Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 287 The Power of the 155mm Howitzer
In fact, Wang Gensheng's current helicopter calibration of artillery shells is very similar to the drones he used to calibrate the impact points of artillery shells on the battlefield before his time travel.

After the artillery calibration was completed, Battalion Commander Yang began firing all eight cannons simultaneously, and shells immediately began falling from Hagaru-ri Airport.

It should be noted that the power of this 155mm howitzer is not as great as that of a bomb.

However, a 155mm grenade that explodes on the ground can create a crater with a diameter of five meters and a depth of nearly two meters.

It's important to know that the US M1 grenade uses a 155mm caliber, with its explosive charge accounting for 8 kg of its total weight, far exceeding that of a 100mm artillery shell. These grenades typically weigh over 40 kg, and their explosive charges primarily consist of TNT, aluminum alloys, or other high explosives to ensure their powerful destructive force.

In actual combat, these grenades can create a crater with a diameter of five meters. Even in open terrain, personnel within a fifteen-meter radius are unlikely to survive; the combined lethality of the shockwave and shrapnel makes survival extremely difficult. Of course, the situation is different if the target is hiding in a foxhole or trench. However, even then, shrapnel within a fifty-meter radius remains a deadly threat, and can even fly as far as two hundred meters.

It's important to note that the term "kill radius" is used for ease of description; the actual explosion shape upon impact is not strictly spherical, but depends on the angle of impact of the shell. The closer to a vertical impact, the closer the explosion shape is to a sphere; while the closer to a parallel impact, the more likely it is to exhibit a butterfly shape, meaning fewer fragments in the direction of the shell's motion and more fragments in the direction perpendicular to its motion, resulting in a relatively longer kill distance.

This is mainly because the shape of the shell is not completely symmetrical, but a combination of a cylinder and a spindle, so the fragments and shock wave after the explosion also exhibit asymmetry.

Unlike hand grenades and small-caliber artillery shells, which primarily rely on shrapnel for lethality, the lethality of a 155mm howitzer is mainly attributed to two mechanisms.

There are two types of lethality: shock wave damage and fragmentation damage. Shock wave damage can be further subdivided into overpressure and dynamic pressure.

Dynamic pressure, on the other hand, arises from the pressure changes caused by the compression of air, leading to an imbalance of pressure inside and outside the human body, which can cause fatal damage to internal organs. During the war of liberation, there were cases of the use of "heartless cannons," which created overpressure by launching high-dose explosive charges, causing many victims to bleed from all seven orifices. This is the terrifying effect of overpressure compressing internal organs.

Furthermore, the dynamic pressure damage of shock waves should not be ignored. Dynamic pressure is the high-speed airflow generated by the shock wave, which is as sharp as a blade and can easily tear objects apart. On the battlefield, many soldiers are instantly decapitated or mutilated due to grenade hits, which is caused not only by the cutting effect of shrapnel but also, and more importantly, by the dynamic pressure damage of the shock wave.

Generally, overpressure in the range of 0.2 to 0.3 MPa can cause mild injury, in the range of 0.3 to 0.6 MPa it causes moderate injury, in the range of 0.6 to 1 MPa it causes severe injury, and overpressure exceeding 1 MPa can lead to death.

Meanwhile, dynamic pressure in the range of 0.01 to 0.02 MPa can cause moderate injury, in the range of 0.02 to 0.04 MPa it can cause severe injury, and dynamic pressure exceeding 0.04 MPa may cause extremely severe injury or even death.

However, the lethality of the shockwave decreases rapidly with increasing distance. Beyond ten meters, the shockwave's lethality significantly reduces, at which point fragmentation becomes the primary mode of injury.

After a grenade explodes, it usually scatters thousands of fragments of varying sizes. Their flight speed can exceed thousands of meters per second, and the lighter the fragment, the higher the speed, but at the same time, the faster the speed decays.

Despite the powerful and destructive force of the 155mm howitzer, there are ways to evade it.

For grenades that explode upon impact, foxholes can be used to significantly reduce the kill radius of the shockwave. As long as the body is completely buried in the foxhole, the damage from shrapnel can be effectively avoided. The corner design of trenches can also greatly reduce the damage caused by the impact of shells.

On the battlefield, the horizontal foxhole is an important defensive fortification. Its unique design effectively reduces the kill radius of the shockwave, providing soldiers with safe shelter. When a grenade explodes upon impact, soldiers can simply bury themselves completely in the foxhole to significantly avoid injury from shrapnel and the shockwave. Furthermore, the corners of the trench are carefully designed to greatly reduce the destructive force of the shell impact, further enhancing the defensive effect.

Unlike horizontal foxholes, vertical foxholes have unique design features. These foxholes prioritize concealment and mobility for soldiers. Their characteristic is that the tunnels are parallel to the ground, allowing soldiers to quickly enter and exit, and easily change position as needed.

This design allows soldiers to respond more flexibly to various situations on the battlefield, whether in offense or defense, and allows them to take full advantage of the vertical foxhole.

Airport runways are required to be straight, so where would you find foxholes for US soldiers to withstand howitzer bombardment?

As a result of this bombardment, the soldiers repairing the airport runway suffered heavy casualties.

Lionmaster Smith naturally witnessed this scene and could only feel extremely resentful.

The runway that had just been painstakingly repaired was blown up before the transport plane could even land.

However, before Wang Gensheng could even destroy the airport runway with the 155mm howitzer, the deafening roar of the cannons stopped.

Wang Gensheng was naturally annoyed by this, and immediately used the walkie-talkie to ask Battalion Commander Yang:

"By the way, Battalion Commander Yang, I remember we captured quite a lot of 155mm howitzer shells from the Polar Bear Regiment! They were all loaded onto trucks, truckloads of 155mm howitzer shells. So you've only fired a few rounds and you're already giving up?"

In fact, the 155mm howitzer is also called a trailer howitzer because it is moved by being towed by a truck.

The truck happened to be towing a howitzer at the rear, and the truck bed was filled with shells.

Otherwise, a single 155mm howitzer shell would weigh over 40 kilograms!
How can we move forward without trucks?
Wang Gensheng had checked earlier and found that the truck bed contained at least three 150-round howitzers!

But only two minutes have passed, and at a rate of ten shells per minute, these eight howitzers have only fired one hundred and sixty shells.

Each of the eight 155mm howitzers captured by Wang Gensheng contained 150 shells!
However, Battalion Commander Yang on the other end of the walkie-talkie said:

"We can't fire anymore. The cannon barrel is already hot enough to evaporate snow. If we keep firing, it'll explode! We need to rest for a while. I'm having the artillerymen use snow to cool down the barrel!"

(End of this chapter)