Bulgarian Artillery in WW1

[MCP]

Gun model : Schneider-Canet 120mm mod. 1897
Calibre: 120mm L/12
Weight : 497 kg
Weight of carriage : 872 kg
Weight in action : 1368 kg
Weight of gun train : 2230 kg
Tube Lenght : 1.440 m
Shell Weight : 16.4 kg.
Shrapnel Weight : 16.4 kg. (276 balls x 13.83 gr)
Muzzle Velocity : 315 m/s
Max. Range : 6000m /4500m
Elevation : + 45° / - 5°
Traversing angle : 4°
Remarks : Slow firing howitzer.

[MCP]

Gun model : Schneider-Canet 120mm QF M. 1911
Calibre : 120mm L/14.5
Weight in action : 1385 kg
Tube Lenght : 1.740 m
Shell Weight : 21.3 kg
Muzzle Velocity : 330 m/s
Max. Range : 6700 m (afterwards increased to 8000 m )
Elevation : + 43° / - 3°
Traversing angle : 5°
Remarks : Quick firing field howitzer. It is an improved version of the 120mm quickfiring howitzer adopted by Bulgarian Army.

[MCP]

Gun model : Schneider-Canet 150mm QF M. 1911
Calibre : 150mm L/12
Weight in action : 2285 kg
Tube Lenght: 1.800 m
Shell Weight : 42 kg
Muzzle Velocità : 300 m/s
Max. Range : 7800 m
Elevation : + 43° / - 3°
Traversing angle : 5°
Quick firing heavy howitzer. It was derived from the 152.4mm M1910 howitzer built by Schneider for Russian Army.

[MCP]

Gun model : Schneider-Creusot 70mm QF M. 1907
Calibre : 70mm L/17
Weight : 98 kg
Weight in action : 508 kg
Tube Lenght : 1197 m
Shell Weight : 5.3 kg
Shrapnel Weight : 5.3 kg
Muzzle Velocity : 300 m/sec
Max. Range : 5000 m
Elevation : + 20° / - 12°
Remarks :
Quick firing mountain gun.
5 load: 1 - gun; 1 - axle; 1 - shield and fittings; 1 - cradle, 1 - trail and wheels
It was the standard Schneider export mountain gun. It was supplied also to Italy ans Spain as their M 1908. The Schneider mountain guns adopted by Bulgarian army was the same weapon, but adopted a 75mm cailbre gun in order to standardize the artillery.

Gun model : 80mm De Bange M. 1885
Calibre : 80mm
Weight : 105 kg
Weight of Cartridge : 0.4 kg
Weight of Shell : 5.6 kg
Max. Range : 5000 m
Remarks : This mountain gun was developed from 90mm De Bange field gun. It was adopted by French Army on 25 July 1878.
3 load: 1 - gun; 1 - carriage; 1 - trail and wheels

[MCP]

Gun model : 80mm De Bange M. 1885
Calibre : 80mm L/28.8
Weight : 424.5 kg
Weight in action : 925 kg
Weight with limber : 1595 kg
Tube Lenght : 2.304 m
Weight of Cartridge : 1,5 kg
Weight of Shell : 5.8 kg
Weight of Shrapnel : 6.1 kg
Weight of Case Shot : 5.55 kg
Muzzle Velocity : 472 m/s
Max. Range : 6000 m (shrapnel), 7000 m (HE shell)
Elevation : -8°30’ + 22°30’
Remarks : Slow firing field gun.


Thanks to The Edge for the corrections.

[MCP]

ex Serbian Field Guns

General remark:
The guns and howitzers used by Serbian Army during World War I were generally very similar to those adopted by Bulgarian Army. Obviously the artillery of a more recent pattern have some little improvements, but no really significant alteration was introduced between 1907 and 1912.


Gun model : Schneider-Creusot 75mm QF M. 1907
Calibre : 75mm L/31
Weight : 340 kg
Weight in action : 1040 kg
Tube Lenght : 2.325 m
Shell Weight : 6.4 kg
Shrapnel Weight : 6.1 kg (320 balls)
Muzzle Velocity : 550 m/s
Max. Range : 7300 m
Elevation : + 16° / - 5°
Remarks : Quick firing field gun.

Gun model : Schneider-Creusot 75mm QF M. 1912
It was the same gun which French Army had adopted as its artillery gun. Since its features are inferior to the standard 75mm Mle 1897, French Army ordered only a little number of this gun. It fired the same ammunition as M. 1907, but was lighter than it (weight in action was only 965 kg). See also Post 109.

Gun model : Krupp 75mm QF M. 1904
It was the same gun captured from the Turks by Bulgarian Army.

Thanks to The Edge for the corrections and the additions.

[MCP]

Serbian captured guns

In 1913, after Balkan wars, Serbian Army had (excepting fortress guns):
- 324 quick firing 75mm Schneider-Creusot M. 1907 and M. 1907A field guns,
- 24 quick firing 75mm Krupp M. 1904 field guns captured from the Turks,
- 36 quick firing 70mm Schneider-Creusot M. 1907 mountain guns,
- 8 quick firing 75mm Krupp M. 1904 mountain guns captured from the Turks,
- 32 quick firing 120mm Schneider-Canet M. 1911 field howitzers,
- 8 quick firing 150mm Schneider-Canet M. 1911 QF howitzers,
- 264 slow firing 80mm De Bange M. 1885 field guns,
- 30 slow firing 80mm De Bange M. 1885 mountain guns,
- 20 slow firing 120mm Schneider-Canet M. 1897 howitzers,
- 6 slow firing 150mm Schneider-Canet M. 1897 mortars,
- 16 slow firing 120mm Schneider-Canet M. 1897 ong guns.

At the biginning of World War I, Serbian Field Army had 542 guns, the rest being in the rear or along Bulgarian and Albanian borders. During 1914 Serbian Army suffered heavy losses both in men and in weapons, but it also captured a lot of materiel, that were used in order to replace the losses. In the battle of the Jadar Serbians captured 46 guns, 30 machine-guns, 140 ammunition wagoons and during the third Austro-Hungarian invasion they captured 133 guns, 71 machine-guns, 29 gun carriages, 386 ammunition wagoons.
The Etente contributed very little to the strengthening of Serbian Army. AFIK France gave to Serbian army only 3 batteries of four 75mm field guns and 2 batteries of four 65mm mountain guns; Russia only a battery of 106.2mm heavy guns (or 122mm howitzers). Besides Serbia acquired in Greece 2 batteries of four 76.2mm Schneider-Danglis (or 75mm Krupp) mountain guns.
In September 1915 when Mackensen crossed the Danube and Bulgaria entered into war, Serbian Army lined up:
against 3rd Austrian Army and 11th German Army : 362 guns
against 1st Bulgarian Army : 248 guns
against 2nd Bulgarian Army : 44 guns
along Albanian border : 24 guns
Among these 678 guns there were about 180 captured Austrian guns and in addition to them there were some fortress and siege guns.

In september-december 1914 Serbian Army was completely defeated and lost almost all its equipment. On 31th december the rest of Serbian Army, concentrated in Albania between Durazzo and San Giovanni di Medua, had only 81 guns and 179 machine guns, but only 68 guns were transferred to Corfu by Italian and French Navy.
The total amount of guns captured by Bulgaria and its allies in 1915 is not clear, since the sources are not in agreement:
- according with Austrian Official History of the War (Oesterreich-Ungarns letzer Krieg III, page 236) Austria and Germany captured 397 guns, 48 machine guns, 12 mine launchers and 208 ammunition wagoons, while Bulgarians captured about 200 guns;
- according with German Official History of the War (Der Weltkrieg IX, page 276) Mackensen Army Group and Bulgarian 2nd Army as a whole captured 502 guns till november and about 100 guns in december;
- according with Mackensen Memories (Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, page 242) they captured about 500 guns till november: about 1/3 of them was captured by Bulgarians;
- according Manuel Lon (Bulgaria en la Guerra Europea, page 60) Bulgarian army alone captured 371 guns and 136 ammunition wagoons - among them there were 48 fortress and heavy guns (mostly old) taken in Nish.
Unfortunately I don't know how many guns captured from serbians were used by Bulgarian Army during the war. But according with L.CORDIER, Victoire eclair en Orient, Aurillac, Editions U.S.H.A. 1968, p. 58, the 5th battery of 2nd Field Artillery Regiment had four 120mm Schneider-Canet howitzers (I think they are of the ancient slow firing mod. 1897, but I'm not sure).


Thanks to The Edge for the corrections

[MCP]

Captured guns

During the War Bulgarian Army captured a lot of of weapons and hundreds of guns. Even if I have not accurate informations about the use of captured guns, it is very probable that many of them were assigned to Bulgarian units, expecially in 1915-16. Also during Balkan Wars Bulgarian Army used many guns captured from the Turks and in 1913-14 they were assigned to artillery regiments in order to achieve the established strenght. Lt. Col. Napier, British Militar Attache; in Sofia before World War I (August 1914-September 1915) affirmed that, when he visited gen. Gesov in Plovdiv, he saw "a number of good Krupp guns recently captured from the Turks". Gen. Gesov told him that "thanks to the latter he was able to fit the Division out complete with Q.F. guns" (Experiences of a Military Attache; in the Balkans, London, p.47).
In 1915 German Army had no enough guns to equip its new Divisions. The number of guns of a Division decreased from 72 at the beginning of the War, to 48 at the beginnig of the 1915, to only 24 in spring of 1915. In mid 1915 four units were designed brigades - even if they had 9 infantry battalions like a Division - because they had only a battalion of field artillery (12 guns) each. This lack of artillery ends up in the second half of 1916. Consequently in 1915-16 Germany could ship to Bulgaria only a little number of guns. So we can suppose that Bulgarian Army utilized some guns captured in Serbia in 1915 and in Rumenia in 1916. This is even more likely since both Serbians and Rumenians had the same field guns that Bulgarians used (Schneider and Krupp).
Germany too ceded some of the guns captured in Russia or in France. Most of them were used as improvised antiaircraft guns.

[MCP]

Gun model : Skoda 150mm QF M. 1914/1916
Austrian designation : 15cm Hubitz M 14/16
Calibre : 150mm L/14
Weight in action : 2765 kg
Tube Lenght : 2.100 m
Shell Weight : 42 kg
Muzzle Velocity : 340 m/s
Max. Range : 7900 m
Elevation : + 70° / - 5’
Remarks :
Quick firing heavy field howitzer. It was also converted for mountain transport, divided in four loads. Following Austro-hungarian exemple, German Army converted 7.7cm FK 96 n/A, 10.5cm lFH 98/09, 15cm sFH 02, sFH 13, 10cm K 04 and 10cm K 14. They were all transported in two loads: tube and carriage (later three loads). In the picture are shown the solution adopted for 15cm sFH 02.

[MCP]

Gun model : Skoda 75mm QF M. 1915
Austrian designation : 7.5cm Gebirgskanone M 15
Calibre : 75mm L/13
Weight in action : 613 kg
Tube Lenght : 0.975 m
Shield thickness: 5 mm
Shell Weight : 6.3 kg
Shrapnel Weight : 6.55 kg (280 lead bullets or 160 steel and 10 lead-antimony bullets)
Muzzle Velocity : 365 m/s
Max. Range : 6800 m
Elevation : + 56° / - 9’
Remarks :
Quick firing mountain light howitzer. It could be dismantled into six parts (gun = 106 kg; shield and fittings = 86 kg; cradle 98 kg; wheels = 95 kg; carriage - front = 110 kg; carriage - back = 51 kg), generally carried in four loads.

[MCP]

Artillery shipped by Austria-Hungary during WW1

Austria-Hungary was the second supplier of Bulgarian Army in World War I. The ties between the two Armies are very bound, probably because Bulgarian Chief of Staff and some Bulgarian officiers studied in Vienna. Only a few days after entering the war in October 1915, the Bulgarian High Command sent an urgent request to the Austro-Hungarian General Staff for immediate delivery of 50,000 Mannlicher rifles and 50 million rounds for them, 300,00 greatcoats, 500,000 pair of boots, 250,000 rucksacks, 250,000 cartridge belts, 500,000 aluminium canteens, 100,000 woolen blankets, 1,600,000 meters of cotton cloth, and much more. During the war the co-operation between the two Army was unfailing and Austria-Hungary supplied a lot of Schwarzlose machine guns and a great number of weapons and equipments.
As for artillery, Bulgarian Army received by Austria-Hungary some batteries of 15cm heavy howitzer and of 7.5cm pack gun, both made by Skoda. This was probably the best mountain gun introduced during World War I and was intensively used also during World Ward II by various Army. Even if it was designed "kanone" it was a true howitzer able to fire in curve trajectory, very usefull in mountain warfare.

[MCP]

Heavy Minenwerfer

Gun model : Rheinmetall heavy Minenwerfer Old pattern
German designation : 25cm sMW a/A
Calibre : 245mm L/3
Weight in action : 660 kg
Weight on march : 955 kg
Tube Lenght : 0.750 m
Shell Weight : 97 kg (50 kg of explosive)
Muzzle Velocity :
Max. Range : 150/550 m
Elevation : + 75° / 20
Rate of fire: 20 rounds per hour
Personnel required to carry the MW into action : 21 men
Remarks : Introduced in 1910.

Gun model : Rheinmetall heavy Minenwerfer New pattern
German designation : 25cm sMW n/A
Calibre : 245mm L/5
Weight in action : 762 kg
Tube Lenght : 1.250 m
Shell Weight : 97 kg (50 kg of explosive)
Muzzle Velocity : 56 m/s (with the lowest charge)
67m/s (with the highest charge)
Max. Range : 150/970 m
Elevation : + 75° / 20
Rate of fire: 20 rounds per hour
Personnel required to carry the MW into action : 28 men
Remarks : Introduced in 1916. It was able to traverse 360°.

[MCP]

Medium Minenwerfer

Gun model : Rheinmetall medium Minenwerfer Old pattern
German designation : 17cm mMW a/A
Calibre : 170mm L/3.8
Weight in action : 482 kg
Tube Lenght : 0.646 m
Shell Weight : 49.5 kg (12 kg of explosive) - 42 kg (gas shell) - 37.4 kg (incendiary shell)
Muzzle Velocity : 58 m/s (with the lowest charge)
Max. Range : 150/900 m (300/1300 m with gas shell)
Elevation :
Rate of fire: 30/35 rounds per hour (40/45 with gas shell)
Personnel required to carry the MW into action : 17 men
Remarks : Introduced in 1913.

Gun model : Rheinmetall medium Minenwerfer New pattern
German designation : 17cm mMW n/A
Calibre : 170mm L/4.5
Weight in action : 560 kg
Tube Lenght : 0.765 m
Shell Weight : 49.5 kg (12 kg of explosive) - 42 kg (gas shell) - 37.4 kg (incendiary shell)
Muzzle Velocity : 63 m/s (with the lowest charge)
80m/s (with the highest charge)
Max. Range : 300/1160 m (400/1600 m with gas shell)
Elevation : + 75° / 20
Rate of fire: 30/35 rounds per hour (40/45 with gas shell)
Personnel required to carry the MW into action : 21 men
Remarks : Introduced in 1916. It was able to traverse 360°.

[MCP]

Light Minenwerfer

Gun model : Rheinmetall light Minenwerfer Old pattern
German designation : 7.7cm lMW a/A
Calibre : 75.8mm L/5.2
Weight in action : 102 kg
Tube Lenght : 0.41 m
Shell Weight : 4.6 kg (0.56 kg of explosive)
Muzzle Velocity : 70 m/s
Max. Range : 160/1050 m
Elevation :
Rate of fire: up to 20 rounds a minute for short periods
Personnel required to carry the MW into action : 6 men
Remarks : Introduced in late 1914.


Gun model : Rheinmetall light Minenwerfer New pattern
German designation : 7.7cm lMW n/A
Calibre : 75.8mm L/5.2
Weight in action : 140 kg
Weight on march : 215 kg
Tube Lenght : 0.41 m
Shell Weight : 4.6 kg (0.56 kg of explosive)
Muzzle Velocity : 77 m/s (with the lowest charge)
121m/s (with the highest charge)
Max. Range : 160/1300 m
Elevation : + 27° / 0 (in the low-angle mode)
+ 75° / + 45° (in the high-angle mode)
Rate of fire: up to 20 rounds a minute for short periods
Personnel required to carry the MW into action : 6 men
Remarks :
Introduced in 1916. Since the front of the bedding was shaped like a semicircle, it was able to traverse 360°. It could fire light gas shield too. It could be carried either by two men with the help of poles, or, after two wheels of 75cm diameter had been stuck onto the axles of its bedding, drawn by hand (see the picture).


9cm light Minenwerfer Lanz

[MCP]

German Minenwerfer (Mine launchers)

The siege of Port Arthur in Russian-Japanese War (1904-05) showed that the fire of heavy guns alone was not sufficient to take a modern fortification, since not all obstacle could be cleared by them. It also took close-quarter weapons capable of dropping a heavy explosive charge exactly onto a target a few hundred metres away. This was true expecially for barbed wire obstacles, which the artillery found troublesome to clear. On that basis the Engineer Committe of German Army in 1907-12 planned and built three kind of mine launchers: heavy, middle and light.
The main features of these weapons were:
- lower muzzle velocity compared to field or heavy artillery;
- scarce range of fire;
- not high weight ;
- shell with powerfull explosive charge.
Indeed the effect of the shell of a 25cm Minenwerfer was equal to that of a mortar of 28cm or 30cm, which weighed more than ten times.
At the beginnig of the war German Army had 44 25cm and 116 17cm Minenwerfer. The 7.7cm Minenwerfer was tested before the war started, but was assigned to the units only at the end of the year. Like the 42cm heavy mortars, they were kept in secret. They showed their potentiality during the siege of Liege, Namur and Maubeuge and proved to be very useful also in trench warfare. Other Army had no mine launcers in 1914 and France had to press into service a range of ancient mortars dating to the beginning of 19th century, until more modern weapons were built.
Germany gave to Bulgarian Army only a little number of heavy and medium Minenwerfer and ASIK no 38cm ssMW (sehr schwere = very heavy) and no 24cm Fluegel Minenwerfer were sent to Bulgarian Army.