Mountain howitzer Berger system 75mm L / 11 mod.1904
It is a mountain howitzer that is registered as designed by the German company "Berger & C°" of the city of Witten - Ruhr (before 1904 the factory had changed his name to "Gussstahl Werk Witten AG").
There is a possibility that it may have been made in France under license.
It is quite possible that the factory has delivered it to Arsenal de Guerra Argentino to be proven and tested, with the possibility that the Argentine Army will buy it (it would be a case such as to the mortar Schneider 22cm Modelo Argentino 1928)
It is preserved in the Museo de Armas de la Nación del Círculo de Militar
This cannon was not put into active service in the Argentine Army, and what is most striking is its particular recoil brake system.
It uses a strong spring similar to that used by the Krupp Model Argentino 1898, but instead of stopping the recoil by fixing one of its ends with a plowshare and the other subject to the carriage, it uses a oscillating rocker arm system that turns on the axis of its carriage, and acts by compressing or stretching the spring
At the top of that rocker there is a fork where the trunnions of the barrel tube are fixed, which allows, by means of a toothed sector and gears moved by a flywheel, to increase or decrease the angle of the barrel tube with respect to the horizontal position and thereby modify the range of the weapon.
It also has a system of horizontal rotation of the fork that allows pointing in direction.
It used a breech block of sliding block very similar to those of the 7.7cm Feldkanone C / 96 (FK 96 a / A) with opening or closing of two movements.
The "Berger" cannon was not adopted by the Argentine army- it's very likely that the single piece shown was either purchased for testing purposes, of simply donated by the manufacturer.
The Schneider 220 mm mortar, in the other hand was one of a number of Schneider designs adopted in 1928 and purchased by the Argentie Army. They were intended to equip the "Very Heavy" Groups of the Artillery- but it was not a donation at all...
The "Berger" cannon was not adopted by the Argentine army- it's very likely that the single piece shown was either purchased for testing purposes, of simply donated by the manufacturer.
The Schneider 220 mm mortar, in the other hand was one of a number of Schneider designs adopted in 1928 and purchased by the Argentie Army. They were intended to equip the "Very Heavy" Groups of the Artillery- but it was not a donation at all...
Ahead of the breech opening crank, a circular box is seen that is connected to the trunnion of the barrel, and possibly contains a watch-type flat spring that acts as equilibrator (like at the Oerlikon 20mm Argentine Model).
There is another “Berger” cannon in the Museo de Armas de la Nación del Círculo de Militar, and it is a Berger field gun 65mm L14 mod. 1871. (Nº597)
Its breech block combines a simple breech-loading system with the use of projectile and projection load separated, and uses as gas obturator a "ring Broadwell".
The Krupp factory in Essen used this type of "Broadwell” system in their breech-loading guns at that time, but Krupp had declined to a manufacturing association with Mr. LW.Broadwell to produce their weapons. So that “Berger Factory - Witten“ manufactured many copies of their cannons under license.
This plaque indicates that that was part of the material destined to the “Parque de Artillería” (Arsenals) of the Argentine Army (that is to say that it was part of the material of war of our army)
