extensively. The first U-boat destroyed with the assistance of

7600-442: Was also used for large weapons, such as tank guns , artillery , and naval guns. It has been used mainly for this purpose since the late 19th century by the UK and British Commonwealth countries. Its use was further developed before World War II , and as 2-and-3-inch-diameter (51 and 76 mm) Unrotated Projectiles for launching anti-aircraft weapons . Small cordite rocket charges were also developed for ejector seats made by

7695-495: Was decided to design a new 60-pound semi-armour-piercing (SAP) head. These were capable of knocking turrets off tanks. A typical RP-3 installation was four projectiles on launching rails under each wing. A selector switch was fitted to allow the pilot to fire them singly (later omitted), in pairs, or as a full salvo. Towards the end of the war some RAF Second Tactical Air Force (2 TAF) Hawker Typhoons had their installation adapted to carry an additional four rockets doubled up under

7790-421: Was finally lost because the words "of the well-known soluble kind" in his patent were taken to mean the soluble collodion, and hence specifically excluded the insoluble guncotton. The ambiguous phrase was "soluble nitro-cellulose": soluble nitro-cellulose was known as Collodion and was soluble in alcohol . It was employed mainly for medical and photographic use. In contrast, insoluble in alcohol, nitrocellulose

7885-421: Was finished on 24 August 1918. It was designed to produce 1,500,000 lb (681,000 kg) of cordite per month. Factories, specifically "heavy industry" (Long, and Marland 2009) were important for the provision of munitions. Cordite factories typically employed women (Cook 2006) who put their lives at risk as they packed the shells. Large quantities of cordite were manufactured in both World Wars for use by

7980-778: Was formed in 1910 to produce rifle cordite, at its Beloeil factory, for the Quebec Arsenal . By November 1915 production had been expanded to produce 350,000 lb (159,000 kg) of cordite per month for the Imperial Munitions Board . The Imperial Munitions Board set up a number of additional explosives factories in Canada . It built The British Cordite Ltd factory at Nobel, Ontario , in 1916/1917, to produce cordite. Production started in mid-1917. Canadian Explosives Limited built an additional cordite factory at Nobel, Ontario. Work started in February 1918 and

8075-643: Was known as gun cotton and was used as an explosive. Nobel's patent refers to the production of Celluloid using camphor and soluble nitrocellulose; and this was taken to imply that Nobel was specifically distinguishing between the use of soluble and insoluble nitrocellulose. For a forensic analysis of the case, see The History of Explosives Vol II; The Case for Cordite, John Williams (2014). However, in her comprehensive 2019 biography of Alfred Nobel Ingrid Carlberg notes how closely Abel and Dewar were allowed to follow Nobel's work in Paris, and how disappointed Nobel

8170-630: Was opened in Scotland to manufacture cordite for the British Army and the Royal Air Force. A new cordite factory at Waltham Abbey and two additional ROF's— ROF Ranskill and ROF Wrexham —were also opened. Cordite produced in these factories was sent to filling factories for filling into ammunition. The British Government set up additional cordite factories, not under Royal Ordnance Factory control but as Agency Factories run on behalf of

8265-464: Was operating nine squadrons, including transport units with helicopters and a number of Hawker Hunter fighter bomber aircraft. These were called in by the army for attacks on rebel positions in which they would use 60-pound high explosive rockets and their 30 mm ADEN cannon. On 19–20 January 1967, the NLF provoked street riots in Aden . After the Aden police lost control, British High Commissioner Sir Richard Turnbull deployed British troops to crush

8360-771: Was produced in different shapes and sizes, so the particular geometry of Cordite SC was indicated by the use of letters or numbers, or both, after the SC. For example, SC followed by a number was rod-shaped cord, with the number representing the diameter in thousandths of an inch. "SC T" followed by two sets of numbers indicated tubular propellant, with the numbers representing the two diameters in thousandths. Two-inch (approximately 50 mm) and three-inch (approximately 75 mm) diameter, rocket Cordite SC charges were developed in great secrecy before World War II for anti-aircraft purposes—the so-called Z batteries , using ' Unrotated Projectiles '. Great Britain changed to metric units in

8455-508: Was quite common all through the war. Hostilities started on 10 December 1963, with an NLF grenade attack against British High Commissioner of Aden Sir Kennedy Trevaskis , which took place as he arrived at Khormaksar Airport to catch a London-bound flight. The grenade killed the High Commissioner's adviser and a woman, and injured fifty other people. On that day, a state of emergency was declared in Aden. The NLF and FLOSY began

8550-551: Was realised that the 2-inch version would be less effective than the Vickers S cannon, it was decided to concentrate on development of the 3-inch version, which could be developed from the 2-inch rocket used in the Z-Batteries. The rocket body was a steel tube 3.25 in (83 mm) in diameter and 55.19 in (1,402 mm) long filled with 5.2 kg (11.5 lb) of cordite propellant, fired electrically. The warhead

8645-510: Was ruled out because of weight and difficulties handling recoil. The chairman of the panel, Mr. Ivor Bowen (Assistant Director of Armament Research) turned to the idea of using rocket projectiles to deliver a large warhead capable of destroying or disabling heavy tanks. Information was sought from the Soviets, who had been using unguided RS-82 rockets since 1937. By September 1941 it was decided that two models of UP would be developed: When it

8740-416: Was screwed into the forward end, and was initially a solid 24 lb 12 oz (11.2 kg), 3.44 in (87 mm) diameter and 12.4 in (310 mm) long (with adaptor) armour-piercing warhead which was quickly supplanted by a 152 mm (5.98 in), 27.4 kg (60.4 lb) high explosive head. For practice there were also a 25-pound (11 kg) mild steel semi-armour-piercing warhead,

8835-515: Was soon superseded, as it caused excessive gun barrel erosion. It has since become known as Cordite Mk I . The composition of cordite was changed to 65% guncotton, 30% nitroglycerin (keeping 5% petroleum jelly), and 0.8% acetone shortly after the end of the Second Boer War . This was known as Cordite MD (modified). Cordite MD cartridges typically weighed approximately 15% more than the cordite Mk I cartridges they replaced, to achieve

8930-574: Was used on the Lockheed Ventura and Hudson. The first operational use of the RP was in the Western Desert campaign as a "tank-busting" weapon on Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIEs and IVs. The 25-pound armour-piercing heads were found to be ineffective against the Tiger I heavy tanks coming into German service. With the example of the success of Royal Artillery gunners using high-explosive shells from their Ordnance QF 25 pounder gun-howitzers, it

9025-502: Was with how this trust was betrayed. The book argues for Nobel as the original inventor and that the case was lost because of an unimportant technicality. It was quickly discovered that the rate of burning could be varied by altering the surface area of the cordite. Narrow rods were used in small-arms and were relatively fast burning, while thicker rods would burn more slowly and were used for longer barrels, such as those used in artillery and naval guns. The original Abel-Dewar formulation

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