M65 280mm Atomic Cannon & Corporal Missile: "42nd Artillery Group" 1957 US Army; The Big Picture TV-388

more at http://quickfound.net/

'Artillery, the king of battle, is closely examined by THE BIG PICTURE camera in the Seventh Army area in Europe. Viewers will see the 42nd Field Artillery Group in Germany wheel two of its most formidable weapons -- the "Corporal" guided missile and the 280mm cannon--into action for a test alert. The training these men in the 42nd Field Artillery Group undergo with their weapons is a representative chapter in the continuing story of the Army's development of firepower, which gives it strength and serves as a further deterrent to any future wars. In today's Army the tactical use of missiles is a reality. Mobile artillery weapons as demonstrated in this THE BIG PICTURE episode, are capable of massive concentrated firepower, such as was barely dreamed of in World War II. These same weapons can be used to support ground troops of the new Pentomic Division which have been reorganized to meet the demands of warfare on the fluid atomic battlefields of the future. '

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M65_atomic_cannon

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The M65 atomic cannon, often called "Atomic Annie", was an artillery piece built by the United States and capable of firing a nuclear device. It was developed in the early 1950s, at the beginning of the Cold War, and fielded, by 1953, in Europe and South Korea...

Picatinny Arsenal was tasked to create a nuclear capable artillery piece in 1949. Robert Schwartz, the engineer who created the preliminary designs, essentially scaled up the 240 mm shell (then the maximum in the arsenal) and used the German K5 railroad gun as a point of departure for the carriage. (The name "Atomic Annie" likely derives from the nickname "Anzio Annie" given to a pair of German K5 guns which were employed against the American landings in Italy.) The design was approved by the Pentagon, largely through the intervention of Samuel Feltman, chief of the ballistics section of the ordnance department's research and development division. A three-year developmental effort followed. The project proceeded quickly enough to produce a demonstration model to participate in Dwight D. Eisenhower's inaugural parade in January 1953.

The cannon was transported by two specially designed tractors in the same manner as railroad Schnabel cars. Both tractors were capable of independent steering in the manner of some extra-long fire trucks. Each of the tractors was rated at 375 horsepower (280 kW), and the somewhat awkward combination could achieve speeds of 35 miles per hour (56 km/h) and negotiate right angle turns on 28-foot (8.5 m) wide, paved or packed roads. The artillery piece could be unlimbered in 12 minutes, then returned to traveling configuration in another 15 minutes...

On May 25, 1953 at 8:30 a.m., the atomic cannon was tested at the Nevada Test Site (specifically Frenchman Flat) as part of the Upshot–Knothole series of nuclear tests. The test—codenamed "Grable"... resulted in the successful detonation of a 15 kiloton shell (W9 warhead) at a range of 7 miles (11 km). This was the first and only nuclear shell to be fired from a cannon. (The Little Feller 1 test shot of a W54 used a Davy Crockett weapon system, which was a recoilless smooth-bore gun firing the warhead mounted on the end of a spigot inserted in the barrel of the weapon.)

After the successful test, at least 20 cannons were manufactured at Watervliet and Watertown Arsenals, at a cost of $800,000 each. They were deployed overseas to Europe and Korea... Due to the size of the apparatus, their limited range, the development of nuclear shells compatible with existing artillery pieces (the W48 for the 155 mm and the W33 for the 203 mm), and the development of rocket- and missile-based nuclear artillery (such as the Little John and Honest John tactical nuclear missiles), the M65 was effectively obsolete soon after it was deployed... Of the twenty M65s produced, at least seven survive on display...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W9_(nuclear_warhead)

The W9 was an American nuclear artillery shell fired from a special 11 inch howitzer. It was produced starting in 1952 and all were retired by 1957...

The W9 was 11 inches (280 mm) in diameter, 55 inches (138 cm) long, and weighed 850 pounds (364 kg). It had an explosive yield of 15 kilotons.

The W9 was a gun-type nuclear weapon, using around 50 kilograms of highly enriched uranium...