Bulgarian Artillery in WW1

[MCP]

Between two wars 1913-1915

After the Balkan Wars a lot of artillery stuffs were consumed, wasted or damaged. In order to improve their state the Artillery Inspection intended to supply the Army with weapons and ammunitions through imports from foreign countries and through the repair and manufacturing capacities of the Sofia arsenal and the artillery workshops of the Army. According to the estimates done, the completion and the repair of the materials should be concluded within ten years starting from 1914.
In order to rearm the Army the Artillery Inspection prepared a plan that provided :
• to replace not quick firing guns with quick firing ones;
• to buy an adequate number of mountain guns and field howitzers;
• to assure to every gun 700 - 1000 shells according to the model and the calibre;
• to arm the infantry only with modern Mannlicher magazine rifles and carbines;
• to increase until to 700 the number of the heavy machine-guns.
To achieve this goal 329 756 550 leva were needed, but in 1914 only 102 000 000 leva were granted. On the basis of this sum orders were made in Germany, Austria-Hungary and France. Unfortunately the unexpected outbreak of World War 1, only one year after the end of the Interallied War, rendered almost impossible to obtain anything from foreign countries, since the military industries of every belligerant had to manufacture weapons and ammunitions for their own army or at least for their allies. Therefore until the Bulgarian Army mobilitation in September 1915 only 3000 Mannlicher rifles were delivered by Austria-Hungary.

As a result of the reduced possibility to receive supplies from foreign countries, became inevitable to rely on the the repair of the out of order weapons, a task assigned to the technical service of the artillery. Owing to the load of the work to carry out, the Artillery Inspector asked to the War Ministry that the military budget allowed changes in its structure and organization. In August 1914 at the artillery arsenal in Sofia it was established an arsenal company, composed by 90-100 conscripts, that should watch over the arsenal and carry out the works in workshops and stores. During the same year an artillery workshop was established in Stara Zagora, while that existing one in Shumen was reorganized. Moreover the park platoons of the field, mountain and fortress artillery regiments increased their strenght, becoming batteries. Thanks to these new units most of the planned repairs and maintenance works were accomplished before the entry of Bulgaria in World War 1.

Thanks of this great effort and in spite of the impossibility of purchasing weapons abroad, Bulgarian artillery was able not only to replace the losses suffered during the Interallied War (138 pieces), but also to increase the number of its guns, expecially the quick firing ones. After the war gradually one division in every not-quick-firing artillery regiment received modern Krupp guns, captured from Turks. However the lack of guns did not allowed to replace also the second division, and in September 1915 each divisional artillery brigade had two quick-firing regiments and only one not-quick-firing artillery division. Moreover the authorized establishements were not reached and at the beginning of the war half of the Infantry Division had only 9 quick-firing field batteries, instead of the planned 12.
The situation of mountain artillery and field howitzers was even worse. Although during the war mountain batteries proved to be very usefull not only in broken terrain, but also as accompanying batteries, thanks to their great mobility, only 11 guns could be added to the Army. As for field howitzers, in 1913 general Savov had concluded that one division (3 batteries) per Army was insufficient and should be proper to have two divisions attached to every Army. Consequently 11 batteries of 120mm Schneider field howitzers were ordered, but at the outbreak of World War 1 French Army canceled the contract and in 1915 seized the howitzers that were assigned to the Armée d’Orient.
Thanks to the modern 150mm heavy howitzers and 105mm long guns captured at Odrin the situation of siege artillery was greatly improved : not only the number of the heavy artillery pieces increased from 80 to 91, but also 26 of them were quick-firing Krupp pieces. Unfortunately out of the 18 howitzers and 18 guns captured, only 14 and 12 respectively could be repaired. Since the long range gun with a curved trajectory and high explosive shell proved to be very usefull during the previous wars, they were assigned to the fortress artillery regiments deployed along the Serbian border. The 12 long guns were shared among six two-pieces batteries, assigned two to every fortress artillery regiment.

The situation of ammunition was even more critical. As far as the field artillery at the beginning of the mobilitation, Bulgarian Army had approximately 1064 rounds per gun. During the war against Turkey every gun fired 450-500 round on an average, with peaks of even 800 rounds. During the whole period 1912-13 every gun fired 1076 rounds on an average, so at the end of the Interallied War every guns had at its disposal only 40 rounds. During the war the losses were replaced with ammunition captured from the Turks or bought abroad.
In March 1913, the Bulgarian Army decided to order shrapnels (25 000 for 75mm field guns, 15 000 for 75mm mountain guns, 14 000 for 120mm field howitzers and 2800 for 150mm heavy howitzers) and H.E. shells (20 000 for 120mm field howitzers and 4320 for 150mm heavy howitzers). As usually three firms were contacted : Schneider, Krupp and Ehrhardt. Schneider offered the lower price (7 315 000 leva, against 7 550 000 leva for Krupp and 7 390 000 leva for Ehrhardt), but the contract was not signed, since the Artillery Inspector finally preferred to break up the order and give to each firm the order for the ammunition for which it asked the lowest price.

During the war and after its end, Bulgaria make several more order of ammunitions for artillery, but it was impossible to restore the pre-war supply. There fore in spring of 1915 general Ivan Fichev, at that time Minister of the War, asked to the Artillery Inspector, gen. Kalin Najdenov, to express his opinion about the following issues :
• in an eventual war how long could last the ammunitions available at that time?
• how many ammunitions could be at disposal at the beginning of the military operations?
• what would be the monthly needs of ammunition in wartime?
Gen. Najdenov answered that, on the basis of the experience of the Balkan War, the ammunition available could be enough only for two months, but he specified that, since that time the war had a world-wide proportion, without doubt the waste of ammunition would have been greatly heavier. This meant that Bulgarian artillery was not ready for a new war.

In september 1915 at the declaration of the general mobilitation, the ammunition available were greatly decreased compared to the beginning of the war against Turkey both absolutely and per gun. The increase of the field and mountain quick firing guns together with the decrease of the ammunition caused that every artillery piece had a shortage of ammunitions. Comparing the situation in 1912 and in 1915, we can notice that the number of rounds for 75mm quick firing field guns decreased of 28%, but every gun had only half of the supply. Only quick firing field howitzers had approximately the same number of rounds.

[MCP]

Artillery shipped by Germany during WW1

Update of a previous post: perhaps I found an answer.
According with Кратък обзор на бойния състав…, p. 118, Germany delivered to Bulgaria 3127 heavy machine guns, 284 light mortars, 162 medium mortars, 1932 grenade launchers, 8 flame-throwers and 528 artillery pieces.

BTW the amount is not greatly far from what I had supposed. :mhehe:

[MCP]

Plans of modernizations of old field guns

The introduction of the first quick-firing gun in 1897 - the French built canon de 75mm Ml. 1897 - meant a true revolution in gun design and involved a mass re-equipping of almost every army in the world. It was a formidable weapon that made every other field gun in the world obsolete: every army had to replaced its artillery park or be entirely outgunned. This re-equipment took place between 1898 and 1914 and in many countries had not been completed when World War I broke out.
The superiority of the 75mm was due to the combination of the recoil system, the trail spade, a quick-acting breech, fixed ammunition, the indipendent line of sight, abatage, and the use of an automatic fuze-setter. Most of these mechanisms were separately utilized prior to 1897 on various guns, but the French Army put all them together on a field gun, added a shield to protect the gunners against enemy fire and obtained a weapon that could be brought into action behind six horses and that had a rate of fire approaching twenty aimed rounds a minute.
At that time Bulgarian artillery had only a large number of antiquated 75mm and 87mm Krupp guns of various models. They were screw-breech black-powder cannons, with no recoil mechanism and shields. Their short range, lack of shields, and slow rate of fire endangered their crews, while the black powder revealed their position. The lack of recoil mechanism caused difficulties in aiming and providing concentrated artillery barrages on enemy targets. This simply meant that Bulgarian Artillery needed more modern weapons.

In Bulgaria the quick-firing artillery was introduced in 1904 (see my previous post), thanks to the efforts of War Minister major general Mihail Savov (18.03.1903-22.05.1907). But afterwards the Artillery Committee, in spite of the low amount of the military budget, considered the hypothesis of an updating of the not-quick-firing artillery park. This problem was tackled by the Artillery Inspectors major-generals Nikola Rjaskov and Pantalej Tzenov in some reports to the War Ministers lieutenat-generals Danail Nikolaev (22.05.1907-16.03.1911) and Nikifor Nikiforov (16.03.1911-01.06.1913).

General Rjazkov emphasized that the countries near Bulgaria were not only commanding quick-firing artillery, but also trying to update their not-quick-firing guns with devices directed to speed up and improve the fire. Therefore he proposed that a spring-loaded trail spade, a quadrant and a range-finder should be furnished to each gun of the Bulgarian not-quick-firing batteries. It thought that this result would be achieved at the cost of 400,000 levas.

Instead General Tzenov asserted that the whole Bulgarian not-quick-firing artillery park - 324 guns - was absolutely unreliable fo these reasons:
a) one quick-firing battery was capable of destroying 29 non-quick-firing batteries.
b) in order to secure the fire control in every tactical condition, the recoil should be minimised through elastic or spring-loaded trail spade: the adaptation of the fixed trail spade required transforming the tube and the gun-carriage into a quick-firing system, mounting at the same time a cradle and shields.
c) the adaptation of the chamber and tube is required in order to use a brass cartridge (single piece ammunition) instead of propelling charge and shell (the old two piece ammunition) and that required the delivery of brass cartridges and the remodeling of the limbers and caissons of the gun system.

General Tzenov thought that the modernization of the whole not-quick-firing artillery would cost 14,000 levas per gun, that meant for 324 guns a total amount of 4,536,000 levas, not counting the cost of the transportation of the guns to the factories that had to modify them, the cost of the cartridges and the cost of the adaptation of the limbers and the caissons. After the transformation the weight of the gun should be risen to 1300 kg.
In order to cut down the expenses, he considered the hypotesis to change the not-quick-firing guns in guns à tir accéléré, adding spring-loaded trail spade and adapting them to use brass cartridges. This would cost 5,000 levas per gun, that meant a total amount of 1,620,000 levas, not counting the cost of the assembly of the parts in Sofia arsenal, the cost of the cartridges and the cost of the adaptation of the limbers and the caissons.
Finally he considered also the hypotesis of supplying modern optical instruments in order to improve the fire control, with a cost of at least 436,000 levas.

After this detailed analysis, general Tzenov suggested to use for the best the not-quick-firing guns without making any change and to increase the quick-firing artillery, adding three or four batteries to every regiment. He thought that in this way within three or four years Bulgarian Army might modernize its artillery without rising the military budget

Actually in 1912 every artillery regiment existing in peace formed another regiment armed with not-quick-firing guns (2 divisions with 3 six-guns batteries each). During the war some artillery divisions were re-armed with quick-firing guns captured to the Turks. After the Interallied War gradually one division in every not-quick-firing artillery regiment received modern Krupp guns and in september 1915 each artillery brigade had two quick-firing regiments and only one not-quick-firing artillery division.

[Nick]

Marco,

Great job! I can hardly wait for you to say "Well, that's about it, mission completed" so I can compile a nice book from you posts!

Thanks again!

[MCP]

Schneider-Canet 105mm M. 1910 field howitzer

Gun model : Schneider-Canet 105mm QF M. 1910
Schneider designation : Obusier léger de campagne modèle OC 105 n° 5
Rumenian designation : Obuzierul Schneider, cal. 105 mm, md. 1910
Calibre : 105mm L/14
Weight in action : 1150 kg
Shield thickness : 4 mm
Shell weight : 14 kg
Rumenian shell weight : 16.4 kg
Muzzle velocity : 330 m/s
Max. range : 7500 m
Elevation : + 43° / - 3°
Traversing angle : 6°
Transport : drawn by six horses
Ammunition : gun limber - 16, wagon limber - 16, wagon body - 26
12 ammunition wagons for every battery
Remarks : Quick firing field howitzer, with hydro-pneumatic recoil system, swinging block breech mechanism, equipped with collimator or panorama telescope. It was fitted for an indipendent line of sight.
This howitzer was offered to Bulgarian and Rumenian Army, but only the latter adopted it. In February 1912 it was also presented to the French “Commission des nouveaux materiéls”, presided by general Lamothe. In September of the same year the howitzer was tested during the military manœuvres in the West by a battery commanded by captain Sicard. It proved very good, weighting as the 75mm field gun and being able to engage targets that it could not reach. But nevertheless it met all the requirements of the “Programme du 31 octobre 1911” for a light howitzer, it was not adopted.

[MCP]

Bulgaria quick-firing artillery 1904-1914

In 1904 the military position of Bulgaria was becoming very hard since Turkey and Rumenia, the most powerful of its neighborous, had already introduced quick-firing guns. This meant that in any war they could easily outclass the fire of Bulgarian artillery. Bulgarian Army had to work quickly in order to fill the gap.

The rearmament of field artillery with quick-firing guns begun with the protocol Nr. 3/3 February 1904 that approved a program to test quick-firing and not-quick-firing guns offered by various European firms.
The main points of this program were :
- the gun and its materials should be strong and lasting;
- the mechanism should have no fault after the accomplishment of the most intense marches and manoeuvrings;
- the weight of the gun, with the carriage, the limber and the equipments should not exceed a definite limit, fixed according with the modern tactical requirements;
- the mechanisms of the system should stay functional in every condition;
- the gun schould be unlimebered and deployed on a position by the appointed by authorized crew;
- the tool with wich the charge is ignited should be secured;
- the service with the gun should be simple and easy and it should be accomplished by the least number of servants;
- the sights and other aiming mechanisms should provide the management and operations with the gun in the fastest possible way and from covered positions as well;
- the fatigue of the crew while operating the gun (limbering, unlimberig, loading etc) should be reduced as much as possible;
- the ammunition should be of such a quality, that it should constantly stay in reliable and working condition.

First of all the Artillery Committee determined the specifications for the the new QF gun:
- calibre : 75mm;
- weight of the shell : 6.5 kg;
- rate of fire : 15/20 round in a minute;
- muzzle velocity : not less than 500 m/s.
Then, instead of testing all the quick-firing guns produced by the major firms, it concentrated its attention on two of them. A commission composed by colonel Nikola Rjazkov, colonel Stojan Zagorski, major Konstantin Zhostov and major Vladimir Vazov was sent to Creusot in France and to Essen in Germany in order to test field and mountain guns produced by Schneider and Krupp. They proposed to the War Minister to choose the Schneider field gun, since it met all the requirements of the Artillery Committee. Although all Schneider guns had hydraulic buffers and compressed air running-up gears, the commission specially ordered a gun with springs. But after the experiences made with this guns, in 1907 Bulgarian Army ordered compressesd-air gears for the field howitzers and mountain guns equipments.

But this was not only a military matter, but expecially a political affair. Both France and Germany wanted to receive the order. The Krupp agent in Sofia, Kaufmann, acting with the consent of a group of German banks headed by the Dresdner Bank, offered a loan to the Bulgarian government on the condition that the contract would be draw up with Krupp. In the meantime Eugène Schneider and the bankiers that in 1896 had contracted a loan of 30,000,000 fr. with Bulgaria pressed the French government. Therefore the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Théophile Delcassé informed the Bulgarian Minister in Paris that the political and financial aid to Bulgaria was subordinate to the assignment of the order to a French firm. Finally on 31 October 1904 a 5% loan of 100,000,000 fr. (at that time the lev was equal to a franc) was contracted with the Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas. Part of that sum was even transferred directly by the bank to Schneider.

The same day Bulgarian Army ordered to the French firm Schneider-Creusot 81 batteries armed with 75mm QF Schneider-Canet modèle 1903 PR field guns. The total cost was 25,986,525 leva. Every battery had four guns, 12 ammunition wagons with 230 shrapnels for every piece (74,520 shrapnels), 96 harnessings of the French pattern (with collars istead of breast-strap) for draught horses and 32 harnessings for pack horses. Its total cost was 316,000 leva. The contract established that Sofia Arsenal had to manufacture the service vehicles: field forges, forage carts, provision wagons and so on. The order was completed with 27 spare carriages and limbers (one for every artillery division). The guns were to be delivered in three batches within twenty-seven months : 9 batteries in May 1905, 27 in December 1906 and 45 in July 1907. Owing to problems with fuzes for shells the last delivery arrived only on 28 December 1908.

In the same time the commission tested the 75mm QF Krupp mountain gun and on 18 March 1904 Bulgarian Army ordered to the German firm 9 75mm QF mountain guns batteries (54 guns) with 512 shells for every piece and the equipments for them. The total cost was 3,232,000 leva. The guns should be delivered within nine months. The delivery was completed in October 1905.
On 23 December 1904 Bulgarian Army ordered to the German firm Krupp also 112,104 shrapnels and 46,656 H.E. shells for the Schneider guns at the price of 9,032,000 leva. They were delivered within two years.

In order to avoid a too direct subordination to France, the commission laid down the condition that French gun could fire also shells made by Krupp. The Bulgarian War Minister envisaged to order its ammunition only after having tested the shrapnel provided by Schneider. At first Schneider presented the shrapnel type EC1 with warhead in steel, fuze with brass plates and only 250 bullets, while Krupp proposed a shrapnel with warhead and fuze in alluminium and 320 bullets. Becoming aware of the favour of the Bulgarian officers for the German shell, Schneider decided to follow the way traced by Krupp, and proposed the shrapnel type EC2 with warhead in steel and the alluminium fuze with interposition of brass sheaths and 311 bullets. It was accepted, even if in little number.
As for the high-explosive shells, there was a great debate between the French shell with great capacity and the high-explosive shell or spreng-granate produced by Krupp. Bulgarian Artillery choose the German shell, which put out of combat all the crew of a battery bursting after having crossed the shell, whereas it reproached the French shell for providing too small burst and for aiming more to the destruction of the gun than to the effectiveness against the gunners.

In January 1906, the negotiations about Bulgarian artillery and ammunition were connected to a project of conversion of loans emitted in Vienna and London in 1888, 1889 and 1892, whose execution would be entrusted to the French banks. This conversion of loans to 6% into 4,5% would make available a share of the budget of the Debt, which would be used to guarantee a new loan of 68,000,000 fr. On this sum, 32,000,000 fr of extraordinary credits had to be placed at the disposal of the Ministry for the War and 25,000,000 of them fr was reserved for French industry. A first total of 17,200,000 fr. should be share out in the following way:
- 6,000,000 fr. for 100,000 shrapnel for the 75mm QF field guns ;
- 7,500,000 fr. for 12 105mm howitzer QF batteries;
- 2,500,000 fr. for 3 150 tons topedo boats;
- 1,200,000 fr. for various kind of equipments (mainly tents and medical supplies).
The remaining 7,8000,000 fr. were reserved for 18 / 27 field gun batteries.
The whole order was assigned to Schneider, that would sub-contract at the firm Lefèvre the 1,200,000 fr. for the equipments.

Since Schneider had become the obliged intermediary of all the French firms in their business in Bulgaria, he claimed to them a sales commission of 20%, which burdened their prices: consequently the French companies withdrew and left him the free market. Bulgarian government had to accept the obligation to make purchases in France by loans emitted in France, but objected against the program of armament and supplies which was dictated by Schneider.
Nevertheless, owing to the monopoly conceded by the banks to Schneider, on 5 March 1907 Bulgarian Army signed with Schneider alone a command for :
- 9 105mm field howitzer QF batteries : each battery was equipped with four guns and 2000 shells (they were delivered in 1910);
- 9 75mm mountain QF batteries : each battery was equipped with four guns, 3200 shrapnells and 800 H.E. shells (the last delivery arrived in spring 1909);
- 6000 shells for the 120mm Krupp howitzers;
- 3 ammunition wagons for every 150mm howitzer (72 ammunition wagons with 7200 shells);
- 117,100 shrapnel for the 75mm QF field guns.
The total cost was 21,004,993 leva and guns and ammunitions were to be delivered within two years. To complete the sum of 25,000,000 fr. Bulgarian government took ordered to Schneider Engineer’s equipments (tools, cars, bridging material, telephones, telegraphs, balloons) for 2,000,000 fr. and to the firm Lefebvre tent shelters for 1,500,000 fr. Great part of this supplementary order was delivered in 1911 and included trucks Brillié, Decauville railways with wagons, optical signalling instruments system Mangin, projectors, barbed wire and bicycles.

In 1907 a Bulgarian delegation went to Creuzot to test the weapons proposed by Schneider : the mountain gun was immediately accepted, but the howitzer was not found satisfying. The French firm offered the light field howitzer Mle OC 105 n° 5, that Rumanian Army adopted in 1910. Bulgarian officiers thought it was too light and preferred a greater calibre, like 120mm. Unfortunately at that time only Krupp had in stock a quick-firing 120mm howitzer. Since a clause inserted in the contract allowed Schneider to propose - and Bulgarian Army to ask - the modifications which would be considered to be useful by mutual agreement, Schneider took time to produce an howitzer of 120mm more sophisticated than the howitzer of 105mm.
In 1909 Bulgarian Artillery decided definitively for the 120mm, and the execution of the contract signed in 1907 could finally start. The acceptance tests carried out in December 1910 in Creusot and were conclusive. They were delivered in 1911. After the Balkan Wars Bulgarian Army ordered further 11 batteries of this howitzers, but at the outbreak of World War I French Army canceled the contract and in 1915 seized the howitzers that were assigned to the Armée d’Orient.

In 1911 the budget of War Ministery included the funds to create some horse artillery divisions, but the outbreak of the Balkan War kept from carrying out this plan. During the war 1st battery of 5th not quick-firing artillery regiment was rearmed with Turkish horse artillery guns and assigned to the Cavalry Division. With the Ukase Nr. 2/2 August 1914 the first horse artillery battery was officially created.

In 1912 Bulgarian artillery introduced the Brisanzschrapnell Erhardt-vas Essen, the universal shell (Einheitsgeschoss) produced by the German firm Erhardt according to the plan of the Dutch 1st Lt. Pieter Daniel van Essen. It was supposed to work both as a shell and as a shrapnel, since it was built filling the shrapnel with the explosive of the shell between the lead bullets, where hiterto only a filling producing smoke had been in order to show where the shrapnel had been on its trajectory at the moment it sent out the bullets.
In order to improve fire control, every battery of howitzers, field and mountain guns received the panoramic sight produced by Optische Anstalt C. P. Goerz A.G. Berlin - Friedenau.

[dibo]

Some interesting info found here:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=110546&highlight=bulgaria

[MCP]

Brazilian Field Gun

Gun model : Krupp 75mm QF M. 1905 - Brasilian
Brazilian designation : Canhão Krupp 75mm C/28 M 905
Calibre : 75mm L/28
Weight of the barrel : 289.5 kg
Weight in action : 828 kg
Weight in marching order : 1356 kg
Weight of ammo wagon : 1038 kg
Barrel lenght : 2.100 m
Shield thickness : 4.5 mm
Shell weight : 5.5 kg
Shrapnel weight : 5.5 kg - 235 bullets x 10.8 g
Muzzle velocity : 488 m/s
Max. range : 7500 m
Elevation : + 17°
Traversing angle : 6°
Recoil : 1.12 m
Track : 1.48 m
Transport : drawn by six horses
Ammunition : gun limber - 32 shells, wagon limber - 40 shells, wagon body - 40 shells; 8 ammunition wagons for every battery
Remarks : Quick firing field gun, recoil system with hydraulic buffer and springs, single-motion wedge breech mechanism, equipped with goniometric telescopic sight. It had not the indipendent line of sight. Till now I has been not able to know wether Germany only delivered the shells or shipped also some guns. :sm186:

[dibo]

Please write in Russian, because I can't understand your English. The new adress of the Traditzia forum is:

http://www.traditsia.com/forum/

Tell please. And as it is correct on болгарсокм language guns consisted on arms of the Bulgarian army refer to.
For example " Skoda 75mm QF M. 1915 ", " 120mm Schneider-Canet M. 1911 field howitzer ", " 150mm Schneider-Canet M. 1911 QF howitzer ".
In fact in the Bulgarian army there was a system of designations.

http://forum.traditzia-bg.com/showp...89&postcount=55

I have not found at this forum anything about guns for some reason

[nuyt]

15cm L17 howitzers

Hello,

I am new to this forum and I have particularly liked the excellent info on Bulgarian artillery.

My main interest is in the Bulgarian Army between the wars and their attempts to rearm in the late 1920s and 1930s.

Is it known to any of you what sort of artillery was bought between the wars?

Especially the presence of the Krupp 15cm L17 howitzers is interesting. Some were received during WW1, others bought abroad after the war.

Is it known where they were bought? I have rad Italy, but usually this was the L14 long weapon.

Several of the 15cm L17 weapons were sold from Holland after WW1 (the Rheinmetall version, an exact copy) and the Krupp howitzer was copied for the Dutch army and at least one foreign customer around 1930 by a company called HIH.

I am speculating the customer might have been Bulgaria.

Are there any survivors of the Bulgarian 15cm L17 howitzer in Sofia or elsewhere?

Kind regards,
Nuyt

[MCP]

Brazilian field gun

In a previous post, listing the ammunition delivered by Germany to Bulgaria in 1915-16, Dibo mentioned also "75mm Brazilian(?) guns - 8864 in 1915-1916". After some research, thanks to some friend from GWITE group, I could find some information about these guns.
Brazialian Army had a long history of buying ordnance from Krupp and that, in 1909, it adopted a 75mm gun produced by Krupp. At the begining of WW1 German Army requisitioned the guns stored in Krupp’s factories and assigned them to one of the improvised divisions on the Eastern Front. According to a graphic organizational table appended to Kriegsministerium letter MJ Nr. 14910/15A1 of 2 August 1915, two field artillery batteries of “Division von Menges” (which became the 88th Infantry Division) were armed with “Brasilian Gesch”. Each of these batteries had four of these guns, for a total of eight. The graphical symbol used suggests that these were quick-firing weapons, probably the standard ‘export’ gun with a calibre of 75mm. The two batteries belonged to “Feld-Battr. Abt. VI”, which became the I/Feldartillerie Regiment 88 when the division changed its name in the summer of 1915. It is reasonable to assume that I/Feldartillerie Regiment 88 exchanged its “Brazilian” guns for standard German ordnance as soon as the latter became available. The “Brazilian” guns would then become available for shipment to Bulgaria. Germany usually did the same. For instance, when German Army obteined good mountain guns from Skoda, it sent to the Turks its 7.5cm L/14 Krupp mountan guns M. 1913 and its 7.7 L/17 Rheinmetall mountan guns M. 1915. I don’t know however wether German Army used other “Brazilian” guns besides the eight assigned to “Division von Menges”.
I hope to find the technical datas of these guns soon or later.

[MCP]

Bulgarian ammo

New issue: Every review of artillery in World War One deals with enormous expenditure of ammounition. Each army involved had their own "Shell crisis", often for a long period of time. What happened with Bulgarian Artillery - I doubt that Bulgarians went to war 1915 with full stock of ammo (lot of ammo was spent during 1912/13, and new supply in 1914 was near to impossible). Did Bulgaria possess some domestic production of artillery ammo? (And how much was production rate?) One source (see Chapter II of http://www.gwpda.org/memoir/Salonica/salon1.htm#c2) give account of Bulgarian artillery ammo problems as early as November 1915. Germans & Austrians later supplied Bulgaria with both their guns and ammo (Germany was probably used as a source for captured Turkish, Rumanian, even Russian guns), but how the problem was solved for considerable number of Schneider batteries?

According with История на служба "Артилерийско въоръжение в Българската армия 1878-1990 година", p. 70, when the Artillery Committee, composed by colonels M. Rjazkov and Stojan Zagorski and by majors Konstantin Žostov and Vladimir Vazov, decided to buy Schneider field guns instead of Krupp ones, it laid down this condition: that they could fire also Krupp made shells. Actually even before the Balkan Wars Bulgarian Army bought ammo for its field guns in Germany. In particular in 1912 Brisanzschrapnell produced by Ehrhardt (Rheinmetall) was introduced.
According with the same book, mountains guns could fire also the same 75mm shells used by field artillery. But I could not find a confirm of this statement in any other source. Everywher I read that mountain guns used a different - and lighter - shell.

[MCP]

Gun of the Navy

Gun model : Schneider 100mm
Calibre : 100mm L/60
Weight : 1850 kg
Shell weight : 13 kg
Muzzle velocity : 770 m/s
Max. range : 8000 m
Max. rate of fire: 6 rounds a minute
Remarks: Two guns were installed on the torpedo gunboat "Nadezhda"; two more guns were used as coast guns.


Gun model : Schneider 65mm
Calibre : 65mm L/50
Weight : 550 kg
Shell weight : 4 kg
Muzzle velocity : 640 m/s
Max. range : 7000 m
Max. rate of fire: 14 rounds a minute
Remarks: Two guns were installed on the torpedo gunboat "Nadezhda".


Gun model : Schneider 47mm
Calibre : 47mm L/60
Weight : 270 kg
Shell weight : 1.5 kg
Muzzle velocity : 820 m/s
Max. range : 4400 m
Remarks: Two guns were installed on the torpedo gunboat "Nadezhda"; two guns were installed on every torpedo boats of "Druzki" class.