Bulgarian Artillery in WW1

[MCP]

9cm light Minenwerfer Lanz

Gun model : 9 cm Minenwerfer Lanz
German designation : 9 cm Minenwerfer Lanz
Calibre : 91.3mm L/6.5
Weight in action : 114 kg
Barrel lenght : 0.60 m
Shell weight : glatte leiche Wurfmine : 3.8 kg (360 gr of explosive)
Granatmine : 3.5 kg (375 gr of explosive)
Max. range : 75/450 m (Wurfmine : 320 m)
Elevation : up to 75°
Remarks : Stop-gap trench mortar introduced 1915. It was manufactured in Mannheim by Heinrich Lanz. The barrel was made of sheet steel for the 91.3 mm caliber and was mounted of a folding sled, fixed onto a wooden plate with iron reinforcements. According with NEDEFF, Les opérations en Macédonie. L'épopée de Doïran, page 104 (I use the French translation), 9th Plevenska Infantry Division had 10 MW Lanz in 1917 at Doiran.
For other information and images of this mortar see :

http://www.landships.freeservers.com/adh_germart1_l-mortars.htm

[MCP]

Krupp mountain gun M. 1904

If you are interested in it, in the Forum Традиция at http://forum.traditzia-bg.com/showpo...9&postcount=55 there is a beautiful picture of a Krupp mountain gun M. 1904. Very interesting!

[MCP]

240mm coast guns

Gun model : 240mm coastal gun
Calibre : 240 mm L/45
Weight of the barrel : 24500 kg
Weight of the carriage : 16100 kg
Weight of the shield : 4130 kg
Weight of the platform 3000 kg
Weight of the whole gun : 40600 kg
Barrel lenght : 10.8 m
Shell weight : 215 kg - bursting charge : 47.4 kg
Muzzle velocity : 800 m/s
Max. range: : 10385 m (Shell and H.E. shell) - 11520 m (Piercing shell)
Remarks : It can fire three kinds of shell : ordinary, piercing and H.E. In 1915 it was the heaviest gun of Bulgarian Army

Picture

[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.

[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]

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.

[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

[Гост]

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

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

[Гост]

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.

[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/

[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]

Some interesting info found here:

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

[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.

[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.

[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!