Designed as early as 1906 by Krupp and only available within a single 5 guns battery from 1908 in the Feldartillerie units, the '13 cm Kanone' or '13 cm K09' gun was one of the very first heavy german guns having a recoil recuperator system and was adopted officially in 1909. It was one of the major aces of the German Artillery arsenal at the war outbreak.

In its initial version this cannon was transportable into two separate loads for horse traction. Later (from 1917) a modified version was introduced with reinforced carraige and wheels for the mechanical traction.

The 13cm K09 long tube (4725mm) was able to send its shell as far as more than 16 km, and therefore was usually assigned a mission of anti-artillery and harassment fire, staying out of range of ennemy fire {remember that the French 75mm fieldgun, that was supposed to be the perfect multi-purpose material, could only send its sheels to a maximum distance of 8500 m at the beginning of the war).

The only issue with this gun at the war outbreak was its too little availability : only 32 units were in service in July 1914 and it was not produced in huge quantities afterwards. The reason for this was the choice of the German Headquarters to reserve the industry capacity to the new anti-artillery guns 15 cm L/30, L/35 and L/40.

Nevertheless, the total wartime production attained 202 guns, including the 1917 modified design ones (for automobile towing in a single load). In 1918, 40 batteries equipped with 120 13cm guns were still in service.

Main characteristics :

• Weight in firing position : 6730 kg (6838 kg for the 1917 design)
• Calibre : 135 mm
• Tube length : 35 calibres
• Projectile weight : 42 kg
• Initial velocity : 695 m/s
• Maximum range : 16500 m
• Elevation range : -5 / +26 degrees
• Direction range : 4 degrees