History and artifacts are all around us. During the authors travels, this particular piece of artillery was spotted in a shaded area in the town square of Polk City Iowa. It is part of a veteran's memorial. As the author examined the piece, it became apparent that the gun was only the barrel of a former artillery piece. So, the author started digging into the history of the piece. An inquiry was made online at "The Cannon Club" Which is a facebook page dedicated to cannon collectors and those who study historic artillery, and the author also did some digging on his own. As it turns out this gun turned out to be a barrel of a "French 75mm Gun" The history of this gun is significant, because this new technology made this gun very valuable on the battlefield. The French 75mm gun was a rapid-fire gun and could fire fifteen artillery shells per minute.
As a German soldier wrote in his diary during the Battle of the Marne:
"September —. The attack is violent on the outside; we remain close together, man to man, inundated by the shell from the French artillery. It is a fire of hell."
When the U.S. became involved in World War I, space on ships was limited and manpower had priority over heavy equipment, so American troops often used French heavy equipment, including this 75mm field gun. An early adaption of the weapon was for anti-aircraft purposes. Interestingly, the German Army, which had found their comparable field piece unsuitable for this purpose, used captured French 75s to defend against Allied aircraft."
-Roads to the Great War Edward Thomas Roads
Video from youtube channel "Wardaddy"
Photo from "Roads of the Great War"
no. 16639
Dated 1917
More Can be found at
No comments:
Post a Comment