Before the war, the US Army only had a little number of artillery weapons developped in their arsenals. Amongst the few, the 4.7 inches M 1906 gun, designed by the Rock Island Arsenal, had been produced in small quantities (60 items) from 1908. In 1917, an improved version, with a longer range, was launched in manufacturing. As a total 417 pieces of the two types have been produced .

It seems that this gun was offering very good performances, particularly in its 1917 version. However, the production has never been pushed too high, so that only 48 such guns were delivered to France before the armistice. Moreover, its specific calibre imposed the ammunitions had to be shipped from USA...

Because of that, it was seriously planned to rebore the tubes to a 120mm calibre, to be able to use French ammunitions, when someone hopefully realized that this calibre had been abandoned by the French army... 16 guns only were modified that way.

This gun production stopped at the end of the war, and the guns were transferred tio reserve units in 1923.

Main characteristics :

• Weight in firing position : 3660 kg
• Calibre : 119.4 mm
• Tube length : 28.6 / 29.2 calibres (1906 / 1917)
• Projectile weigth : 27.2 / 20.4 kg (normal / light shell)
• Initial velocity : 519 / 712 m/s (normal / light shell)
• Maximum range : 8750 / 10000 m (1906 normal / light shell); 15000 m (1917)
• Elevation range : -5 / +15 degrees (1906); -5 / +15 degrees (1917)
• Direction range : 6 degrees