The Guns

The 13pdr. guns used by The King's Troop today, all saw action in the First World War. In their day, they represented the state of the art, with a recuperating mechanism along the top of the barrel (wrapped in rope for cooling).

Once fired the considerable recoil was absorbed by the recuperator, this stopped the gun carriage moving off line, which meant that the gun didn't require realignment after each round was fired.

Each gun and limber weighs over 1 ton, the team and gun measuring 54 feet in length. Each gun is pulled by six horses, the nearside three being ridden. The guns have no brakes, so stopping power is provided by the rear pair of horses, known as the 'wheelers'.