page_title: Gun Carrier Mark I
section_title: Gun Carrier Mark I
hierarchical_section_title: Gun Carrier Mark I / Production / Gun Carrier Mark I
caption_attribution_description: English: Left elevation and plan diagrams of British BL 60-pounder Mark II gun on Mark IV carriage.
context_page_description: The Gun Carrier Mark I was a British vehicle of the First World War. The gun carrier was designed to transport a 6-inch howitzer or a 60-pounder gun forward soon after an attack to support infantry in advanced positions. Gun carriers were first used in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge during the Third Battle of Ypres. The carriers moved guns and equipment but were used for the rest of the war mainly for carrying equipment and supplies through areas under fire, where porters in the open would have suffered many casualties. The 6-inch howitzer could be fired while mounted, making the Gun Carrier Mark I the first modern self-propelled gun, a weapon capable of independent action and having tactical mobility on the battlefield.
context_section_description: Work by Greg and Wilson began on 7 March 1916 but only with GHQ approval, which was received on 17 May 1916. The Ordnance Board refused to approve the design on 15 June 1916 and Albert Stern, the Secretary of the Landship Committee appealed to David Lloyd George, the Minister of Munitions. Lloyd George over-ruled the Board and unilaterally placed an order for fifty vehicles the next day. On 29 May 1917 the War Office ordered
  ...a motor gun carriage which could keep closer to infantry than a horse-drawn field gun… The object of such a weapon would be the destruction of buildings and emplacements.
  The prototype was built by the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon & Finance Co. and was finished on 1 January 1917. An order was placed with Kitson & Co. in Leeds for 49 gun carriers (changed to 47 gun carriers and two salvage vehicles on 16 October 1917). Trials of the prototype began around 2 February 1917 and at Shoeburyness ranges the 60-pounder was fired from the carrier. Six gun carriers and the two salvage vehicles were delivered to the army in the second quarter of 1917, 14 in the third quarter, 29 in the fourth quarter and the last five in the first quarter of 1918 at a price of £168,000 for the carriers and £10,000 for the two salvage vehicles.
caption: BL 60-pounder gun Mark II on carriage Mark IV left elevation and plan diagrams
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