105 mm Howitzer

This snapshot of a 105 mm Howitzer was taken on Firebase Candy in April 1970.  The gunner posing next to it provides a sense of scale.  The diameter (bore) of the gun's barrel is 105 mm or about 4 inches.

The Howitzer was a model 102.  It was about 17 feet long, 6.5 feet wide, 5 feet high and weighed about 1.5 tons.  It was light enough that it could be towed by a small truck or transported by air with a Chinook helicopter.  Even a Huey helicopter could pick one up and deliver it to a new firebase.

A firebase normally had five or six of these guns.  They were used to protect Infantry soldiers who worked the area around the firebase.  When called upon, they could fire a thirty-three pound high explosive projectile a maximum distance of about seven miles.  Once on an enemy target, it could drop projectiles,  one after another, into a tight circle of approximately thirty meters at that distance.

Infantry companies had to know exactly where they were in the jungle at all times to take advantage of these guns.  Gun crews were good at hitting a spot on a map.  Infantry companies therefore had to be good at knowing the spots where they were and where the enemy was on the map to ensure they didn't accidentally call in high explosive projectiles on top of themselves.

On my tour in Vietnam, there was a time when our platoon was in the unfortunate position of being in the wrong place on the map when 105's started lobbing in shells.  We had a man killed and others severally wounded.  When it happens, they call it taking friendly fire.

I don't know where that term came from but I do know there was nothing friendly about it.