From the very first days of the war and all along the 5 years, the German Armies seized numerous French 75mm Mle 1897 fieldguns during the military operations. The artillery material production capacities of the German manufacturers being prioritized on equipemnts dedicated on land fighting, the increasing needs for AA guns were partially satisfied by the use of these captured guns.

Several uses of this remarkable french weapon, whose bore was re-machined to a classical 7.7cm diameter in order to accept German ammunitions, were designed by RheinMetal and Krupp, takin the generic 7,7cm L/35 Flak (franz.) name. The most common variant was an assembly of the tube re_machined to 77mm (although keeping the good Nordenfeldt breech for quick-firing) on a polygonal carriage derivated from the 10.5cm light howitzer allowing an extended 50° elevation.

Some weared tubes were replaced lately by German tubes (but still keeping the French breech) and could be reckognized by the disappearing of the typical tube mouth roller guides.

Other variants were improvized, sometimes integrating the recuperation and transformation of captured French heavy guns carriages.

Caracteristiques principales :

• Weight in firing position : unknown
• Calibre : 77 mm
• Tube length : 35 calibres
• Projectile weight : unknown
• Initial velocity : 485 m/s
• Maximum range : unknown
• Elevation range : -11 / +60 degrees
• Direction range : 360 degrees (wheels on a circular track)