Ordóñez guns

The Spanish installed them in forts and batteries at home, for instance at Ceuta,[1] and throughout their empire, in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines.

[3]) The breechblocks were lever-actuated, and of the French or interrupted screw type, though the obturating ring followed the Krupp design.

[8] Ordóñez also designed the 1891 240 mm (9.4 in) coastal artillery breech-loading howitzer, which was 14 calibers in length.

Some of the howitzers served in Spain, including four at a battery at Fort La Mola in Menorca, and some at Montjuïc Castle, Barcelona.

In 1896 Ordóñez designed another 240 mm (9.4 in) howitzer, this one 16 calibers in length and consisting of a tube and two sleeves.

The howitzer was made of forged and tempered steel, with a de Bange interrupted-screw breech-block with six screw sectors.

The artillery factory at Trubia produced the first exemplars in 1903, but the howitzer was not ready for adoption for active duty until 1916, by which time it was obsolescent.

The battery, which was armed with two Ordóñez guns, amongst others, fired too soon on the US vessels, which were able to escape without taking a hit.

Filipino freedom fighters resisting the US colonization of the Philippines later moved one of these to a battery they constructed there.

Possibly the last action for any Ordóñez piece occurred in 1937 when two of the M1916 305 mm (12.0 in) howitzers at Madrid participated on the Republican side at the Battle of Brunete during the Spanish Civil War.