I'm curretly researching the Hotchkiss 42mm mountain guns used by Chinese army in late 19th and early 20th century, at least 24 were purchased in 1895 to make up for the huge loss of guns in the Sino-Japanese War 1894-95. From contemporary Chinese manuals and photos it is clear that these guns had field carriages with two ammunition boxes and a retractable tail wheel, and a limber with additional 3 boxes, which are rather different from the mountain guns commonly used by the US Army at that time.
However I did find that at least a few of the US guns also had very similar carriage and/or limber. Photos of this type appeared in a Hotchkiss advertisement in Army and Navy Journal in 1894, and even more interesting is a photo from the book 'American Breech Loading Mobile Artillery 1875-1953' which is said to be a gun on display in Honululu.
I really would like to know if there are more/clearer photos of this type of carriage and limber, and if they were sold to any other countries beside China and the US. Also, is the Honululu gun still surviving?
Thank you for the info! As you have shown the information on 42mm Hotchkiss gun itself is relatively abundant (except for it being carried by camels which I have not heard of before).
I am more curious about the type of carriage with 2 ammunition boxes, tail wheel and limber, which were used by Chinese and at least some of the American Hotchkiss guns, but seems to be rather lesser-known (probably only constructed in small numbers?). Any good photos and/or additional information about this type of carriage would be extremely helpful.
Thank you for the info. That's interesting, maybe these were only built in relatively small numbers.
I tend to believe these are two different carriages - the carriage used with limber had, except the ammunition boxes, also had a small retractable tail wheel which is clearly shown in the Chinese manual and the photo from 1894 advertisement (which I attach a larger picture), and also in the Honululu gun if you look carefully. And from the American drawings of the common mountain carriage, the axis seems to be too short to take the ammunition boxes (see attachment).
Actually a similar carriage appeared in a Maxim-Nordenfelt mountain gun of the same caliber, which also had a mountain carriage with shorter axis and no ammunition boxes.
I agree that 1896 Hotchkiss catalogue may contain such pieces as it was advertised in the US in 1894 and sold to China in 1895. But unfortunately I cannot find it either.
Do you have pictures of guns with brackets in front of the carriage?