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The 75 gun was composed of a forged steel tube weighting 460 kg, assembled on a mounting. The interior of the gun was machined with the calibre of 75 mm and included 24 spiral grooves. These rifling grooves gave to the shell a rotational movement around its main axis (spin), which improved the stability of its trajectory thanks to the gyroscopic effect. The length of the tube was of 36,6 calibres, that is 36,6 X 75 mm = 2745 mm.
The longer the tube is, the longer the shell is propelled by gasses, therefore the higher is its initial speed increase, improving the maximum range of the shot. For instance, the 2136 mm tube of the German gun 77mm FK96, lengthened in 1916 to 2743 mm (version 77 mm FK16) made it possible inter alia improvements to increase the initial speed of the shell from 460m/s to 600 m/s, and as a consequence the range from 5500 m to 10500 m.
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| Famous French 75 mm scheme | Main composants of the 75 mm French gun |
The carriage was equipped with an axle receiving the wooden wheels, a trail ended with a spade to anchor the gun on the ground, an armoured shield to protect the crew, and a directional cradle for elevation pointing (between -11° and +18°) via the elevating crank and the range scale. The tube rested on the cradle by trunnions.
The gun was equipped with a hydropneumatic recuperator brake (or 'recoiling system') mechanism, intended to absorb the considerable recoiling energy at the firing on a total course of 1093 mm and to restore it automatically to draw back the gun in position without a need for re-pointing (see diagram).
Trying to give some figures, the departure of the 5.5 kg shell at the velocity of 625 m/s (at the gun muzzle) theoretically applied by reaction a backwards force of one ton approximately to the 1.14 tons gun, giving it an initial recoil speed of about 7,5 m/s... Without the brake system, the gun would have gone backwards for several meters, or, if only stopped by the spade, would have dangerously jumped on its position !
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| 75 mm fieldgun hydro-pneumatic recoiling system | 75 mm fieldgun hydro-pneumatic recoiling system - cut-through |
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75 mm hydro-pneumatic recoiling system in action :
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The shell was fixed to the cartridge containing the propelling load ('fixed' configuration). This solution highly accelerated the loading procedure of the 75 mm gun which could be done with one man only, unlike most of the other guns of the time for which shells and cartridges were often separately handled.
The ammunition was loaded and the empty cartridge ejected by the same back mechanism of the gun, called the breech, making this gun a 'breech - loader'. The handling of this device was to be fast, and had to lock in a firm and sealed way the bottom of the gun for the shooting operation. The device of the 75 mm gun, with its eccentric mechanism, was particularly well designed :
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| Closed breech, ready for the firing | Opened breech, ready for the shell loading |
The firing device was acting by percussion of a needle through the breech on the bottom primer cap of the shell, started by simple traction on a cord triggering a spring-loaded hammer.
This gun was throwing its shells up to 6860 m, at the rate of a round every 6 seconds. The French Armies had nearly 4800 specimens of this weapon in 1914 and continued producing thousands of them throughout the war : more than 17300 fielguns guns of 75mm were in service in 1918...
The contemporary modern guns of most nations at the start of WW1 had adopted the majority of the devices present on this one, with some modifications induced by their technological choices, the weapon properties or its calibre. For instance, certain models of recoiling systems were of hydro-mechanical type (oil + spring), or the breech closing mechanisms could be of the 'sliding breechblock' (Germany) or 'interrupted screw' (England and France) type.
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| Excentric screw breech system of the French 75 mm fieldgun, closed | Interrupted screw breech system of the French 155 mm Schneider Howitzer, open | Sliding block breech system of a German 10 cm field gun, half-closed |
This weapons category was dedicated to the support to the infantry units in campaign, both in offensive operations (where the gun good mobility is a necessity), and in defensive operations (where fire power is important). As a consequences the weapons of the Field Artillery were required to have good mobility properties, meaning in this time standards with horse traction and if possible in one single load. The German appelation was the 'FeldArtillerie', and the French one the 'Artillerie de Campagne'.
Its arsenal could include guns and howitzers of different calibers, whose most mobile guns and howitzers were equipping depending of the nations the Light Field Artillery (in Germany Leicht FeldArtillerie, and in France Artillerie légère de Campagne). An additional distinction was sometimes made, mainly in France and in Great-Britain between the conventional Field Artillery and the Cavalry Artillery even more mobile.
For convenience and normalisation needs, some authors (including myself in my arbitrary classification of the surviving guns on this website) are introducing a notion of Light Artillery exclusively linked to the barrel caliber, that must not be confused with the notion of Field Artillery. In the surviving guns classification I took subjectiveley the decision to limit the light artillery category to the weapons with a caliber below 120 mm.
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France began WW1 with a nice inventory of almost 4000 light field guns, essentially based on its famous 75 mm Mle 1897 fieldgun that was giving this nation an undubitable technological advantage. On the other hand, budgetary choices associated with a certain excess of confidence in its revolutionary fieldgun had France renounce to the projects of developping a light field howitzer, that was cruelly missed as soon as the first fights took place. In order to face the heavy losses and solve the issue of the relative weakness of the heavy industry power, France had to mobilize in the depots, arsenals and useless fortresses o;d and generally obsolete guns or ask for the help of private industrials (Schneider and Sain Chamond), allowing to answer the German firepower. Later, some new weapons were developped, but the industrial priority remained thoughout the war focused on the production of more 75 mm fieldguns, whose available numbers in November 1914 was no less than 5145. |
In the armies in 1914 :
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Germany entered war i 1914 with a powerful Light Field Artillery principally based on its modern 7.7 cm FK96 n/A light fieldgun and its 10.5 cm lFH 98/09 light field howitzer developped in tight collaboration with their talentueous industrials Krupp and RheinMetall, accompanied by some older weapons as reserves. Both the star weapons were given a very important evolution in 1916, improving even further their performances. Notabily, Germany was aligning in 1914 modern 10.5cm fieldguns, but they were belonging to the heavy artillery units and are therfore cited in the next catefory of this intoduction. In November 1918, Germany was able to align 11948 light field artillery pieces. |
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Austria-Hungary, rich of a good private industry (amongst it the powerful Skoda) collaborating well with the nations's arsenals, was owning good modern 76.5 mm light fieldguns and 104 mm light field howitzers, together with older guns and howitzers. One surprizing characteristic of this nation guns was the use of bronze for its barrels at the start of the war. This changed to steel with the war continuation and the arrival of new improved versions of these guns that were introduced until the end of the war. |
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At the war start, United Kingdom sent on the continetal battlefields an Expeditionnary Force weak in quantities but of a good military quality. Similarily, the numbers of artillery weapons was also quite small, based principally on its 18-Pdr and 13-pdr (lighter and designed for the cavalry artillery) light field guns, and the 4.5 in field howitzers. Unhopefully their quality was notably inferior to the one of the equivalent German and French weapons. These three models were therefore improved in several successive versions, inspired by the battlefield experience, and produces throughout the war duration in United Kingdom, but also in subcontracting UAS plants (The US army adopted a modified version capable to use the French 75 mm rounds). As a total about 10000 fieldguns of 18-Pdr, 400 of 13-Pdr and 4500 fieldhowitzers of 4.5 were produced before the end of WW1. Thes weapons equipped all the components of the British Empire armies, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand. However, for these nations, the modern guns were sometimes substituted by obsolete or lesser quality guns suc as the 15 Pdr fieldguns. |
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To be a little more complete, let us note that at the beginning of the war, Russia had 76.2 mm and 122 mm field guns of Franco-Russian design, in sufficient quantities, and Belgium had German 75 mm guns (manufactured by Cockerill in Liège under a Krupp licence), and French 120 mm. Afterwards, these nations, as well as the United States, were largely supplied with the best French and English models.
The field artillery guns and howitzers of bigger caliber, heavier but still relatively mobile (sometimes at the price of a disassembly into several loads or by havin the barrel rest on a lower position on the carriage), were incorporated in the ranks of the Heavy Field Artillery. This category was also existing in the French Army as the Artillerie Lourde de Campagne, or in Germany where it was particularily moern and well developped and could be named Schwere FeldArtillerie or Fuss Artillerie (foot artillery) in reference to its lesser motricity.
During the war, the private industries of all the belligerents, ordered so by the headquarters encountering an ever increasing need of weapons of heavy caliber while the stabilized frontline positions were making themselves stronger, developped a modern arsenal of heavy guns and howitzers, although mobile, that began to appear on the front only from 1916.
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In August 1914, France was only owning 308 mobile heavy field artillery weapons (de campain or siege), most of them being technologically obsolete. Indeed, driven by its strategic doctrine of the early XXth century, the heavy firld artillery wa snot a priority in the Army budget. Satisfied and proud of their 75 mm Mle 1897 fieldgun and preferring a movement war, the French neglected to invest in middle and heavy caliber modern guns and howitzers. In emergency, they had to extract heavy and often obsolete heavy material from the fortresses, siege units and depots as soon as the war becaoem a position one in late 1914, where the ennemy is hiding in deep shelters, bunkers or fortresses. Afterwards private industries were able to provide new modern and efficient weapons, sometimes based on their experience acquired before the war on export markets like Russia for Scheider, that were progressively introduced from 1916 and gave a real qualitative and quantitative advantage to the French artillery. The figures are self-explaining : if France only had 308 reglementary heavy field guns in its armies in August 1914 (but almost 4000 in their depots and fortresses), it was able to aling 6722 of them in 1918 ! |
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Germany was able to align in August 1914 almost 2400 heavy field guns ; heavy field guns and howitzers (536 pieces), siege (1028 pieces) or fortresses (831 pieces). At the contrary of France, this country's strategy based on the 'Schlieffen plan' was needing to equip their armies with a heavy and mobile artillery allowing to bomb the ennemiy defences before the super heavy siege artillery could enter in action ('schwertse steilfeuer artillerie'). Heavy caliber field material was therefore available in sufficient quantities as soon as 1914 in the field artillery and the siege artillery ('Fuss Artillerie'). This mobile impressive firepower was a huge contributor in the destruction of many resistance points during the movement war, and in the crushing of the trenches and strong points during the positions war. In November 1918, Germany was having more than 7660 heavy weapons available. |
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TheAustria-Hungariy Empire, faced in its different strategies to the need of reducing fortified strongholds and having a talentuous private industry able to develop heavy weapons, was equipped with similar materials than Germany. Rtaher obsolete at the war outbreak, it was quickly replaced by more moder productions. |
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United kingdom gave its 1914 Expeditionary Force a tiny quantity of, moreover with a deseperating small range. As in France, UK quickly ordered its arsenals and private gun making companies to design and build numerous heavy guns and howitzers that were able to reach the fighting units from 1915. |
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Constant fight of the sword against the shield, or the shell against the shielding, the race for the large calibers and the very long ranges brought the belligerents to the disproportion. Who never heard about the 'Big Bertha', nickname given by the German themselves ('Dicke Bertha') for the huge M-Gerät 420 mm Kurze MarineKanone engaged in front of Liège fortresses, exploding the Loncin fort with a single shell ?
Heavy caliber mortars loaded with huge shells with delay explosion mechanism in order to maximise the rupture effect, then use on long barrels initially designed for the Navy calibres, the price to pay was the weapon weight that grew continuously to reach values of several tens on tons In these conditions, if the heavy and powerful guns and mortars at the beginning of the war could still be hauled slowly and difficultly on roads after having been disassembled in several separate loads, for the ones appearing afterwards only th railway transport was possible, theerefore giving birth to the frightening and abundant Artillerie Lourde sur Voie Ferrée ('ALVF' in France), the Railway Artillery in Great-Britain, and the Eisenbahn Artillerie in Germany and Austro-Hungary.
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France had planned about no super heavy artillery in its arsenal before WW1. The only available such weapons were the old 220 and 280 mm mortars that had to be removed from the depots after the front stabilization. Also, some heavy guns manufactured by the private industry for exportation were seized at the mobilization Facing the need to destroy the solid German entrenchments in the frontline and bomb the rear logistic lines, the French Army sollicitated both its arsenals and the private gun makers to develop many real good super-heavy or long range guns (155, 194, 220, 240, 270, 280, 293, 370 mm). It is also in France that was made real for the first time the old idea to adapt Navy barrels on railway wagons and use the railway network to transfer them from one site of the frontline to the other, without having to disassemble and reasemble them before firing. This 'Artillerie Lourde sur Voie Ferrée' ('A.L.V.F.') (heavy artillery on railway) included barrels of various calibers (160, 190, 194, 200, 240, 270, 274, 293, 305, 320, 340 and 400 mm). Many of these guns had to throw they huge projectiles on their own forts in Verdun in 1916. If one day you visit the Douaumont fort, have in mind that it has been crushed by both German 42 cm and French 400 mm shells ! 480 m and 520 mm monsters were even designed, but did not participate to the conflict. These mastodonts were weighting between 24 and 65 tons, and their shells were usually taller than a man and heavier than 1 ton... In 1918, the French Arillerie Lourde de Grande Puissance ('A.L.G.P.') (High power heavy artillery) was dominating the batlefields with more than 510 such weapons available (without counting the 270 mm de Bange mortars) ! |
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Once again, it is the strategic plan of Germany that made it plan in its arsenal high power weapons designed to crush the Belgian, French and Russion fortresses that were present all over their invasion routes. As soon as in August 1918 they created a huge surprise when using howitzers and mortars with terrifying calibers of 28 cm, 30.5 cm and 42 cm, disassembled on many wagons and transported on railway, than with a lot of difficulties on roads before being re-assembled in position. They did not fail in their mission, as it can be seen still nowadays in the ruins of some of these forts that can still be visited nowadays. After 1916, the Kaiser armies, inspired by the French ALVF guns, adapted on railway wagons increasingly heavy Navy artillerie barrels that had been introduced already in massive concrete fixed positions in 1915 (15 to 38 cm), while the old 42 cm and 30.5 cm mortars xere slowly disappearing. This nation was having 200 super-heavy guns in November 1918, not taking into account the guns installed on the Belgian fortified coast. |
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Even if the production of very heavy artillery by Austro-Hungary was only dating from 1898, this nation had gathered a respectable arsenal when it entered the war, with 24 cm howitzers but even more particularily with the excellent 30.5 cm Skoda howitzer. These latter often gave some help to the German ally during most of the siege battles where the Schwerste Steilfeuer Artillerie was engaged. Amongst other actions, the Austrian 30.5 cm howitzer participated to the sieges of Namur (where they shelled my grand grand father Joseph Plumier, artilly man in the Maizeret fort), Antwerp, Maubeuge and Troyon. Later, while the 30.5 cm howitzer was improved ina new 1916 version, other very heavy weapons were also built, some of them on railway mountings. The Austria-Hungary Empire was aligning 101 30.5 cm howitzers of the different versions at its capitulation in 1918. |
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Great Britain did not provide its Expeditionary Corps with very heavy artillery weapons : only one, the prototype nicknamed 'Mother' of the 9.2 inches siege howitzer, could be engaged in August 1914. More than 500 similar mortars will be produced and used during WW1, by the different armies of the British Empire and the USA. United Kingdom engineers indeed participated quickly and efficiently to the gigantism race. Their great experience with navy guns, acquired for their famous fleet that was dominating the world's oceans, allowed them to promptly put into service different weapons from guns on static carriages with calibers up to 12 inches, to railway guns (from 9.2 to 18 inches). |
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If conventional artillery, particularily the vertical fire one, was perfectly able to destroy trenches, shelters and their inhabitants, it needed both a pretty large explosive charge (hence a large caliber) and a very good precision to obtain these effects without having to saturate the area with lots of projectiles. In August 1914, only Germany had reglementary weapons designed to launch heavy explosive charge projectiles vertically at a short range with such needed precision, with its Minenwerfers that were given to pionneers units. It did not took long before the other fighting armies had to build equivalent ordnances : while the military engineers were working hard on the design of new weapons that arrived on the front in 1915, the first stop-gap weapons that arrived in the armies were improvised results of frontline soldiers creativity.
With the apparition of these many 'trench mortars', massive, lethal and clumsy explosive charges began to rain more and more frequently on the frontline on poor terrorized muddy soldiers, shot by a multitude of weapons located in the first line trenches... Obviously, the location of the trench mortars units within infantry units positions was favourable to a far better synchronisation between them than when engaging the conventional artillery located far away behind, but on the other hand the noisy and smoky fire of the trench mortars was provoking counter-battery fire that was deadly for both the infantry and the mortars servants, often creating tensions between these soldiers ! The idea of pneumatic mortars, almost silent and not emitting smoke, adopted quickly by Austro-Hingary, was therefore also used by other nations like France.
These numerous weapons, parctically born with WW1 and so sadly famous in its memory, paradoxically had a very short life since they almost completely disappeared with the end of the conflict. Thei unoque inheritants are the small and medium infantry mortars still used nowadays by all the armies in the world, all descendants of the British Stokes mortar invented in 1915.
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France didn't have such weapons in its arsenal in August 1914. What might be the use of such a mortar in a strategy entirely based on a movement war ? The very early confrontation of its infantry men with the German minenwerfers able to turn the entrenchemnts upside down was a very expensive and painful reminder. The good old French 'DIY' spirit came as a stop-gap help, ginving birth to weapons built with German 7.7 cm and 10.5 cm empty shells and cases, about as dangerous for the ennemy than for the servants... The Army also took from the depots mortars more tha 80 years old, that had been designed by the last France King Louis-Philippe engineers to throw heavy pig iron bullets ! Their stocky and short profile gave the the name 'Crapouillots'. (French name close to 'taods') that is sometimes used by extension for other weapons of the French trench artillery. But yet in early 1915, a new and efficient mortar of 58 mm was put into service and used more and more massively to fire heavy fin tailed 'torpedoes' with a back tail that had to be inserted into the barrel. Afterwardsn numerous modern conception weapons were introduced before the end of the war (with calibers of 75, 150, 240 mm). This is the story of the 'Crapouillots', so well told by Pierre Waline in its same name book. |
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Having carefully analysed the learnings of the 1904 Rosso-Japanese war, Germany had created before 1914 a range of 3 reglementary 'Minenwerfers' of 25 cm, 17 cm and 7.6 cm for its pionner troops, whose lighter one had not yet began to be distributed at the war outburst. Used with a nice success against the Belgian, French and Russian fortresses that were encountered by the invasion routes, thess weapons interest in the position war that came soon from the end of 1914 was immediately understood by the IInd Reich armies. The production of these three reglementary weapons was therefore increased at its maximum, with additional manufacturing of several other types designed by a prolific private industry, and some frontline improvisations. |
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L'Austria-Hungary first bought German trench mortars, mainly the 9 cm types, at the war outburst. But soon various types of different calibers pretty good trench mortars were introduced with a strong contribution of this country's heavy industry including Skoda or Böhler. The old empire particularily acquired a specific know-how in pneumatic trench mortars, even if the very first ones were first also bought to Germany. |
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Having no such weapon in August 1914, Great-Britain also developped some types in emergency and a certain improvisation. If this nation's contribution to the technological race engaed in this domain was less important to the ones of France, Austria-Hungary or Germany, it is indeed one of its inventions that was one of the few to survive this conflict with the famous 'Stokes' mortar whose descendants are still present nowadays in most of the armies troughout the world. |
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WW1 marks the decline of fortresses : the fortified camps of Liège, Antwerp, Namur, Maubeuge, Reims and Verdun were crushed by tyhe shells of the formidable German heavy artillery. Whatever they resisted or surrendered, intact or as ruins, their legendary invincibility was critically questioned and France even decided to disarm them, removing most of their artillery to equip the Army.
These deep and shielded burrows were indeed most of the time artillery batteries keeping under fire access ways to a town, or invasion routes. Their guns with different calibers were still placed on parapets in the oldest forts, but in the modern ones they were protected inside thick steel retractable turrets, or wisely placed in bunkers covering the access of the structure.
The forts circling a town were placed in order to cross-fire the accesses to the cities they were defending, and were also able to fire on each other to provide some help when the enemy infantry we invading their superstructure !
The tactical credibility of these fortresses was definitely destroyed in 1940 with the quick fall of the Belgian forts and the ones of the Frech Maginot Line facing the tactical agility, the strategic boldness and the technological innovations of the IIIrd Reich.
Another technological innovation of WW1 is the birth of the tanks and the self propelled artillery. Miraculous machine finally susceptible to pass through the fortified frontline while destroying the barbed wires fields, crossing over the trenches and terrorize their inhabitants, huge hpes were placed on the first British units that were engaged on the Somme in summer 1916, and later by the French on the Aisne in spring 1917.
Though, the successes were rather deceptions for both the allies, and it took them another year before they found the good tactical use of these machines, and the ideal technological formula. If some of the tanks were only armed with machine guns, their majority was equipped with artillery weapons specially adapted.
It is only in 1918 with the coming back of the movement war that the light tanks (such as the French Renault FT) became essential components of the allies victory. Germany never really believed in the utility of the tanks and only dedicated a tiny part of its war effort that had to be spared carefully because of the maritime blocus : only few and cumbersome German-designed tanks were engaged at the side of captured british tanks re-armed with captured Belgian guns. At the end of the conflict, some self propelled heavy artillery placed on tracked carriages was beginning to be distributed, but came too late to really take a part in the fight.
Before WW1, the military power of a nation was often particularily judged on the basis of its war fleet power. In 1914 huge steel shielded ships equipped with the most technologically advanced guns were composing the fleets of the Great Britain, the USA, France, Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany. Some of these barrels were also used as coastal defence weapons on the shore.
All this arsenal was very little used in fight during the conflict, at the rare exception of very few deep sea battles, or even more rare amphibious operations (like the Dardannelles). While the German and Astria-Hungary units were kept safe in their harbours, the British fleet was mainly used for the maritime blocus of Germany and the scort of the merchant ships convoys between USA and United Kingdom, France and Russia, that were attacked by German submarines, another innovation of WW1. The French and Italian fleets were mainly engaged in the Mediterranean sea for its domination.
Some countries like France and Germany took advantage if this relative inaction topartially disarm some of their ships or coastal defence units or take their spare barrels, and use these guns to create a heavy artillery or even a high power artillery. Germany also used numerous Navy heavy guns with their crews for the defence of the Belgian littoral, in a early and over-armed version of the future Atlantic Wall.
Most of the nations were already using balloons and airships for about a century when the WW1 started, but the use of the airplanes by the armies is another innovation of the Great War. Pathfinders, artillery guides, fighters or bombers, these machines were subject to an impressive evolution during the 4 years of conflict.
The anti-aicraft artillery that had been invented during the XIXth cebtury was designed for the fight against airships, but it was insufficient technically and in quantity to be a real threat against the quick and agile airplanes. Between 1914 and 1918 all the nations in war had to develop the weapons, the ammunitions and the tactics adapted to this new threat, and manufacture many of them.
CThis movement can be illustrated by the evolution of the quantity of the French AA guns that went from 1 single gun available in August 1914 to 404 in November 1918. During the first years of the war, these weapons were first often manufactured on the basis of fieldguns, mainly captured to the enemy for Germany. Later, specifically designed barrels appeared, among them the ancestor of the future famous German 88 flak gun of WW2.
At the end of the XIXth century, most of the nations armies included guns that their arsenals had developped specifically for the mountain war. Moreover, the private gunmakers had also detected a worldwide market and were proposing such weapons for exportation. The specification for this material always imposed the portability by soldiers or animals, often involving the need to dismantle the gun in lighter separate pieces. It was also necessary theses weapons were nor cumbersome so that they coul be set in position in small surfaces. Last but not least they should, despite their reduced size and caliber, provide sufficient fire power and have a wide range in aiming angle including negative valuess.
Nothing strange that Austria-Hungary, whose Empire was widely occupied by mountaine, had held the leadership in the technological race in this demoain and put into service an impressive range of mountain artillery material. But Italy, France, Great Britain and Germany also developped and used such weapons. As an example, France started the war with 120 mountain guns of 65 mm, and still had 96 in November 1918.
Viiting a former WW1 battlefield nowadays is enough to understand the terrifying effects of this conflict artillery. Grround turned upside down, several meters wide and deep shell holes side to side or superposed, the destruction of the defensive positions is often total, to such a point the infantry were obliged to use the shell holes to protect themselves when the trenches, shelters or bunkers had disappeared.
The fire power was phenomenal and never stopped to grow during the years of war. The immense majority of the fighting nations industrial power was dedicated to this weapon. From the first battles of the movement war in summer 1914 to the big offensives prepared by artillery crushing for days the stronger and stronger enemy positions, the evolving fugures are self-sepaking and incredible...
Some examples :
Other clues of this fire storm are offering themselves to any visitor of a former battlefield, just by a simple attentive view on the debris that can still be found : quantities of lead balls vomited by the shrapnell shells, deadly steel fragments of all sizes resulting from the deflagration of high explosive shells, heavy and massive fuzes, shrapnell or chemical shell envelopes. even sometimes traces of explosives... So much explosive and heavy materials sent at a speed of several hundres meters per second on limited areas had devastating effects on the terrains and soldiers.
It is a real men chopper that fell down on the troops taken under heavy shelling. and the wounds were often horrible and lethal. The wounded who survived remained deeply marked in their flesh and their mind, crippled and traumatized.
Disintegrated bodies, men cut in pieces, ripped off limbs, disfigured faces, soldiers bleeding to death by huge open wounds or internal hemorragies whose only external visible sign was the small hole created by a tiny shrapnell, organs destroyed by the explosion shock , bodies projected in the air and broken, intoxicated men, blinded, asphyxied, burnt, ... 80% of the Great War casualties were caused by artillery effects.
In some cases, just the secondary effects killed or wounded with the same efficiency : bodies projected away and internally destroyed by the shockwave, burnt by the explosion heat and flames, buried alive in the destoyed shelters, psychologic shock momently incapacitating or driving mad forever.
The Great War was the war of artillery, although its role did not allow any of the nations to win the decisive victory. This terrifying conflict allowed it to progress at an incredible speed in some years only, and gave it a key role in the battles that it will never receive again in the next wars. But above all, WW1 artillery has been the bigger mass killer of this conflict that still remains in the peoples mind as a bloody trail of physical suffering and inhumanity.
