Historic context :

The old 'Uchatius' 9cm M 1875 fieldgun, slightly modernized in 1896 by the addition of a spring spade recoil recuperator, was the standard fieldgun of the Austro-Hungarian army at the end of the XIXth century. The increasing age of these weapons as well as their performances increasing inferiority compared to the modern quick firing guns that were more and more adopted by the other nations induced the country to consider the design of a new brand new fieldgun.

As everywhere in Europe in this period, experiments were taking place on recoil recuperation systems allowing the design of quick firing guns/ However, the materials tested by the commission that had been created on this purpose were never found entirely satisfactory. The tests period was prolongated so long that in 1900 the Emperor himself, faced to the alarming diminution of the quantities of available fieldguns in the units as well as the impressive improvement of the field artillery weapons in the other major European nations, commanded a choice to be made vas soos as possible, even if this induced the designation of an 'almost perfect' gun only...

Pressed this way, the commission adopted a design consisting of a lightened fieldgun (1000 kg being the maximum weight recommended for a good mobility) at the cost of a calibre diminution, with a 'Nemetz' eccentric screw breech and having no other recoil recuperation system than a spade spring. Named '8 cm M 1899',this new weapon that was initially ordered to equip 3 batteries of 6 guns each by the end of 1900 was indeed only a minor evolution of the old gun that it was supposed to replace and had been designed 25 years ago. It was placing Austro-Hungaria in clear technological inferiority compared to Germany, France, Great-Britain and other nations !

This weapon was never distributed to the army units, because of the appearance of the quick firing Ehrardt fieldgun that made clear this gun would be obsolete even before it would be deilvered to the batteries...

Technical data :

• Complete description : 8 cm light fieldgun M 1899
• Design year : 1899
• Calibre : 76.50 mm
• Weight in firing position : 915 kg
• Weight for transportation :
• Tube length in calibres : 28.00
• Grooves : 0 unknown
• Projectile weight :
• Initial speed : 500 m/s
• Fire rate : 6 to 8 rounds / minute
• Range : 6100 m
• Elevation range : unknown
• Direction range : unknown