Italian and Japanese heavy artillery of World War I

Photo, as if directly from the Boer War! Then such tools were used there. However, the Kremlin was also shelled from similar guns in July 1918 and they were even used near Moscow in 1941 ...

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Italy

Weapon World War I And it happened that there was a Terni plant in Italy, which was managed by ... Sir William Armstrong, and this plant was created to supply the Italian fleet naval guns. And he really supplied these guns, but at the turn of the century he switched to the production of artillery pieces for the army.

Cannone Da 149/35A

One of the first such developments was Cannone Da 149/35 A (149 - caliber in millimeters, 35 - barrel length in calibers).

149/35 A can hardly be called a modern design: the gun had no recoil suppression. That is, it was just an old-fashioned gun mount that rolled back and hit the wheels on two recoil brake ramps - wedges located behind them. The gun rolled along them when fired “uphill”, and then rolled back when the recoil force ceased. Because of this, the gun had to be aimed again after each shot.

In addition, it was quite difficult to prepare it for opening fire: it required about two hours of work, since optimal results would be obtained when the gun was mounted on a special wooden platform.

But, in addition to the low rate of fire (at best, one shot per minute, often lower), the gun also had its advantages: a high initial speed (651 m / s) provided a good firing range (16 m) and grenades weighing 500 kg ( OF) and 42 kg (shrapnel). That is, for such a relatively small caliber - after all, not 43,4 and not 155, it fired shells of sufficient power. The weight of the gun was about 152 tons, but it was still quite versatile and could be used both as siege artillery and as heavy field artillery.

The Da 149/35 A gun appeared in 1905 and immediately became widely used. The battery consisted of 4 guns, 4 tractors and 10 trucks with standard ammunition of 70 grenades per gun. The gun itself could be towed at a maximum speed of 6–8 km/h. That is, it cannot be said that this weapon had high performance. Nevertheless, this gun was effectively used by the Italian army at all stages of the First World War and, despite its age, remained in service in the middle of the war, and even served until the Second World War.

The Da 149/35 A was last seen in action during the Allied invasion of Sicily, although by then it was completely obsolete. This old cannon had such an interesting fate - the most "small-caliber" among similar guns of the allies in the Entente.

The position of Cannone Da 149/35 A. Triangular ramps are clearly visible - rollback brakes

Mortaio da 210/8DS

The Italian Mortaio da 210/8 DS (210 mm mortar) was developed in the last years of the 210th century and was intended for use against fortifications and other similar well-defended targets. To bring the Mortaio da 8/XNUMX into action, a lot of effort was required, since the gun had to be disassembled when moving even a short distance, and all parts loaded onto trailers or conveyors.

When assembling the gun on a carefully leveled site, it was necessary to first install a heavy wooden platform (not included in the transported weight of the gun), after which it could be assembled.

Was it necessary to come up with this?

This work usually took 6 to 8 hours. Although, if we compare it with a 149-mm cannon, it turns out that its weight in the stowed position was 7,8 tons, and even less in the set for firing - 5,79 tons. A successful technical solution allowed her to rotate 360 ​​°. So the immobility of this gun was not such a big problem for the Italians, since the front line along the border with Austria-Hungary was pretty static most of the time.

Zevrorotaya, isn't it?

The overall length of the barrel was only 9,7 calibers (2 mm), and the length of the bore was only 048 calibers. Elevation angles from -7,1° to +15°. The gun could fire a 70-kilogram projectile with an initial velocity of 101,5 m/s to a maximum range of only 340 m. At the same time, the effect of its projectiles was enhanced by the almost vertical trajectory of the projectile. The rate of fire was low, typically 8 shot every 450–1 minutes.

The gun used a variant of the so-called De Stefano carriage, hence the letters DS in the designation. It was designed in such a way that most of the recoil was absorbed by the cradle on which the barrel rested. When fired, the cradle slid backwards over short, sloping ramps. At the same time, the entire upper carriage also rolled away on four wheels along two inclined rails. Then he returned back to his original position under the influence of gravity and a return spring.

Mortaio da 210/8 DS was used in batteries consisting of 4 guns, 4 trucks and 1 ammunition vehicle. The battery in motion stretched for 420 m and moved at a maximum speed of 6–8 km/h. This weapon was also used during the Second World War, although it has long been and clearly outdated.

Wooden beams, projectile and crane ...

Japan

As for Japan, here we must start with the fact that instead of 150–155 mm they used 10 cm (105 mm) German howitzer guns - typical guns of the early twentieth century.

Interestingly, during the First World War, Japan supplied the same guns to Russia, but ... with a channel drilled to 107 mm. And that's how these Japanese guns appeared with us.

Japanese 105 mm Krupp gun. Photo landships.info

Well, the main large-caliber guns of the Japanese were 240-mm and 280-mm mortar howitzers.

Type 45

The 24 cm Type 45 was adopted in 1912 as a replacement for the heavy Krupp 28 cm howitzers which were used with great success during the siege of Port Arthur in 1905 during the Russo-Japanese War.

The 24 cm howitzer was the first large artillery piece of purely Japanese design, although some of the ideas of European designers seem to have influenced its design.

Like many large-caliber guns, the trunnions of the barrel were attached to a cradle, inside of which the barrel could slide. Two recoil and knurled brake cylinders were attached to the cradle and barrel. The howitzer was loaded at an angle of 0 °, and the projectile was delivered to it on a small cart with wheels. The howitzer had a small crane to lift the shells. She also had two gun shields at once - a large shield with a cut-out for the barrel, attached to a rotating platform, and a smaller shield attached to the barrel, which rose with it, presumably to protect the crews of the gun from muzzle flash. The breech, common in Japanese practice, had a screw breech. The ammunition was separate, a brass sleeve was used for obturation.

The howitzer was very heavy, about 37 tons installed, so great efforts were made to move and install at least one such colossus. This required, presumably, 10 horse-drawn carts.

240 mm Japanese howitzer-mortar Type 45 in position

Unlike other siege howitzers, the Type 45 could not be used as heavy field artillery due to its weight and very slow deployment.

In total, about 80 of these howitzers were made, but their use in the First World War was limited to the siege of Qingdao in 1914. Despite the fact that Japan fought in China in the 1930s, it did not require siege artillery, and Type 45 howitzers remained in storage or as coastal defense guns.

A small number of Type 45 howitzers were used early in the war to lay sieges to defenses in Hong Kong, Bataan, and Corregidor. There are suggestions that Type 45 howitzers were also used against the Red Army in Manchuria in 1945.

TTX
Caliber: 24 cm.
Barrel length 3,89 m L / 16,2.
Gun weight (installed): 33 kg.
Installation time: 1-2 days.
Elevation angles: -2° to +65°.
Horizontal guidance: 360°.
Projectile weight: 200 kg.
Initial speed: 360 m/s.
Firing range: 10 400 m.

20 cm and 28 cm howitzers

11 copies of the 20-cm howitzer were also made.

Along with the 24 cm howitzer, they participated in the siege of Qingdao in 1914. The 20 cm howitzers were then withdrawn from service and sold to the Russian government in 1915.

Here our military discovered that not a single Russian gun used this caliber, but, ultimately, Russian-made 203-mm shells were turned to 197,5 mm caliber. Russian modified shells were heavier (115 kg) compared to Japanese shells and, as a result, had a slightly shorter range.

The final fate of the 20 cm howitzers is unknown, and apparently none of them survived.

Type 45. Photo by landships.info

When Japan went to war with Russia in 1904, few expected the Japanese to last long in combat, let alone achieve victory. Nevertheless, the very next year the war ended in defeat for Russia: two of its fleets were destroyed, and the army was defeated.

There are many reasons for this, and one of them is that the Japanese did not pay attention to their losses! But they also proved to be innovators in the use of land-based heavy artillery against ships.

Preparation of the base for a 280-mm howitzer-mortar

The Japanese laid siege to Port Arthur in early May 1904. And already in June, 18 28 cm coastal defense howitzers were dismantled and loaded onto a ship that was supposed to deliver them to the besieging army. Unfortunately for the Japanese, one of the few Russian successes in that war resulted in the ship being sunk, taking its precious cargo of artillery and hundreds of soldiers to the bottom of the sea.

Only in October, the Japanese managed to deliver another 18 howitzers to the battlefield. After capturing a tactically important height (High Mountain) near Port Arthur, during which the Japanese suffered simply shocking losses, they were finally able to shell the port and sink the remnants of the Russian Pacific Fleet.

Loading a 280 mm projectile (smoke powder charge 9,5 kg)

Previously, it was believed that these howitzers were manufactured by the Krupp company, although they had an atypical piston valve. But later it turned out that they were made in Japan according to the British project, which was originally developed for the Italians!

It all started with the fact that in April 1884, the Japanese hired the Italian major Pompeio Grillo to teach them how to make weapons. And then, at the Osaka Arsenal in June of the same year, they began pilot production of these howitzers on the basis of a license purchased from ... the British.

That is why the coastal defenses of both Japan and Italy used very similar guns of the same caliber!

A battery of 280mm howitzers is firing!

It should be noted that all these guns were mounted on turntables, providing 360-degree guidance. At the time, it was believed that their long-range fire and 217-kilogram shells would be deadly against the thin deck armor of enemy battleships that would have to come close to shore.

In any case, thanks to the colossal and hard work of the Japanese, the world learned that such artillery can be used in many ways, although in Europe few people noticed this, except for the Germans, Austrians and Hungarians.

The lesson of Japan stimulated their experiments in heavy field artillery, culminating in the infamous Skoda 30,5 cm mortars and the 42 cm Big Berts.

Comments

[not the one]

like straight out of the Boer War!

But yes, by the way. I myself have been choosing synonyms for a long time ... "Long Tom" seems very much! Thanks for the article and a lot of old photos !!!!

[Ruyter-57]

And it so happened that there was a Terni plant in Italy, which was managed by ... Sir William Armstrong, and this plant was created to supply the Italian fleet with naval guns. And he really supplied these guns, but at the turn of the century he switched to the production of artillery pieces for the army.

Dear author. The Fabbrica d´Armi in Terni never made artillery, it made small arms. And it was never run by Armstrong.
Armstrong ran the Stabilimenti meccanici in Pozzuoli, and it was this company that produced the artillery pieces mentioned in the article.

[Bormanxnumx]

The author writes

. Unfortunately for the Japanese, one of the few Russian successes in that war resulted in the ship being sunk, taking its precious cargo of artillery and hundreds of soldiers to the bottom of the sea.

To be precise, it was not the assembled guns that were lost, but the gun mounts that were transported separately.

[kalibr]

Quote: BORMAN82

To be precise

Different sources, different information. Embracing everything just doesn't make sense.

[Alexey RA]

Mutually exclusive paragraphs in all its glory.

The 24 cm Type 45 entered service in 1912 as a replacement heavy 28 cm Krupp howitzers, which were used with great success during the siege of Port Arthur in 1905 during the Russo-Japanese War.

After capturing a tactically important height (High Mountain) near Port Arthur, during which the Japanese suffered simply shocking losses, they were finally able to shell the port and sink the remnants of the Russian Pacific Fleet.
It used to be believed that these howitzers were manufactured by Krupp, although they had a piston valve atypical for her. But later it turned out that they were made in Japan according to a British project, which was originally designed for the Italians!

For the 28-cm near Port Arthur, you need to "thank" the cannon factory in Osaka, which worked with the technical support of Armstrong. Moreover, data on the presence of these guns in Japan were known as early as 1891.

They fired from a 28-cm (11,02-in) cast-iron rifled mortar, loaded from the breech, and 9 calibers long. This mortar was made at the Osaka cannon factory, according to the drawings of mortars manufactured by Armstrong, Mitchell and Co. "by order of the Italian government. The charge was 9,5 kg (23,2 r.f.) of coarse-grained gunpowder made in Japan in the past The weight of the projectile is 217 kg (13,25 pounds) and the explosive charge is 9 kg (22 lb.) The shells are also made in Osaka from chilled cast iron (local ore).

© Experiences of firing at deck armor in Japan (From the magazine "Sea Collection" No. 8 for 1891)

Against this background, by the way, the decision to facilitate the constructive protection of the long-term defensive structures of Port Arthur, justified by the lack of artillery from the Japanese over 15 cm caliber, looks extremely strange:

First of all, when designing the Port Arthur fortifications, they were based on an official certificate given by the Asian part of the then General Staff, according to which the Japanese assumed the absence of artillery over 15 cm caliber. In order to meet the economic conditions, this led to the abandonment of the thicknesses of concrete vaults of casemated buildings of 1,5–1,8–2,4 m, which were then accepted by the engineering department, and a reduction in the thickness of vaults and walls in Arthurian fortifications by 0,3 m.

© Yakovlev. History of fortresses.

[gsev]

Quote: Alexey RA

Against this background, by the way, the decision to facilitate the constructive protection of the long-term defensive structures of Port Arthur, justified by the lack of artillery from the Japanese over 15 cm caliber, looks extremely strange:

Most likely, the ceilings of the Port Arthur forts were designed to withstand the action of a 210 mm projectile. This is suggested by the characteristics of the Liege forts, which were built around 1880, that is, 20 years before the capture of Port Arthur by Russia, and Qingdao by Germany. As you know, until 1917 or until 1927 in Russia, as now, not designers were held in high esteem
and effective managers who were able to optimize the projectile protection of the forts up to 150mm, and optimized the concrete fortifications between them to earth parapets covered with stone cladding without a cement binder. The Germans of Qingdao also did not design under the action of 280mm shells. However, during the construction of the Qingdao fortifications, the Germans laid down such strength reserves that in reality the German dugouts withstood the entire siege of Qingdao with hits of 240mm and 280mm shells. Apparently, the Germans conducted experiments on shelling their dugouts, which prompted them to create especially large-caliber guns at the Krupp and Skoda factories. It is interesting that after the start of the special operation, effective managers who returned to Russia after 1991 killed the production of antibiotics in Russia by setting prices for these goods subject to antimonopoly regulation after European manufacturers left Russia, which not only is not profitable to transport them from India and China, but and produce in Russia.

[Alexey RA]

Quote: gsev

Most likely, the ceilings of the Port Arthur forts were designed to withstand the action of a 210 mm projectile.

Judging by Yakovlev, only financial considerations were decisive in the construction of the forts of Port Arthur (and its entire defense as a whole). He described how they "compressed" the line of defense of the fortress and reduced the thickness of the concrete of the fortifications.

... a special commission was sent to Port Arthur in October 1898, which drew up another project. The latter differed from the former in that its line of forts did not reach the Wolf Mountains, but ran about 4 1/2 kilometers from the outskirts of the city, along the line Dagushan - Dragon Range - Panlongshan - Corner Mountains - High Mountain and White Wolf height. This line of land defense met the requirements for covering the core of the fortress from bombardment, but had a length of about 70 km and required a 70-strong garrison and 528 ground weapons, not counting coastal and reserve weapons.
The interdepartmental meeting, to which this project came for consideration, striving for possible savings in the cost of Kwantung both in people and in money, spoke out against the project, and the latter was not approved. At the same time, the wish was expressed that in general the Kwantung garrison should not exceed the number of bayonets and cavalry available there at that time, namely 11 people, so that “the organization of the protection of the peninsula was not overly expensive and dangerous politically.

First of all, when designing the Port Arthur fortifications, they were based on an official certificate given by the Asian part of the then General Staff, according to which the Japanese assumed the absence of artillery over 15 cm caliber. This led to meet economic conditions to the abandonment of the thicknesses of concrete vaults of casemated buildings of 1,5–1,8–2,4 m adopted then by the engineering department and a reduction in the thickness of vaults and walls in Arthurian fortifications by 0,3 m. But during the execution of work, due to the same economic considerations, the local authorities allowed military engineers to reduce the thickness of the vaults by another 0,3 m, and in some places even by 0,6 m. 0,91 m. There were also complaints about the quality of concrete, but the competent commission revealed the injustice of these complaints.

The end is a bit predictable ...

As a result, Port Arthur did not satisfy, first of all, the theoretical conditions of the then normal fortress, since some of the fortifications of the outer contour were less than the minimum limit of 4 km from the city; since fort No. 3 was 2,5 km away from it, and forts No. 4 and 5 were even 1,5 km from the outskirts of the new city. Even if we consider only the eastern basin, where the Russian squadron was hiding, as a protected area, even then it turns out that the line of land forts was separated from the border in places (for example, forts No. 1-2) by only 3 km. It is clear that such a proximity of the fortifications to the city caused the latter and the port to be bombarded from the very first shots, and ships, warehouses, hospitals suffered, and not only shells, but also rifle bullets flew through the streets of the city.

But in parallel with the Port Arthur epic, the military department also started strengthening the Warsaw defensive region ...

[ycuce234-san]

It all started with the fact that in April 1884, the Japanese hired the Italian major Pompeio Grillo to teach them how to make weapons. And then, at the Osaka Arsenal in June of the same year, they began pilot production of these howitzers on the basis of a license purchased from ... the British.

The logic of the import substitution of German products among the Japanese is strange - to hire an "expert" trained and experienced in one national weapons design school and buy a project and a face of another design school and then shake it all up and mix ... hoping that something better will be born from this marriage unknown animal or monkey.
And none and none of them had anything to do with the German weapons school and industry, whose products were actually bought, manufactured and used; although the same German engineers would not be difficult to find.

[Yaroslav Tekkel]

The Japanese at that time rushed between the British, Germans and French. Moreover, these throwing continued until WWII. In 1884, the Italians, in terms of artillery, were not perceived as an independent school, but as the most zealous students of the British. But they did it better and cheaper.

[gsev]

Quote: ycuce234-san

The logic of import substitution of German products among the Japanese is strange

In my opinion, more intelligent and thoughtful than in the USSR and post-Soviet Russia. Japan in the 1970s and 1980s was able to surpass Germany in shipbuilding, mechanical engineering and electronics. The Chinese consider Mitsubishi products to be more advanced and modern than Siemens products. In Russia, decision-making and the distribution of finances are outsourced to trusted, dedicated officials who make decisions based on the advice of professionals they hire, who are not given full freedom of access to information and are pettily controlled. Under these conditions, a professional will inevitably make mistakes and gain technical information and experience from these mistakes. But he needs to get an indulgence from punishment for mistakes. How it's done? Only a brand known to the authorities is taken as a role model. Putin specialized in Germany and he knows German technology better. Therefore, cooperation is offered only with Siemens. Allen Bradley, Delta Electronics, Mitsubishi and Omron are immediately cut off. The Chinese Tai'an Automatic Equipment can allocate a billion yuan to open its production in Russia, but none of the Russian industrialists allowed this company to supply large companies until they were faced with a lack of Western equipment as a result of US sanctions. If an engineer advised the authorities on a comprehensive supply of Siemens, then bribes are smooth from him. And Siemens can, during negotiations, impose a project on the manager with less accuracy and with the inability to replace Siemens with other equipment. For example, in Kazakhstani coal pits there are German excavators with the possibility of weighing in the process of work and filling wagons. Weighing is carried out according to the load cell with the multiplication of the obtained value by the trigonometric function of the boom angle. The load cell has a division value of about 1/3000, and the angle measurement encoder is about 1/500.....1/1000. That is, the Germans deliberately force the Kazakhs to weigh the shipped coal with an error of 0,2% ... 0,5% and demand supplies of 0,5% for themselves free of charge. Although I installed wagon scales and weigh coal with an accuracy of 0,1% and keep 0,4% of the product for yourself and do not give it abroad. Yes, and Tenzo-M scales with Chinese strain gauges will be 20 times cheaper and 5 times more accurate than equipping excavators with German strain gauges. But to the honor of the Germans, they know the measure and do not offer deliberately unprofitable solutions like the French.