At the moment I am happily & productively in a kit bashing pahse doing WWI Artillery conversions. I have post several on this site & have 3 more to finish writing up & then to post.
In reviewing things for my next project I noticed that I have a small stack of 10 to 11mm spoked wheels sitting unused.
The Request:
Can people plse suggest WWI support weapons on wheeled carriages that would have wheels about 2 feet to 30 inches in diameter? Could they plse provide pictures & / or drawings? A reference, comment or link over users, scale of deployment etc would also be appreciated!
Yes I know this is odd. I just feel that there were so many things tried / used that these wheels must have a productive use! I will also be scowering for things as well.
What about the 7.58cm leichte Minenwerfer n.A - the wheels were about 30" diameter. There are drawings on Landships and lots of reference images at www.ammsbrisbane.com.
Thanks, a good option. I am also looking at the Russian 37mm Rossenburg infantry gun, which has some good pics on this site but have no measurements to scale it by.
Had crossed my mind, but 2 problems - no one in the group is doing Belgians & there is a critical lack of dogs! Case of "Bugger!" as one of our more infamous adds puts it.
There's 4 messenger dogs in the HaT German heavy weapons set no doubt easily converted. On the front page of one of the Osprey books there's a photograph of a dog cart (think with a Maxim on the back) and two or three British soldiers, don't know if the British acquired some in 1914 on loan from the Belgians?
PDA, re the 3.7" the data I have gives wheels of more than 3 feet so those I have spare are too small by several millimetres. That aside thanks for the link to the photos as I have the 3.7" in my longer term sights.
-- Edited by Brennan on Sunday 7th of March 2010 12:24:23 AM
Rob, the Brit dog drawm MG was an off the cuff experiment (Guards? I think) it did not go well as the dogs were not sufficently trained & / or not the right breeds.
Re dogs in German box, I had forgotten about them as (here I'm guilty) I swopped them a while back. The Revell WWII Russian pack has a cossack leading a "horse" which looks much more like a mule, so I swopped. I have a part finished (hit a snag) conversion of them so I could have pack mule carried MG's for my Sebian Cavalry! The snag was with the cavalry & the correct way of packing the MG08? Still considering the pics on this one at the moment.
-- Edited by Brennan on Sunday 7th of March 2010 12:23:18 AM
far as I can see there were two types of Belgian carts. One with rubber tyred wheels and one with wooden wheels. The rubber tyre seemed to be specially built for the Maxim, the wooden for the Hotchkiss. The last one looks more like the traditional milk cart, the MG just put on it. Don't know if the other belligerents used dog carts too?
the first, a Cockerill-Nordenfelt is a 57mm. I am trying to get more views of them too. They are both in the Brussel museum. The 77mm is 335 high, and the tractor seat intrigues me, wonder if the elevating guy stays on it when the gun fires.
Well I Bloody wouldn't when that contraption fired, blimey!. Other than fortress use do you know what the Cockerill-Nordenfelt was used for? I know the Roumanian's had some Mountain Batterries with 12 Krupp 57mm in each (I think 3 batterries). Some of the Balkan Border units are also recorded as using Hotchkiss & Krupp light QF's in the field as well.
did some quick searching..this short barrelled 57mm was used as a mobile back up so to speak in Belgian fortresses, rolled out behind the infantry positions. If they were only used that way, you have to build a fortress on your war game table...guess that's your reason for asking.. Wikipedia mentions that they were used in the A7V German tank. If that's correct? I don't think they were used as field artillery. May be the Belgians took some with them in the retreat from Antwerp but that's my speculation.