ARTILLERY REGISTER |
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| Historical Specifics: | The Nordenfelt rapid fire guns were purchased in 1887 at a price of £800 sterling each. Two (No’s 181 and 173)were emplaced at Fort Lytton at the mouth of the Brisbane River as complementary armament to the 6 inch Mk 5 coastal gun. The guns remained at Fort Lytton until just prior to World War I when they were given to the Brisbane City Council to be exhibited in public places. They were not heard of again until 1958 when the Council offered them to any persons interested in collecting old Artillery pieces.
Major Doug Greenlees (then RSM of 5 Field Regiment, RAA) took charge of the guns and placed them in the unit lines at Kelvin grove, Brisbane. In 1960 they were presented to 4 Field Regiment at Wacol. With 4 Field Regiment deployed to Vietnam in 1967 the guns were transferred to 1 Field Regiment at Enoggera and moved with the Regiment to Wacol in 1970. In the late 1970s one was sent to the School of Artillery and is now in the collection of the National Artillery Museum. The second gun is now with the North Queensland Army Museum, Townsville. In action the guns were mounted on a cone mounting about 5 feet high so that the operators could serve the gun and be protected at the same time. The Nordenfelt Gun was a multiple barrel machine gun designed by a Swedish engineer, Helge Palmcrantz. He was backed by Thorsten Nordenfelt, a Swedish steel producer and banker, after whom the gun was to take its name. Palmcrantz created a mechanism to load and fire a multiple barrelled gun by simply moving a single lever backwards and forwards. It came in several models from two to ten barrels. It fired harder-hitting rounds and gave more stopping power than the Gatling making this machine gun popular with the Royal Navy for use against Torpedo Boats. A plant producing the weapon was setup in England, with sales offices in London, and long demonstrations were conducted at several exhibitions. The weapon was adopted by the British Royal Navy and many found their way to Australia. However, with the development of the Maxim gun the weapon was eventually outclassed. |
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