WW1 in Alsace - Linge Battle - 63rd Anti Aircraft Regiment - 96th poste semi-fixed
Short extract of an artillery trainning course - by Major BERANGER July, 1949.
The appearance of smokeless powder led the enemy to disperse and use cover; as a result, artillery no longer had to hit only visible and limited targets, but above all to make dangerous wide and deep areas where the enemy dispersed and only appeared at times.
Rapid fire is therefore essential to capture this elusive and dispersed enemy; but to achieve this, it is necessary to secure the gun mount to the ground. To allow it to withstand the force, an elastic cord must be placed between the barrel and the mount, distributing the recoil energy over a considerable distance and also pulling the barrel back into position.
From 1890 onwards, numerous attempts were made to create an elastic link allowing the hunting blind to be anchored in the ground. The proposed solutions consisted of using a short recoil with complicated deformations (90 Canet, 90 Mourcet) or simply blocking the very rigid blind in the ground with a solid stock spade (75 Ducros).
None of these mediocre solutions were adopted when the first long-recoil gun appeared: the 75 model 1897.
In 1892, the Artillery Directorate tasked Commandant Deport and Captain Sainte-Claire Deville with studying a long-recoil gun. The first tests carried out with this 90mm gun showed that the long-recoil solution was possible but that it led to a significant increase in weight.
Given the increased power due to the high rate of fire enabled by the new equipment, a reduction in caliber was accepted in order to maintain the equipment's high mobility, and the 75 caliber was adopted.
In 1894 the first 75mm gun was produced; it included many improvements due to Sainte-Claire Deville: brake and recuperator mounted in series, Nordenfeld breech, independent sight, sliding on the axle, shield, aiming device with collimator and goniometer, complete cartridge, tilting box.
The study of the brake, which had proven unsatisfactory, was resumed, and in 1896 a perfectly successful prototype was produced. The Germans were led to believe that the rigid-framed 75mm Ducros was far superior, and it was only after Germany had developed a rigid 77mm gun that the 75mm model 1897 was officially adopted.
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To keep the manufacturing process secret, the interchangeability of parts was achieved by defining them with rigorous dimensions and low machining tolerances.
In this way, the various parts can be manufactured in different factories and the assembly carried out in Puteaux in a strictly controlled workshop.
The creation of this first rapid-fire, long-recoil weapon represents a magnificent technical success: the flexibility and perfection of its elastic link have never been equaled.
Unfortunately, the exceptional nature of this success led the French artillery to place too much trust in its new cannon and, demanding everything of it, to want to use it for tasks for which it was not made.
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