page_title: BL 5-inch howitzer
section_title: World War I
hierarchical_section_title: BL 5-inch howitzer / Combat service / World War I
caption_attribution_description: A British Territorial Force gun crew firing a howitzer. Comment&#160;: This is a BL 5 inch Howitzer. Location&#160;: Dardanelles, Turkey. NOTE&#160;: This version of the photograph has brightness and contrast artificially increased to highlight details.
context_page_description: The Ordnance BL 5-inch howitzer was initially introduced to provide the Royal Field Artillery with continuing explosive shell capability following the decision to concentrate on shrapnel for field guns in the 1890s.
context_section_description: By 1908 it was obsolete and replaced in British Regular Army brigades by the modern QF 4.5-inch howitzer.
  Territorial Force brigades, however, continued to use the howitzer in World War I into 1916, including notably in the East African campaign.
  A lighter 40-pound (18.14 kg) shell with Amatol filling replaced the original 50-pound (22.68 kg)  Lyddite shell early in World War I Together with an increase in cordite propellant from 11 oz 7 drams to 14 oz 5 drams, this increased the maximum range from 4,800 to 6,500 yards (5,900 m). Administrative error led to the new 40-pound shells being sent to Gallipoli without range tables or fuze keys for the new pattern fuzes, rendering them useless.
caption: In action on Gallipoli, 1915
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