Landships II

ivstefano · Captain

Unknown bronze gun from Belgrade

Centurion · Legend

Thats an early Krupp sliding wedge breech. I think that this gun may well be the original Krupp breech loader of the 1860s. This is the Prussian gun that in the Austro Prussian war is alleged to have killed more Prussians than Austrians. The breech mechanism was faulty and kept blowing out and killing the gun crew. The same gun was in service with the Russian army (amongst others) and in the Khanate wars did just the same. The scandal nearly ruined Krupp both finacially and personally (all the guns had to be replaced at no cost and only Krupp's high level contacts and persoal clients kept him out of jail). I suspect that this gun may have been recarriaged. I doubt that it would have been used in WW1 unless they found a gun crew that was either very brave, very stupid or very suicidal (and perhaps all three).

ivstefano · Captain

Thanks Centurion!

Well all 3 at the same time might sound good enough. Probably this gun was used in the Serbian-Bulgarian War and probably up to the WW1. The guns were made in Krgujevac factory in Serbia under license too, but there sophisticated weapons were produced as Maxim guns and Mauser rifles. I have no doubt that this gun was used as long as there was the ammo for it�

Best,

I

SASH155 · Major

I looked closely at the photos, and have come to the conclusion that this is an Austro-Hungarian 9cm M.75/96 field gun, probably captured from them by the Serbs during the war. Most early Austro-Hungarian breechloaders were bronze guns (whereas after 1873, Krupp preferred steel), essentially using the improved Krupp C73 pattern breech design employing Broadwell rings for obturation. The 1896 version was modified to use smokeless propellants. This gun is on the standard field carriage, but they were also used on siege and garrison carriages, and some were mounted in fortresses on an M.04 casemate carriage characterized by a rudimentary recoil system, small steel wheels, shield (some of the field carriages like the one seen here had shields added later), and double elevation arcs attached to the side of the ordnance.