Historic context :

At the end of the 19th century, two Greek officers proposed successively in an interval of 2 years a brand new design for a mountain gun. The invention of the Major Lykoudis appeared the first in 1891, but it did not trigger any interest in his country. Neither did the later similar design of the Major Danglis in 1893. The concept was nevertheless interesting since the design was including a barrel that could be dismantled in two separate parts for transportation : the inner rifled barrel and a jacket with the breech.

The two technicians became tough rivals and decided to contact the best industrials of the period to manufacture their concept. The alliance between Lykoudis and the German Krupp and the one between Danglis and the French Schneider gave birth to weapons that were proposed to Greece in 1907. At the end of the tests, Greece chose the '75 mm M06/09 Schneider-Danglis mountain gun' and used it during the Balkan Wars before 1914, but also later during WW2. Finland bought some of these and used it during its Winter War against Soviet Union in 1939 - 1940.

Schneider quickly decided to propose this concept to its foreign export customers. As a proof of the real commercial success that came out of it, this company 1917 catalog was including several weapons derivated from this Greek gun, under the generic name 'Canon de Montagne Puissant de 75 mm', with several versions l '75 M.P., 75 M.P.C., 75 M.P.D and 75 M.P.E.' delivered to numerous nations including Morocco, Serbia, Montenegro and Rumania. The name 'Danglis' disapperaed in these versions, as it had been reserved to the Greek guns in a commercial agreement.

In addition to the dismantlable barrel, the guns were equipped with a hydro-pneumatic recoil recuperation system, a large curved typical shield, and a mechanism allowing to pre-position the tube cradle on two different heights to the carriage so that the breech was not hitting the ground with the higher elevation angles.

Serbia used two models of that type of weapon :

• le '75mm M1910' - named '75mm M.P.D. in Schneider Catalogue, had been tested by the Serbian Army in 1910 but it is not sure it had been adopted then. Greece ordered 10 batteries in 1913, among which 2 were requisitioned in Marseille harbour by France and sent to Serbia the same year
• the '75mm M1908' - named '75mm M.P.D. 5' by Schneider who relauinched in 1915 a fabrication of 6 batteries initially planned for Peru in order to ship them to Montenegro, was eventually sent to Serbia in 1916 after the small Montenegro surrendered.

Technical data :

• Complete description : 75mm mountain gun M1908 & M1910 'Schneider-Danglis' 75mm M.P.D. et M.P.D.5
• Design year : 1908
• Calibre : 75.00 mm
• Weight in firing position : 625 kg (MPD) - 635 kg (MPD5)
• Weight for transportation : 654 kg, in 6 separate loads
• Tube length in calibres : 16.60
• Grooves : 0 unknown
• Projectile weight : 6.5 kg
• Initial speed : 350 m/s (MPD) - 330 m/s (MPD5)
• Fire rate :
• Range : 6500 m (MPD) - 7250 m (MPD5)
• Elevation range : -12 to +20 degrees (MPD) - -12 to +29 degrees (MPD5)
• Direction range : 4.34 degrees range (MPD) - 4.15 degrees (MPD5)

• Bulgarian Artillery 1878 - 1918     https://www.bulgarianartillery.it/                           
• Schneider et Compagnie - Matériels d'artillerie mis en service sur les fronts alliés 1914 - 1917       Collectif                     1917