So, long before the start of the First World War, the military of the European armies, based on the experience of the Russian-Japanese and Anglo-Boer wars, decided that they needed new six-inch guns to work on the enemy's front line. It seemed to the majority that such a weapon should not be a cannon, but a howitzer. Its powerful shells were supposed to destroy trenches and dugouts, suppress enemy artillery and destroy field barriers. According to the criterion of cost / efficiency, the caliber 150/152/155-mm was just the right thing for this purpose.
The army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire adopted a caliber of 150 mm and, accordingly, adopted the M.14 / 16 howitzer, developed by the Skoda company. Moreover, its real caliber was even smaller - 149-mm, but it was designated as 15-cm, as well as the field gun, which had a caliber of 7, 65-mm, but was designated as 8-cm. The gun weighed 2, 76 tons, had an angle of declination of 5 and an elevation of 70 °, and could fire a projectile weighing 42 kg at a distance of 7, 9 km, that is, beyond 75-mm field guns and, therefore, suppress their batteries from a distance. The device of the weapon was traditional: a single-bar carriage, recoil devices mounted under the barrel, an anti-splinter shield, wooden wheels on the spokes.
To destroy vertical obstacles and counter-battery combat, Skoda in 1914 developed the M.15 / 16 150 mm cannon, replacing the old M.1888 cannon. However, it began to be tested only in 1915, and entered the front even later. The result was a bulky but impressive weapon, called the "autocannon", specifically in order to emphasize that it had to be transported exclusively by motor power.
At the same time, it had a serious drawback: when transported over long distances, it had to be disassembled into two parts, like, incidentally, the M.14 / 16 howitzer. Its shell was heavier than a howitzer - 56 kg, its flight speed was 700 m / s, and its range was 16 km. Then the gun was improved (after the release of the first 28 copies) by increasing the barrel lift angle from 30 ° to 45 °, as a result of which the range increased to 21 km. However, the rate of fire was low: only one shot per minute. In addition, due to the fact that the barrel moved along the axis of the wheels during guidance, it was guided along the horizon only 6 ° in both directions, and then the gun itself had to be moved. The latter, however, was a very difficult task, since this gun weighed 11, 9 tons. Here on it, the real caliber was already 152 mm.
After the First World War, these guns ended up in Italy as war reparations and were used during hostilities in Albania, Greece and North Africa. Under the designation 15.2 cm K 410 (i), they were also used in the artillery units of the Wehrmacht.
Great Britain took care of adopting new 152-mm howitzers (BL 6inch 30cwt Howitzer), equipped with one of the first underbarrel recoil brakes - back in 1896, so that they could even take part in the Boer War. This gun weighed 3570 kg and had a hydro-spring recoil compensator. The maximum angle of elevation of the barrel was only 35 °, which, in combination with the short barrel, gave both a low flight speed of the projectile (only 237 m / s) and a range of 4755 m. The weight of the projectile stuffed with liddite was 55, 59 kg. The shrapnel weighed 45, 36 kg.
Soon the elevation angle of the barrel was increased to 70 °, which increased the range to 6400 m, which, however, was also insufficient even in the conditions of the First World War. In the post-war years, it was in service with the Greek army, but the obsolescence of its design was obvious, although it was used in its battles. However, exactly as long as the British did not have 152-mm howitzers 6inch 26cwt, which turned out to be much more modern and successful. They began to create it in 1915, and at the end of this year it entered service.
The new howitzer weighing 1320 kg became the standard weapon of this caliber in England, and all of them were released 3, 633. It had a simple hydropneumatic recoil brake, had a sector of fire of 4 °, and an elevation angle of 35 °. The 45-kg shrapnel projectile had a reach of 8, 7 km, but then a lightweight 39 kg projectile was adopted for the gun, the range with which increased to 10, 4 km. The gun was massively used in the battles on the Somme in 1916. The howitzer was also used in the British army (1, 246 guns until the end of the war) and was supplied to numerous allies, in particular, the Italians. She also visited Russia. They were not supplied to the tsarist government, but the White Guards received them, and, apparently, something of this amount then fell into the red. The guns of this type fired 22, 4 million shells and this is a kind of record. Then, already during the Second World War, this howitzer was installed on pneumatic tires with developed lugs, and in this form it ended its participation in the wars, fighting in Europe, and in Africa, and even in distant Burma.
It is clear that if the army has a 152 mm howitzer, then God himself ordered to have a cannon of the same caliber for flat shooting. The BL 6-inch Gun Mark VII cannon became such a weapon in the British army. In fact, it was a ship's weapon - such were installed on battleships and cruisers - with minimal alterations mounted on a wheel drive, developed by Admiral Percy Scott. They began to test them back in the years of the Anglo-Boer War, where they proved themselves well, and after the war, further improvement of its design was continued. This unification turned out to be successful, since the same weapon now entered the fleet, coastal defenses and ground forces. However, the cannon came out heavy. Only its trunk weighed 7.517 kg. The shell weighed 45.4 kg. Moreover, its speed, depending on the charge, ranged from 784 m / s to 846 m / s, respectively. The total weight of the system was 25 tons, and the firing range was about 11 km with an elevation angle of 22 °. Then this angle was increased to 35 ° and the range increased accordingly. The disadvantages of the gun, in addition to the large weight, can be attributed to the fact that the recoil devices were completely absent on it, and it rolled back after the shot. We had to arrange special ramps for the wheels - an anachronism of the 19th century - and install them before shooting. Nevertheless, these guns served in the coastal defense of England until the 50s of the last century.
Probably, the British were uncomfortable with such an anachronism (although this gun worked well in combat conditions), because they created its improved BL 6-inch Gun Mark XIX. The new gun was lighter (10338 kg), more mobile, had a reach (at an elevation angle of 48 °) 17140 m and, moreover, had a recoil mechanism. Another important feature was the unification of the gun carriage with the 203 mm howitzer carriage.
As for France, the First World War hardly began, as the losses in 75-mm guns were so significant that everything that could shoot was used to replace them in the troops. These are the 155-mm guns of the 1877 model - the famous "Long Tom", which is now and then mentioned in the novel "Captain Tear the Head" by Louis Boussinard, and also more modern examples of guns of the same caliber. The first among them was the 155-mm Mle 1877/1914 cannon, developed in 1913, which had an old barrel, but was equipped with a hydraulic recoil brake and a pneumatic knurler. The wheels on the carriage remained wooden, which is why the transportation speed did not exceed 5-6 km / h. The weight of the gun was 6018 kg, the angles of depression and elevation were from -5 ° to + 42 °, and the firing range was 13.600 m. The gun fired 3 rounds per minute, which was an excellent indicator for such a caliber. The most varied shells were used, weighing from 40 to 43 kg, and high-explosive and shrapnel (416 bullets). This weapon was used - it turned out to be so good during the Second World War, in particular on the "Maginot Line". Captured by the Germans, these guns were also used in the German army under the designation 15.5cm Kanone 422 (f).
The next in the French fleet of 155 mm guns is the Mle 1904, a rapid-fire cannon designed by Colonel Rimaglio. Outwardly, it was a typical weapon of the time, with a single-bar carriage, a hydropneumatic recoil brake under the barrel and wooden wheels. But he had his own "zest" - the shutter, which automatically opened after the shot and also automatically closed. A well-trained crew could fire 42, 9-kg grenades at a rate of 15 rounds per minute - a kind of record for the rate of fire for such a weapon. In addition, for such a caliber, it was quite light - 3.2 tons, but its firing range was small - only 6000 m, which was not bad in 1914, but became an impossible value already in 1915.
On the eve of the First World War, there were two firms in France that produced 152/155 mm both for export and for their own needs - Schneider and Saint-Chamond. Thus, the Schneider company developed a 152-mm howitzer for Russia, and it was she who became the only weapon of this caliber (in two versions - the serf in 1909 and the field 1910), the only weapon of this caliber in Russia during the First World War.
Meanwhile, after analyzing the course of battles on the Western Front in 1915, General Joffre, the commander of the French troops, considered Rimaglio's guns ineffective and urgently demanded the creation of a new rapid-fire 155 mm howitzer.
The Saint-Chamond firm promised to fulfill an order for 400 guns with a production rate of 40 guns per month by the fall of 1916. Schneider also took part in this competition, but lost. "Saint-Chamond" made its prototype faster, and besides, the firing range of its howitzer was 12 km, which, however, did not prevent it from then making all the same "Schneider" howitzers - more familiar, lighter and longer-range ones. Unusual, for example, was the semi-automatic vertical wedge breechblock, while all other French guns had piston breeches. The muzzle flame and shock wave when fired were very strong, from which (more than from bullets and shrapnel) his crew was protected by a gun shield. The weight of the gun was 2860 kg. Guns of this type were supplied to Romania and Serbia in 1917-1918.
However, the firm "Schneider" produced not only howitzers, but also the 155-mm cannon model Mle 1918. It used the barrel of 1877 Bunge design, superimposed on the carriage of the howitzer model 1917 Mle 1917. The first 4 howitzers entered the army until November 1918, and later 120 units were produced. The weight of the gun was 5030 kg, and the range at a maximum elevation angle of 43 ° was 13600 m. The rate of fire was 2 rounds per minute.
The Germans also got these guns and were in service with the Wehrmacht under the designation 15, 5cm K 425 (f).
It is interesting that, perhaps, only the French during the First World War created such a large number of 155-mm guns, both cannons and howitzers. However, the most modern way in this arsenal is the Canon de 155 long GPF, or "weapon of special power" designed by Colonel Louis Fiyu. It was distinguished by a long barrel and sliding frames that first appeared on such a weapon, which made it possible to maneuver fire in a sector equal to 60 °, with a maximum elevation angle of 35 °. With a gun weight of 13 tons, the firing range from it for that time was simply impressive - 19500 m!
In total, France received 450 of these guns, and their use began in Flanders. Subsequently, it was produced in the United States, in addition, Poland received a number of these guns, and the Germans used them on the fortifications of their famous "Atlantic Wall".
