Artillery for town walls - SYW

[FreddBloggs]

Garrison versions yes. They often let the barrel depress below the horizontal a bit, something a proper naval carriage didn't need.

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

They often let the barrel depress below the horizontal a bit, something a proper naval carriage didn't need.

Going off at a slight tangent (timewise, at least) the Putilov 76.2mm gun was widely used in Russian Empire frontier fortresses up to the start of WW1. Its value, apart from a rather good canister round, was that the barrel could be depressed (like most things Russian) more than most field pieces which, together with the aforementioned canister round, made it ideal for placement in lower-level casemates from where it could sweep the bottoms of fortress ditches. As WW1 progressed, the Germans captured hundreds of these pieces; they were cut down and generally lightened, and issued to the original Stosstruppen units at Verdun and on the Eastern Front, where those same qualities made them good at shooting from shellholes at "daisy cutter" level. Unfortunately, the relatively poor quality of the metal from which they were manufactured resulted in a very short "in service" life, but they appear to have lasted long enough to cover until the Germans had built their own 77mm replacement.

[FreddBloggs]

Same reason the older De Bang 75mm and 90mm were retained for casement duty over the new and otherwise superior French 75mm. And until trenches became so prevalent, why the Germans hated British 13 & 18pdrs, as airburst shrapnel shells was something they had never met before.

[ochoin]

the barrel could be depressed (like most things Russian)

Does LAWS give medals for comedy gold?

BTW am I correct in thinking naval gun carriages were considerably smaller, for the same calibre piece, than field artillery pieces? Obviously, the wheels but also no trail? And somewhat lower, too?

donald

[FreddBloggs]

Generally the guns mouth was a bit lower, but not a lot, the height for that was defined by ease of reloading so getting the ball in and straight ramming.

Sizewise, they were compact, but they didn't have a trail to hitch for pulling or to dig in to ease recoils, they used ropes at the front for that.