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 Turkey
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15cm versuchsHaubitze L/12 Krupp |
 Heavy artillery
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Contributor :
Charlie Clelland
Nick Hector
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Location :
Australia
Jamestown, SA
RSL
Coordinates :
Lat : -33.20390 / Long : 138.60540
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General comments on this surviving gun :
Identical items in the same location :
1
Items covered by this file :
1
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This Krupp prototype's recoil recuperator is unusually located on the top of the barrel
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The identification of this gun (serial Nr 20) and the equivalent in Canberra (Serial Nr 19) needed the intervention on numerous specialists in the famous Landships II forum, led by Charlie Clelland
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View on the rear position of the trunnions, under the breech block
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Historic and technical information
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Denomination :
15cm VsH 12
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Origin :
(
Krupp)
(
Arsenaux Impériaux )
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Historic context :
When in 1910 the APK ('Artillerie Prüfungs Kommission') requested Krupp and RheinMetall to propose a successor to the heavy field howitzer 15cm sFH 02 with an improved specification, these companies engineering did not start from a blank page.
For instance, at the side of a commercial export version 15cm sFH 05 sold to Turkey (who lost all of these weapons to Bulgaria during the Andrinople siege of the Balkanic Wars in 1912), Krupp had started a modernisation of the 15cm sFH 02, This latter gun used a 15cm sFH 02 L/12 barrel whose trunnions had been pushed back far away of the gravity center of the barrel / recoil recuperator assmbly under the breech, and consequently equipped with an equilibrator. This disposition allowed to solve the issue of breech loading at high elevation angles that was slowing down the fire rate of the 1902 model. Unusually, this design involved that the constant recoil recuperator system was positionned over the tube.
This kind of weapon was presented in 1911 to the APK together with 2 other Krupp designs ( one with a variable recoil recuperation system under the barrel, and one with a constant recoil recuperation system without equilibrator). The first weapon was retained as the Krupp test howitzer for the tests opposing it to the RheinMetall one, giving birth in 1913 to the famous 15cm sFH 13.
How these test howitzer arrived in the Turkish Army is still a partial mystery, although the passionate debates in the famous Landships II forum (landships.activeboard.com/t41162383/15-cm-german-howitzer) allowed to give a lot of explanations. The Turkish archives show that, in addition to the numerous 15cm sFH 13 sent by Germany during WW1, this country bought to its ally before and during the Great War numerous 15cm howitzers of different kinds, or manufactured some on German designs :
- 18 of 15cm M 1905 howitzers – Numbered Nr 1 to 18 by the Turkish arsenals (captured at Adrianople by Bulgary in 1912)
- 4 of 15cm M 1912 howitzers – Nr 19 to 22
- 36 of 15cm M 1893 howitzers – Nr 23 to 59
- 20 of 15cm M 1905 howitzers built in Turkey – Nr 60 to 79
These mysterious 4 howitzers 15cm M1912 bought by Turkey to re-populate its heavy field artillery equipment annihilated during the Balkanic wars are therefore probably the ones of the test battery used by APK in 1911, slightly modified by Turkish arsenals and renumbered. I adopted the name 15cm versuchsHaubitze L/12 Krupp proposed by Charlie Clelland
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Technical data :
- Complete description : 15cm test field howitzer L/12 Krupp
- Design year : 1912
- Calibre : 149.70 mm
- Weight in firing position : 2160 kg
- Weight for transportation : 2815 kg
- Tube length in calibres : 12.00 (total length) - 8 calibres rifled part only
- Grooves : 36 6 to 13 degrees progressive angle
- Projectile weight :
- Initial speed :
- Fire rate :
- Range :
- Elevation range :
- Direction range :
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Sources
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