Canon de 75 modèle 1897
| Canon de 75mm Modele 1897 | |
|---|---|
 Canon de 75 Modèle 1897 on display in Les Invalides. | |
| Type | Regimental artillery field gun |
| Place of origin | France |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1897–1945 |
| Used by | France, United States, Poland, Belgium, Romania, Germany, Finland |
| Wars | Boxer Rebellion,World War I, Polish-Bolshevik War, World War II |
| Production history | |
| Designed | 1891–96 |
| Produced | 1897–1940? |
| No. built | 21,000+ |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 1190 kg |
| Barrel length | 2721 mm (36 calibre (2.70 m, 106 inch)) |
| Crew | 6 |
| Shell | High-explosive, shrapnel, anti-tank (5.97-7.25 kg) 7.24 kg / 15.96 lb shrapnel shell |
| Caliber | 75 mm / 2.95 in |
| Carriage | Horse-drawn (6 horses), Artillery tractors |
| Elevation | -11° to +18° |
| Traverse | 6° |
| Rate of fire | 15/min |
| Muzzle velocity | 529 m/s / 1735 ft/s |
| Effective firing range | 7000 m with normal ammunition |
| Maximum firing range | 6.85 km / 7480 yd |
The French 75mm field gun is a quick-firing field artillery piece developed before World War I and serving into World War II. It was commonly known as the French 75, or at times simply the 75 or Soixante Quinze. It introduced, for the first time in field artillery history, a hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism which permitted very high rates of fire while the gun's aim remained unaffected by the recoil. It was entirely manufactured at State-controlled arsenals, principally at Atelier de Construction de Puteaux. The French 75's official designation was: Materiel de 75mm Mle 1897. It is not to be confused with the Schneider manufactured "Canon de 75mm Mle 1912" used by French cavalry, and its 1914 modification. Although they fired the original French 75's ammunition, these privately manufactured Schneider guns were lighter, smaller and mechanically different.
Development
The forerunner of the French 75 was an experimental 57mm gun which was first tested in September 1891 at Bourges arsenal. It pulled together a comprehensive package of the most advanced artillery techniques available at the time:
- 1) Vieille's smokeless powder invented in 1884.
- 2) Self-contained ammunition : the powder charge was in a brass case which held the shell.
- 3) An early hydro-pneumatic short-recoil mechanism designed by Lt Baquet .
- 4) A rotating screw breech, soon to appear on the 75mm field gun , built under licence from Thorsten Nordenfelt .
The following year, General Mathieu, the leader of French artillery, requested to upgrade this prototype to a 75mm field gun. The project was taken over by Lt-Colonel Deport at " Atelier de Construction de Puteaux." It took five more years under the leadership of Mathieu's successor, General Deloye, to perfect and finally adopt the Deport long-recoil field gun. Various deceptions, some of them linked to the Dreyfus Case, had been implemented by General Deloye and French counter-intelligence to distract German espionage.
The new 75mm field gun was functional by the summer of 1894, but difficulties persisted in keeping the recoil mechanism pressure tight. Hydraulic fluid leakage was typical of this experimental phase of artillery development. For example, Conrad Haussner's hydro-pneumatic system, patented in 1891, had been rejected by the Germans for this very reason.
In December 1894, Lt-Colonel Deport (1846-1929) was passed over for promotion and resigned to join a private armament firm. Two young engineers who had worked under him, Captains Ste Claire Deville and Rimailho, carried on with the project and brought it to fruition in 1896. Their essential contribution was a leak-proof hydro-pneumatic long-recoil mechanism they called "Frein II." It kept high internal pressures almost indefinitely and under the worst field conditions. Captain Ste Claire Deville (1857-1944) designed additional features of importance such as an automatic device for piercing the fuses of shrapnel shells to desired bursting distances, while firing was in progress. The two independent sights had also been perfected for easy field use by the crews. A nickel-steel shield protected the gunners. The gun was adopted on March 28,1898 under the official name of " Materiel de 75mm Mle 1897. "
The French 75 fired two types of shells, in 1914, with a muzzle velocity of 500 meters/second and a maximum range of 6,900 meters: a 5.3 kg slightly delayed ( 0"05) impact-fused, high-explosive (HE) thin-walled steel shell designed to explode at a man's height after having bounced forward off the ground ( the 75 had a low angle trajectory). A melted explosive called trinitrophenol, picric acid or "Melinite", was used since 1888 to fill French artillery shells and: a 7.24 kg time-fused shrapnel shell containing 290 lead balls which were shot forward, at the instant of bursting high above ground. Later during WW-1 several new shells and fuses were introduced (because trench warfare had changed the rules) including a shell that could reach up to 11,000 meters. All the shell types were fixed to brass cartridges which were automatically ejected when the breech was opened. The French 75 had introduced a new concept in artillery technology: quick firing without having to re-align the gun on its target after it had been fired. The old artillery had to be re-sighted after each shot in order to stay on target and thus fired no more that 2 aimed shots per minute . The French 75 easily delivered 15 aimed rounds per minute and could fire even faster for short periods of time. This rate of fire, the gun's accuracy and the lethality of the ammunition, made the French 75 superior to all other regimental field artillery in existence at the time. When made ready for action, the first shot buried the rear spade and the two wheel anchors into the ground, following which all other shots were fired from an entirely stable platform. The gun was unable to elevate beyond 18 degrees, unless the rear spade had been deeply buried into the ground: the 75mm field gun was not designed for plunging fire. The gun could be laid horizontally within a narrow, but sufficient 6 degrees without moving the wheels.
World War I Service
French artillery entered the war in August 1914 with more than 4000 Mle 1897 75mm field guns (1000 batteries of 4 guns each). The Mle 1897 75mm field gun was manned by highly trained crews led by officers recruited among graduates of engineering schools. Men recruited from the countryside took care of the 6 horses that pulled each gun and its first caisson. Another 6 horses pulled the 2 additional caissons which were assigned to each gun. Over 17,500 Mle 1897 75mm field guns were produced during WWI, over and above the 4,100 French 75's which were already deployed by the French Army in August 1914.
All the essential parts, including the gun's barrel and the hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanisms were manufactured by French State arsenals: Puteaux, Bourges, Chatellerault and St Etienne. A truck-mounted anti-aircraft version of the French 75 was assembled by the automobile firm of De Dion-Bouton and adopted in 1913.
The total production of 75mm shells during WWI exceeded 200 million rounds, mostly by private industry. In order to ramp-up shell production from 20,000 rounds per day to 100,000 in 1915, the government turned to civilian contractors and, as a result, shell quality deteriorated. This led to an epidemic of burst barrels which afflicted 75mm artillery during 1915. Colonel Ste Claire Deville confronted the crisis (defects in the base of the shells, due to shortcuts in manufacturing) and the problems were corrected. Shell quality came back by September 1915, but never to the full exacting standards of pre-war manufacture.
The American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in France used the Mle 1897 French 75 in large numbers; 480 American 75mm batteries of 4 guns each were in the field, by November 1918. As an aside, Captain Harry S Truman was a 75mm battery commander during Meuse-Argonne in September-October 1918 (Battery "D",129th Field Artillery). The favorable experience with this weapon had led to its adoption by the U.S. Army in May 1918. Manufacturing of the French 75 by U.S. industry begun in the spring of 1918. Carriages were manufactured by Willys-Overland, the hydro-pneumatic recuperators by the Singer Manufacturing Co and Rock Island Arsenal, the barrels by Symington-Anderson and Wisconsin Gun Company. Of the 1050 French 75s built in the U.S.A. by April 1919, 143 were shipped to France before the Armistice of November 11,1918.
The French 75 gave its best performances during the Battle of the Marne in August-September 1914 and at Verdun in 1916. The contribution of 75mm artillery in these two battles, and thus to the French victories that ensued, was perceived at the time as quantitatively important. In the case of Verdun, over 1,000 French 75's (250 batteries) were constantly in action, night and day, on the battlefield during a period of nearly nine months. The total consumption of 75mm shells at Verdun during the period February 21 to September 30,1916, is documented by the public record at Service Historique de l'Armee de Terre to have been in excess of 16 million rounds, or nearly 70% of all shells fired by French artillery during that battle. The French 75 was a devastating anti-personnel weapon against waves of infantry attacking in the open , as at the Marne and Verdun. However its shells were comparatively light and lacked the power to obliterate trench works, concrete bunkers and deeply buried shelters. Thus,eventually, the French 75 batteries became routinely used to open corridors, with high-explosive shells, across the belts of German barbed wire. Finally, after 1916, the 75 batteries also became the carriers of choice to deliver toxic gas shells, including mustard gas and phosgene.
The French Army had to wait until 1917 to receive the modern heavy field artillery ( e.g. the 155mm Schneider howitzers and the long range 155mm GPFs ) that was virtually absent in 1914. In the meantime it had to do with the old de Bange 155mm converted siege artillery, without recoil brakes, that was inferior in rate of fire and mobility to the modern and more numerous German heavies. The excessive reliance on the 75mm field gun, a doctrine developed by the General Staff during the pre-war years, cost hundreds of thousands of French lives that were lost during the unsuccessful Joffre offensives ( Artois/Champagne) that took place during the year 1915.
World War II Service
Despite obsolescence brought on by new developments in artillery design by World War II, large numbers of 75s were still in existence in 1939 (4,500 in the French army alone) and they eventually found their way into a number of unlikely places. Some had been delivered to Poland in the 1920's, together with infantry ordnance, in order to fight the Bolsheviks. They were known as 75mm Armata Polowa wz.1897/17. In 1939 the Polish army had 1374 of these guns, making it by far the most numerous artillery piece in Polish service.
Some French guns were modernised between the wars, in part to adapt it for anti-tank fire, resulting in the Canon de 75 Mle 1897/33 which fired a special armor piercing shell. Many were captured by Germany during the Fall of France in 1940, in addition to many Polish guns captured in 1939. Over 600, renamed 7.5 cm PaK 97/38, were mounted on a 5 cm PaK 38 carriage and put to use by the Wehrmacht in 1942 as an emergency weapon against the Soviet Union's T-34 and KV tanks. Its relatively low velocity and a lack of updated armor piercing ammunition limited its effectiveness as an anti-tank weapon. When the German 75mm PAK40 became available in sufficient numbers, most remaining PAK 97/38 pieces (modified French 75's)were returned to France to reinforce the Atlantic Wall defenses.
The US Army having adopted the French 75 during WWI kept a large inventory of the gun and used it for training purposes. During the 1930's many of those were equipped with rubber tires. Others were mounted on a split trail permitting plunging fire: the French 75 M2A1,A2 and A3. Furthermore, M3 Half-Track mounted French 75's were used in the Pacific theater for quite a while, following Pearl Harbor, and later during the landing operations in North Africa and Italy. One of the more ingenious uses for the old gun was its mounting in B-25 Mitchell bombers for attacking Japanese shipping. Otherwise the French 75 was replaced by the U.S. 105mm M101 split-trail Howitzer by 1941.
Variants and derivatives
Field artillery
- canon de 75 mm mle 1897 modifié 1938 motorized artillery variant with wooden wheels replaced by metallic wheels with tyres, altered shield
Anti-aircraft
- autocanon de 75 mm mle 1913 self-propelled anti-aircraft variant, on De Dion Bouton chassis.
- canon de 75 mm contre-aéroplanes sur plateforme mle 1915 static anti-aircraft variant on rotating platform
- canon de 75 mm contre-aéroplanes mle 1917 anti-aircraft variant on 1-axle trailer with stabilizer legs.
Anti-tank
- canon de 75 mm mle 1897 modifié 1933 similar shield and wheels as the standard version, but split-trail carriage allowing 58° traverse. Used in the anti-tank role
References
- Alvin, Colonel (1923). Les Canons de la Victoire ( Manuel d'Artillerie). Paris: Charles Lavauzelle & Cie.
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- Benoit, Lt-Col. Christian (1996). Le Canon de 75: Une gloire centenaire. Vincennes, France: Service Historique de l'Armee de Terre. ISBN 2-86323-102-2.
- Challeat, J. (1935). Histoire technique de l'artillerie en France pendant un siecle (1816-1919). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
- Crowell, Benedict (1919). America's Munitions, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: U.S.Government Printing Office.
- Demaison, Gerard (1997). Le centenaire d'une arme legendaire: Le canon de 75 Mle 1897, Cahiers № 24, A.N.S.B.V. Verdun: Musee Memorial de Verdun.
- [Detailed history.] Template:Pl icon http://www.1939.pl/uzbrojenie/polskie/artyleria/a_75mm_wz97/index.html
- Doise, Jean (1994). Un secret bien garde: Histoire militaire de l'Affaire Dreyfus. Editions du Seuil. ISBN 2-02-021100-9.
- Hogg, Ian V. (1998). Allied Artillery of World War One. Crowood Press. ISBN 1-86126-104-7.