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SURVIVING GUN FILE (# 1330)
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France
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Fortress artillery
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Contributor :
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Location :
France Villey le Sec (54) Fort de Villey
Coordinates :
Lat : 48.65807 / Long : 5.97336
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General comments on this surviving gun :
Fort de Villey le Sec : http://www.villeylesec.fr/VILLEY_LE_SEC_WEB/
Identical items in the same location :
2
Items covered by this file : 2 |
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One of the few survivors of the 25 Mougin turrets built |
View on the classic breech systems of the 155 de Bange barrels |
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Historic and technical information
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Denomination :     155 L Mle 1877 sous tourelle | Origin :       ( Arsenaux de l'Etat)           | ||||
Historic context :
In 1876 France adopted its very first armored artillery turrets, result of the studies of the 'Commission des Cuirassements' and the Commandant Mougin. These very large devices (6 m diameter) in hard iron, with the shape of a inverted bowl and non retractable were equipped with two tubes of 'canons de 155 L Mle 1877 de Bange, sur châssis St Chamond Mle 1881. They needed a 26 men crew for their service.'.
The Mougin turrets remained in service anyhow, and experiments made in 1901 in the Fort de Pagny-la-Blanche-Côte near Toul gave some improvements that allowed the modernization of some of them. In 1914, they still armed numerous forts and some participated to the battle in Lille and in Manonvilliers. Meanwhile the Captain Galopin, from the Section Technique du Génie used the conclusions of the Chalon experiments to propose a new retractable turret in 1889, equipped with an ingenious elevation mechanism based on counterwights, much more rapid (4.5 seconds cycle time) and reliable. Still armed with the same 155 L de Bange guns, the 'Tourelle à éclipse Galopin Mle 1890 pour deux canons de 155 L' price proved even higher (4 times !) than the Mougin turrets, so that only 5 such devices were built by the Schneider company between 1891 and 1897. |
Technical data :
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Sources
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