Landships II

PDA · Legend

Can You ID this Italian Gun?

James H · Legend

It would seem to be a 149mm howitzer:

http://www.it-au-1915-1918.com/ital_geschuetze_4.htm

http://www.landships.freeservers.com/149mm_krupp_obice149-12_walkaround.htm

CharlieC · Legend

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I agree the basic gun is a 149mm Krupp M12 but the carriage, shield and apparently the recoil assembly were redesigned by Ansaldo. it looks like Ansaldo also increased the maximum elevation of the gun - the original M12 had a max. elevation of 43 deg.

It's notable that this howitzer has rear positioned trunnions like the sFH 13.

I think the bottom line of the breech ring markings says the barrel weight is 870 kg - about the same as the sFH 13.

Regards,

Charlie

-- Edited by CharlieC on Sunday 17th of July 2011 12:34:44 PM

-- Edited by CharlieC on Sunday 17th of July 2011 12:39:15 PM

PDA · Legend

Thank you.

I typed in some of those clues and found some more pictures. There's one of these in the Brussels Army Museum, and it looks very similar - carriage, limber, muzzle etc.

Looking at those photos, it seems to me that it's just the wheels that are odd - am I mistaken?

And, I confess, I was confused: is this an Italian made gun, or is it a gun made by Krupp that Ansaldo have added to/modified? But I see from Peter Kempf's article that this gun is an Italian made copy of a Krupp design, "The 149mm howitzer was a German design, made by Krupp, but many, if not most, were built in Italy under license."

I just took those snaps in passing, thinking it was just another leftover gun from some forgotten incident. But it seems, to my mind at least, that this is a rather old and rather valuable piece that should be better cared for. Shame there's no room and no money (if I was a rich man...).