Historic context :

Showing in its abundant catalog very modern and powerful modern weapons designed within the scope of the contracts obtained for the modernization of the Russian Artillery at the beginning of the XXth century, the French company Schneider based in Le Creusot was proposing a heavy fieldgun with a power bigger than the one of the 75 Mle 1897 gun. This material was adopted by the French army one year before the war outbreak under the name '105mm Mle 1913'.

Italy showed a real interest for this gun that could take in some conditions some of the missions usually given to the light field howitzers, with a similar firepower but a much longer range. As soon as in July 1914 and despite tha alliance with Germany that existed at that period, an order was secretly given to the Italian company Ansaldo that was in close collaboration with Schneider. The Italian specification did not impose big changes, one of the most important being some differences in the direction aiming system.

The first of these 'Canone da 105/28' arrived on the front in September 1916, and 14 heavy field artillery groups (of 3 batteries with 4 guns in each) were constituted by the end of 1916. The production reached 2050 such guns from 1915 to 1919 (according to some sources, thes figures would instead be 1730 newbuilds and 1131 modified Russian 106.7mm Putilov. Many of these guns arrived too late in the army to take an effective part to the WW1, but this weapon manufacturing continued after the armistice and 945 such guns were still active in the 1940 Italian army.

Technical data :

• Complete description : 105 mm L/28 Schneider/Ansaldo fieldgun
• Design year : 1917
• Calibre : 105.00 mm
• Weight in firing position : 2470 kg
• Weight for transportation :
• Tube length in calibres : 28.00
• Grooves : 40 constant angle 7degrees to the right
• Projectile weight : 15.5 kg à 15.7 kg
• Initial speed : 555 m:s to 583 m/s
• Fire rate :
• Range : 10400 m to 12800 m
• Elevation range : -5 / +37 degrees
• Direction range : 14 degrees field