Bulgarian Artillery in WW1

[dibo]

dibo you are terrific! :nworthy:

A little question. In various western sources (Manuel LON, Bulgaria en la guerra Europea, Madrid 1920, passim - who speaks of 16 howitzers of this pattern; Philip J. HAYTHORNWAIYTE, The World War One Sourcebook, London, Arms & Armour 1992, page 156, and another source that I don't remember now) Bulgaria had also some 105mm Schneider Field Howitzer. But I don't know that there were a 105mm Schneider howitzer in pre-war (I know only a 105mm Schneider M. 1909 quick firing mountain howitzer). Do anybody know anything about this question?

36 120mm QF Schneider Field Howitzer were delivered in 1910. No 105mm QF Schneider howitzers deliveries were made AFAIK. Could be captured pcs however - most likely Romanian.

[MCP]

Thanks.
Another little precisation about your list.
You wrote 12 150mm howitzers. I think it is a mistake. I have 24 Schneider-Canet 150mm L/12 mod. 1897/05 а tir accelere.
As for the 105mm Schneider field howitzer all the source I mentioned affirm that Bulgaria had those guns at the beginning of the war. Probably there was a confusion with the 105mm Krup heavy guns.
Of course thanks to Imperial too.

[MCP]

German Field Guns

Gun model : Krupp 77mm QF M. 1896 new pattern
German designation : 7.7cm FK 96 n/A
Calibre : 77mm L/27
Weight of gun: 335 kg
Weight of carriage: 635 kg
Weight in action : 1910 kg
Tube Lenght : 2.080 m
Shell Weight : 6.85 kg
Shrapnel Weight : 6.85 kg (300 lead bullets or 220 steel bullets)
Muzzle Velocity : 465 m/s
Max. Range : 6000/7000 m (8400 m with 1915 pattern shell)
Elevation : + 15° / - 12°
Traversing angle : 4° each side
Thickness of shield: 4 mm
Ammunition : gun limber - 36, wagon - 90
Remarks : Quick firing field gun, with hydraulic recoil system, single-motion wedge breech mechanism, equipped with telescopic and dial sights, but not fitted for an indipendent line of sight.

Bulgarian Army received also a little number of Rheinmetall 77mm QF M. 1916 field guns.

[MCP]

German howitzers

Gun model : Krupp 105mm QF M. 1898
German designation : 10.5cm lFH 98
Calibre : 105mm L/16
Weight in action : 1090 kg
Tube Lenght : 1.680 m
Shell Weight : 15.7 kg
Shrapnel Weight : 12.8 kg
Muzzle Velocity : 302 m/s
Max. Range : 5900/7000 m
Elevation : + 40° / - 10’
Ammunition : gun limber - 24, wagon - 62
Remarks : Slow firing light field howitzer. It seems that Bulgarian Army did not used this howitzer.

[MCP]

Gun model : Krupp 105mm QF M. 1898/1909
German designation : 10.5cm lFH 98/09
Calibre : 105mm L/16
Weight of gun: 365 kg
Weight of carriage: 825 kg
Weight in action : 1225 kg
Tube Lenght : 1.680 m
Shell Weight : 15.8 kg
Shrapnel Weight : 15.8 kg (500 balls) - (300 lead bullets or 450 steel bullets with 1916 pattern shrapnel)
Muzzle Velocity : 302 m/s
Max. Range : 6300/7000 m (7000 m with 1915 pattern shell)
Elevation : + 40° / - 10°
Traversing angle : 4° each side
Thickness of shield: 4 mm
Ammunition : gun limber - 24, wagon - 62
Remarks : Quick firing light field howitzer, with hydraulic recoil system, single-motion wedge breech mechanism, equipped with the panorama sight, but not fitted for an indipendent line of sight.

[MCP]

Gun model : Rheinmetall 105mm QF M. 1916
German designation : 10.5cm lFH 16
Calibre : 105mm L/22
Weight in action : 1380 kg
Tube Lenght : 1.680 m
Shell Weight : 15.7 kg
Shrapnel Weight : 15.7 kg (500 balls) - (300 lead bullets or 450 steel bullets with 1916 pattern shrapnel)
Muzzle Velocity : 400 m/s (427 m/s with F.H.Granate 98/C-Geschoss)
Max. Range : 8400 m (9700 m with F.H.Granate 98/C-Geschoss)
Elevation : + 40° / - 10°
Traversing angle : 4°
Remarks : Quick firing light field howitzer. It fired the same ammunition of light Field Howitzer M 1898/1909, but in 1917 a new shell was introduced, the C-shell. In order to facilitate the production of German artillery, this howitzer and the 77mm M. 1916 received in optics, laying mechanism and so on, as many identical parts as possible.

[MCP]

German Mountain Howitzers

Gun model : Krupp 105mm QF
German designation : 10.5cm Geb H L/12
Calibre : 105mm L/12
Weight in action : 805 kg
Tube Lenght : 1.260 m
Shell Weight : 14.4 kg/15.8 kg
Muzzle Velocity : 253 m/s
Max. Range : 4900 m
Elevation : + 40° / -7°
Traversing angle : 5° 30’
Ammunition : It was adjusted to use the same ammunition of Krupp 105mm QF light howitzer M. 1898/1909.
Transport : 7 loads
Remarks : Quick firing mountain howitzer. Only 4 batteries of this howitzer were delivered to Bulgarian Army (see Herbert JAEGER, German Artillery of World War One, Ramsbury, The Crowood Press 2001, page 84).

[MCP]

German Heavy Howitzers

Gun model : Krupp 150mm QF M. 1913
German designation : 15cm sFH 13
Calibre : 149.7mm L/14
Weight of gun:
Weight in action : 2105 kg
Tube Lenght : 2.100 m
Shell Weight : 42 kg
Muzzle Velocity : 365 m/s
Max. Range : 8500 m
Elevation : + 45° / 0
Remarks : Quick firing heavy field howitzer. It seems that it was used by Bulgarian Army only after World War 1 (it was offered by Italy).

[gollum]

One question: "quick firing" means that the ammunition is not separate loaded (charge and projectile) but all is in one "shot"?

[Imperial]

The english military slang for this is "one-piece ammo" or also "single-piece ammo" and "two-piece ammo"

[dibo]

Thanks.
Another little precisation about your list.
You wrote 12 150mm howitzers. I think it is a mistake. I have 24 Schneider-Canet 150mm L/12 mod. 1897/05 а tir accйlйrй.
As for the 105mm Schneider field howitzer all the source I mentioned affirm that Bulgaria had those guns at the beginning of the war. Probably there was a confusion with the 105mm Krup heavy guns.
Of course thanks to Imperial too.

I'll try to cross-check this. However I only have small and conflicting pieces of information and not the whole picture unfortunately

[gollum]

Ok, thanks - you know that my english is, how to say - not that good that it has to be .
I`m asking that question because "QF" is term (in WWII times) for "one piece ammo", but is that so for the Great war? And some of the artillery pieces mentioned here are howitzers, but I never heard of howitzer with one piece ammo.

[MCP]

Quick firing

Some informations about quick firing and slow firing (not quick firing) guns - скорострелно и нескорострелно ордъие (I begin to learn ) - taken from Ian V. HOGG, Allied Artillery of World War One, Ramsbury. The Crowood Press 1998, page 7.

" The quick-firing (QF) gun was inaugurated by the French with their 75mm Mle 1897, and the salient features of the class were as follows:
1. It used fixed ammunition, in which the cartridge and shell were a single unit, sealing the breech with a brass cartridge case.
2. It had a quick-acting breech mechanism which in conjunction with (1) allowed a high rate of fire.
3. It had an on-carriage recoil system which allowed the gun to remain in the same place when it fired, the recoil shock being absorbed solely by the movement of the barrel against an hydraulic buffer, after which it was returned by springs or compressed gas. This meant that the gunlayer was able to bring his sights back on to the target quickly, ready for the next shot.
4. In consequence of (3) it could have a shield, behind which the gunners were protected against small-arms fire and shrapnel bullets. With the gunners tightly clustered around a steady gun, ammunition supply and loading became faster.

The brass case, fixed ammunition, hydraulic buffer and recuperator were all separately known and in employment prior to 1897 on various guns, but the French brought all these things together on a field gun, added a shield and still had a weapon they could bring into action behind six horses and which had a rate of fire approaching twenty aimed rounds a minute. That was the significance of the 75mm Mle 1897... The result was that every nation had to re-equip with Qf guns or be entirely outgunned. This re-equipment took place between 1898 and 1914, and in many countries had not been completed when war broke out. "

A lot of informations and pictures in a site in French: canonde75.free.fr/


In the first picture you can see the breech of a French 75mm Mle 1897, showing the firing hammer and, above it, the safety cactch.

[gollum]

Thanks for information (and excuse me for my bad english). But I have some more questions.
Since the appearence of the QF field guns (as french 75 mm) all of the guns (field, division, corp - on all level of organization) have these features:

2. It had a quick-acting breech mechanism which in conjunction with (1) allowed a high rate of fire.
3. It had an on-carriage recoil system which allowed the gun to remain in the same place when it fired, the recoil shock being absorbed solely by the movement of the barrel against an hydraulic buffer, after which it was returned by springs or compressed gas. This meant that the gunlayer was able to bring his sights back on to the target quickly, ready for the next shot.

But shield have only these guns, that are purpose for direct firing. The purpose of howitzers (or mortars) is mainly for indirect fire form covered positions (and for that reason theyhaven`t shields). For the same reason they are with "two-piece" amunnition in wich the propellant charge is loaded separately (and there are 4-8 level of charges) and the projectile is loaded separately. That allow much better indirect fire.
The reason I asked that question was that in your list are howitzers, noted as "quick-firing" and that surprise me.

I found some information that solves the "riddle":

The British recognised three types of ordnance, the term for the complete barrel assembly comprising the firing mechanism, breech, barrel and attachments such as a muzzle brake, each type of ordnance required a different configuration of ammunition. These three types were:

* QF - 'quick firing',
* BL - 'breech loading', and
* ML - 'muzzle loading'.

...

The term 'QF' originated with the late 19th century introduction of field guns firing propellant packed in brass cartridges that were loaded through the breech with the cartridge case providing obturation. This method, coupled with the introduction of buffer/recuperator arrangements for controlling recoil, provided high rates of fire hence 'QF'. Subsequently most QF cartridges had two or more cloth bags, containing propellant, in the metal cartridge case.

the sourse is:

http://members.tripod.com/~nigelef/ammo.htm#QF%20ROUNDS

In fact "QF" didn`t mean that amuntion is "one-piece", but that the propelant charge bags are first loaded in metal cartridge-case. Naturaly, amunition for small caliber guns (up to 100 mm) were one-piece and didn`t have different propelant charges. But in the large caliber guns, especially howitzers, amunitions were two-piece, with different propelant charges. But for all of them the teram is "quick firing" (in World War Two that term already mean fixed one-piece ammuntion (like that in antiaircraft or antitank guns).
Sorry for interrupting your interesting dicusion - I found the answer to my question.

[MCP]

AFIK the peculiarity of a quick firing gun is first the "recoil system" (in Italy slow firing guns are called "cannoni ad affusto rigido" = "guns with rigid carriage"), and second breech mechanism. This allowed a great increase of the rate of fire. The other specifications dinstinctive features are an addition, that as a whole revolutionized the use firstly of field guns.
As for shields, howitzers at the beginning had not them, but soon they adopted armoured shield. In Bulgarian Army both Schneider-Creusot 120mm M. 1909 and Schneider-Canet 150mm M. 1897/05 had shields. Only the old Krupp 120mm M. 1891 had not it. In Germany 15cm sFH 93 and 15cm sFH 02 (both Krupp) had not shields, but next heavy howitzers - 15cm sFH 13/02 15cm sFH 13 (both Krupp) and 15cm sFH 07 had them. The same happened with light howitzers (105mm) long range heavy guns (like 10cm K) and alsoo heavy mortars (210mm, 280mm, 305mm, 420mm !). The same in Austria-Ungary or in Russia (for exemple Putilov 152mm M 1909 had shield) But in France the armoured shield often was not adopted for howitzers or heavy guns.