History knows many examples when the armies of the advanced, industrially developed countries, due to their technical superiority, easily defeated the armies of the backward states and tribes. However, a much rarer situation is when, in a war between two countries with an approximately equal level of development, victory was achieved at the expense of one type of weapon that only one of the sides had. This is precisely the situation that developed during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, when the Prussians utterly defeated the strong and numerous army of France thanks to their artillery, and specifically - to the new field guns of Krupp.
By the beginning of the war, the Prussian army had 1,334 field and siege weapons, of which more than a thousand light Krupp guns of three types: 6-pounder Feldkanone C / 61 and C / 64, as well as 4-pounder Feldkanone C / 67, aka 8cm Stahlkanone C / 67. All these guns had steel rifled barrels and breech loading, which provided them with a much higher rate of fire than the muzzle-loading French field guns.
The standard rate of fire of the Krupp gun was considered to be six rounds per minute, but an experienced and well-trained crew could fire up to 10 shells every minute. At the same time, the maximum rate of fire of French guns did not exceed two rounds per minute.
The lag in the rate of fire can be partly compensated for by the numerical superiority, but the French did not have it either. By the beginning of the war, their artillery park included 950 cannons and howitzers, not counting the stationary fortress guns.
The high rate of fire of the Krupp cannons was complemented by an increased range. They threw high-explosive shells at a distance of up to 3500 meters, and the maximum firing range of French field artillery systems did not exceed 2500-2800 meters. As a result, the Prussians could shoot the French batteries from a safe distance, and then sweep away the infantry with hurricane fire. This became one of the decisive factors that ensured their success in most major battles, and ultimately - victory in the war.
Feldkanone C / 64 field cannon, engraved in 1875. It had a caliber of 78.5 mm, a barrel mass - 290 kg, a gun carriage mass - 360 kg, a high-explosive projectile mass - 4.3 kg (of which 170 grams of gunpowder), a grape shot mass - 3.5 kg (including 48 lead bullets on 50 g), the initial velocity of the projectile is 357 m / s.
The first large-scale sample of a breech-loading field gun with a steel barrel is the Feldkanone C / 61 cannon, which was adopted by the Prussian army in 1861. The bolt and gun carriage have not survived and have been replaced with remakes.
This C / 61 also only survived the barrel. There is no shutter, and the carriage is a modern copy.
Cannon S / 64 with an improved bolt on an iron gun carriage, model 1873.
Feldkanone C / 64 drawing.
Drawings of wedge-type gates for C / 64 (left) and C / 67 guns.
Krupp's field gun battery in position.
The field guns with which France entered the war looked very archaic. In fact, they were almost no different from the cannons of the times of Napoleon Bonaparte.
A selection of types of bronze muzzle-loading guns used by the French in the war with Prussia.
