Field artillery materiel

by Unknown

The Deport carriage brought to this country from Italy, in 1912, introduced to us the split trail, high angle of fire, wide traversing type of field gun carriage. This carriage was extensively tested by the Ordnance Department; by the Field Artillery Board at Fort Riley, Kansas; and by the School of Fire for Field Artillery, at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The Field Artillery Board unqualifiedly approved of the Deport carriage and recommended that it be adopted. The School of Fire for Field Artillery also approved of this type.

In 1916 the United States produced a 75-mm field gun which featured a split trail with an elevation of 57 degrees which permits its use as an anti-aircraft weapon and a variable length of recoil which prevents the breech from hitting the ground at the extreme elevations. It has a traverse of 800 mils in comparison to the 106 of the French 75 and the 142 and 140 of the British 75 and American three-inch field gun.

The outbreak of the late war saw all modern armies largely equipped with guns resembling the French “75” in a long-run recoil mechanism, weight of projectile and weight of carriage, etc. The fact that the largest number of horses which could best be handled to maneuver the light guns—about 6—could not pull over a long period a gun or caisson with its limber if the weight was more than about 4500 pounds, resulted in the practical standardization of light guns in all armies. So in 1914 we see that time and development had given light gun perfection and mastery of artillery technique to the French while the Germans, probably, possessed the most efficient artillery program. The German types of weapons were more varied and perhaps better suited to the varying artillery needs in rendering that assistance to the infantry for which the artillery exists.

In our service during the World War, French 75s and the 155-mm Howitzer were used as divisional artillery. Two regiments of the light guns and one regiment of 155-Howitzers were assigned to each infantry division. As the war progressed guns and howitzers ranging from the 4.7” rifle, up to, and including 14 and even 16-inch naval guns on railroad mounts, were used as Corps and Army artillery.

Thus artillery development has gone steadily forward. Every military power has striven with the aid of its best engineers, designers and manufacturers to get a stronger gun, either with or without a heavier projectile, but in every case striving for greater power. As a special development and a not too important one, due to its lack of effectiveness in comparison to its cost, we find the now famous long range gun of the Germans, successfully delivered a projectile approximately 9 inches in diameter into Paris punctually every twenty minutes from a point about 75 miles distant. The Germans used three of these guns in shelling Paris. Their life was probably limited to about 75 rounds due to the excessive demands made upon the materiel.

The American Field Artillery Service now has before it four types of field gun carriages, namely our 3” model of 1902; the French 75 M-1897; the British 18 pounder, M-1905 converted to a 75-mm (known as the model of 1917); and our 75-mm model, 1916. There is being produced (1919-20) an improved model of 1916 75-mm carriage on which the St. Chamond pneumatic recuperator, adopted jointly by the American and French governments, will be substituted for the spring recuperators; and the French 75-mm gun will be substituted for our shorter calibered type. From these types one must be selected. An intelligent selection involves a consideration of what may be expected in the future in order that it may best fit in with the new types yet to be evolved.

For horsed artillery—and horse artillery will be with us for some years to come—the limiting features of draft and man power will still pertain.

For tractor-drawn mobile artillery, the limiting feature is the tractive power of the tractor with relation to the weight of the gun and carriage, the unit being physically limited in weight by the supporting-power of the pontoon bridge which is about 10,000 pounds per vehicle.

For Caterpillar Artillery.—By that is meant guns mounted on caterpillar tractors—the limiting features are power and weight, coupled with the weight limitations of the pontoon bridge. To circumvent the question of weight, the load may be divided by mounting the motor by an electric generator on one caterpillar and the gun with an electric motor, on the other, a transmission cable connecting the two vehicles.

In conclusion it might be said that one of the greatest changes which has ever taken place in the development of field artillery is now underway in the form of motorization. Prior to 1917 horse traction had been the sole means of transporting mobile field artillery. The limit of the capabilities of horse traction placed a weight limit upon gun construction and to some extent upon artillery tactics. The increase in the ratio of field artillery to infantry, the corresponding demand for artillery types of horses and the decrease in the availability of the latter as the war continued, combined with the great improvements which were constantly being wrought in mechanical transportation as the war lengthened, opened the way for artillery motorization.