I am attaching an article which gives the number of "heavy guns " with german army as 1024. I am assuming that the mainstay of there calibres are the 150mm and 210mm. But according to Jager's book in 1914 german army only had 200 or so 21cm and 416 15cm howitzers. They dont add upto 1024 , so what other heavt guns germans might have had 10cm, 13cm 15cm naval guns on carriages ? or old ringkananoes from fortresses ?
I'm answering from memory, would still need to verify this by looking into the documents, but I think that Jäger only counted the modern weapons, which equipped the active foot artillery battalions. Those of the Reserve and Landwehr went to war with an impressive collection of old models of mainly 15 cm and 21 cm guns, all without recoil brakes. The fortress guns were only fetched out of their positions later, they generally were not counted at the start of the war. But because they had good ammunition supplies, they were moved to the front in late 1914/early 1915.
This information is from Das Ehrenbuch Foot Artillerie
To get to it without the page link go to www.lovettartillery.com and click onto German Artillery Related then scroll to the bottom of the page for Foot Artillery units by Weapon Type.
Hope this helps
Ralph Lovett
www.lovettartillery.com
-- Edited by Ralph Lovett on Saturday 22nd of August 2009 03:22:45 PM
'Modern' guns: Apart from 918 FH 10,5 cm, which perhaps don't count as heavy, there were 416 sFH 15 cm, 10 cannons 10,5 cm M 04, 112 Mörser 21 cm.
'Old' guns: The Reserve and Landwehr Battalions fielded 688 older guns in 1914.
However, it would seem that all these numbers were computed from the number of batteries; there still may be some deviations (because units were not equipped according to TOE on mobilisation).
mad zeppelin and Ralph thanks so much for the information.Great site Ralph, I DID try to steal pics ! but couldnt lol , section on 15cm and 10cm is probably best on the web. MZ can you please give a source for the numbers in your second post.Would appreciate that greatly ( if its not too inconvenient)
German Heavy Artillery pieces in August 1914 according with SchirmerDer Weltkrieg IXWrisberg Ehrenbuch 15cm Hb 02 793 840 1060 840 10cm Kn 258 216 192 344 21cm Ms 282 252 192 256 13cm Kn 32 32 32 15cm Kn i.S.L. 8 8 8
SCHIRMER. Hermann : Das Gerät der schweren Artillerie vor, in und nach dem Weltkrieg : Das Gerät der leichten Artillerie vor, in und nach dem Weltkrieg, 5/1. Berlin : Bernard & Graefe 1937, p. 321
REICHSARCHIV : Der Weltkrieg,1914-1918, Neunter Band: Die Operationen des Jahres 1915 Die Ereignisse im Westen und auf dem Balkan vom Sommer bis zum Jahresschluss. Berlin : E.S. Mittler und Sohn, 1933, Anlage 3 : Planmässiger Bestand und Vorräte des deutschen Heeres an Waffen und Munition bei Kriegsausbruch WRISBERG. Ernst von :Wehr und Waffen 1914 1918. Leipzig : K. F. Koehler 1922, p. 83
KAISER. Franz Nikolaus (Bearbeiter) : Das Ehrenbuch der Deutschen Schweren Artillerie. Berlin : Verlag Tradition Wilhelm Kolk 1931, 1 p. 40
Remarks According with Wrisberg the Landwehr Fussartillerie for the defences of the fortress had another 650 - 15cm Hb, 152 - 10cm Kn, 32 - 21cm Ms and 66 - 15cm Turm-Hb.
According with Das Ehrenbuch in August 1914 the Fussartillerie had also : 870 - sFHb and 48 - 21cm St.-Ms.
Among the 840 sFHb 02 Das Ehrenbuch and Der Weltkrieg listed also 32 Vers.Hb 99.
Since I think it may be of some interest, I attach the Anlage 3 of Der Weltkrieg IX and a list of the gun available in Germany in August 1914, list that I made from different sources. I hope that somebody can help me, correcting the mistakes and adding further datas.
Since I think it may be of�some interest, I attach the Anlage 3 of Der Weltkrieg IX and a list of the gun available in Germany in August 1914, list that I made from different sources. I hope that somebody can help me, correcting the mistakes and adding further datas.
Best
 the table you compiled can you list your sources for it ? thanksÂ
The sources were at first REICHSARCHIV, then the other book listed above, and
1) for a/a artillery : MUTHER, Alfred / HAMMER, Reinhold, Das Gerät der leichten Artillerie vor, in und nach dem Weltkrieg, 4/1:Flugabwehrwaffen, 1929 - Berlin : Bernard & Graefe XV;
2) for Panzergeschütze : ROLF, Rudi, A Dictionary on Modern Fortification, 2004 - Middelsbulg : Prak Publishing and another bokk that I'm not able now to remember.