Some German Feldkanone and at least two types of fuses had a designation of "c" as part of their oficial designation. For example schwere Feldkanone C/73, C/79/91 and fuses DopplZ c/92 and DopplZ c/96. Sometimes the letter is upper case and other times it is lower case depending on the reference. In Major Hicks` book "Notes on German ordnance, 1841-1918" he states in a chart that the letter means "Construction" in English but does not give the German word. Does anyone know the German word, what the "c" designation means and why it was used?
Herbert Jager, in 'German Artillery of World War One', states in the opening paragraph of the book that the 'C' stood for 'Construction' and the number was the year of introduction of the gun. Thus, C/73 simply means a gun introduced in 1873. Additional numbers indicate modifications. For example, the 9cm C/73/88/91 was introduced in 1873; modified with a lighter barrel in 1888 (so becoming the C/73/88); and finally given a nickel steel barrel in 1891, thus becoming the C/73/88/91.
I don't know what the 'C' actually stands for, as there is a similar word in German for construction, but it is 'konstruction' with a 'k'. In case anyone says, 'Ah, maybe 'C' is only used in English language publications, but the correct, different, letter is used in German?' I had considered that, but in Jager's book there is a small image of a German neckerchief for gunners (printed with everything the gunner needs to know about how to do his job, from trumpet calls to his gun and the ammunition)! One can just make out on the image that even in German, the gun is referred to as the C/73/88 (yes, it's that gun again).
And it would appear that uppercase 'C' is always used with gun designations.
Haven't a clue about the lowercase 'c' used with fuses, though.
