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SURVIVING GUN FILE (# 185)
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Belgium

Canon de campagne de 7c5 GP III

Light artillery

Contributor :
Bernard Plumier      http://www.passioncompassion1418.com
     
     
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Location :
Belgium
Brussels
Musée Royal de l'Armée
Coordinates : Lat : 50.84410 / Long : 4.39480
General comments on this surviving gun :


Identical items in the same location : 1
Items covered by this file : 1

This gun did not participate to WW1 as a Belgian weapon despite the markings on the shield, but its components probably did as a German gun

Breech markings : "n°28 - M28 - Gs127 - Rh. M."


Historic and technical information
Denomination :     7c5 GP III Origin :       ( A.C.M.A.)             ( Cockerill )             ( Krupp )

Historic context :

With the transformation of the conflict into a position war fromthe end of 1914, the characteristics of the field artillery guns designed for flat trajectory fire at sight and good mobility became less adapted to the new needs of the battlefield. The Belgian engineers of the Ateliers de Construction de Matériel d'Artillerie regrouped in Le Havre, in France, started to work on the design of a new gun, based on the very good German 7.7cm FK 16 fieldgun, using numerous elements of the captured German guns and able to shoot the French 7mm Mle 1897 ammunition. The first tests only took place in spring 1918.

The abundant material abandoned by the retraeting German army in autumn 1918 or given after the war as compensations allowed the Belgium industry to realize an ambitious program after 1919, based on 3 models of new fieldguns :

  • the 'canon de 75mm GP I' was built with a German 10.5 cm lFH16 field howitzer carriage adapted to receive an elongated version of the Belgian 7c5 M1905 TR fieldgun barrel
  • the 'canon de 75mm GP II' was a German 7.7cm FK 16 fielggun carriage mofified to receive the same elongated version of the Belgian 7c5 M1905 TR fieldgun barrel.
  • finally, the 'canon de 75mm GP III' was a German 7.7cm FK 16 fielgun re-bored at 75mm calibre by the Etablissements Cockerill.

Produced in 318 items, this latter model became, side to side with the Krupp origin 75 mm TR/TRA 1905, the backbone of the Belgian fieldartillery until 1940. Numerous guns were captured and used by the Wehrmacht afterwards.

Technical data :

  • Complete description : GP III 7.5 cm fieldgun
  • Design year : 1918
  • Calibre : 75.00 mm
  • Weight in firing position : 1390 kg
  • Weight for transportation : 2687 kg
  • Tube length in calibres : 37.30 (total length) - 29.7 calibres rifled part only
  • Grooves : 0
  • Projectile weight : 7.34 kg
  • Initial speed : 600 m/s
  • Fire rate : 12 rounds / min
  • Range : 11000 m
  • Elevation range : -8 to +35 degrés
  • Direction range : 60 millièmes


Sources
  • L'Artillerie Légère de Campagne Belge de 1900 à 1940 - Tome I           Colonel Roger Lothaire                   Editions du Patrimoine Militaire   2011  
  • L'Artillerie Légère de Campagne Belge de 1900 à 1940 - Tome II       Colonel Roger Lothaire                   Editions du Patrimoine Militaire   2012  
  • Artillerie im 20. Jahrhundert       Franz Kosar                   Bernard und Graefe   2004