Word: kickless
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Dates: during 1945-1945
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...your July 23 issue you say a Fort Benning corporal "picked up a 57-mm. cannon . . . aimed it as casually as a shotgun . . . demolished a cordwood target 800 yards away." Secret of the kickless cannon: a backward powder blast through the breach-"a fiery column 12 to 15 ft. long, about 4 ft. in diameter...
Secret of the kickless weapon: it lets some of the powder blast drive to the rear through the breech as the projectile is driven forward. Result: the rearward blast cancels out the "kick" of the gun. One of the weapon's drawbacks: the blast-a fiery column 12-to-15 ft. long, about 4 ft. in diameter-might betray its location to the enemy...
...which will fire any type of shell-including phosphorous-has the accuracy of an M-1 Garand rifle, a maximum range of 2½ miles. A heavier (110-lb.) kickless gun also in service is the 75 mm., which is fired from a tripod no heavier than a machine-gun mount and has a range of more than four miles. The Army's most mobile artillery weapon was formerly the 75-mm. pack howitzer, weighing about...