Landships II

The FK16 was a Rheinmetall design;  not Krupp,  though the latter built them too.

Krupp lost a good deal of prestige with the army after the French  Mle1897 was first witnessed during the Boxer Rebellion.    Using two of the new guns,  the French systematically reduced a Boxer brick fortification with rapid fire and manouver in a matter of 15 minutes or so.  The 100 or so Chinese defenders were decimated.

Krupp was hard pressed to explain why the new Feldkanone 96 was rendered obsolete even before the army had taken full delivery of the order.  Then it was learned they had passed on the long recoil design of one their own engineers in the early 90s, who had left the firm in discust and went to work for Ehrhardt.  ( This upstart firm immediately filed patants on the long recoil system in 5 countries, naively to include France. )

Long story short, Ehrhardt was then given the contract to bring the FK96 up to standard at considerable extra cost to the artillery allowance.  The result was the FK96/nA.

I might add Rheinmetall also re-did the FH98;  again not Krupp.

I don't have an answer other than to say that most likely the manufacturer's name or initials may be obscured still by heavy paint.  The "HM40" mark under the 1917 date is unusual.  I can't help but to wonder if this could be a 7,5cm FK 16n/A.  These stated life as 7,7cm l.F.K. 1916 field pieces and were re-bored to 7,5cm during the Weimar/Third Reich period. 

Many of the later war pieces seem to come from manufacturers that are not as well known as Freid. Krupp and Rheinmetall.  Spandau turns up fairly often and from time to time Bochumer Verein and I have a 10,5cm lFH 16 marked to "GMA" which I have never been able to identify.  It appears that in an effort to increase production many other firms and depots manufactured artillery on the Krupp and Rheinmetall patterns.  However, this was a problem when it came to the hydro-spring and hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanisms.  Very few manufacturers were capable of this type of work.

The piece looks reasonably complete and restorable.  Hopefully it gets to someone or some organization that can care for it.

R/

Ralph

HM probably means Hannoversche Maschinenbau AG, later Hanomag.

I dont know what GMA means but it could be Krupp's Grusonwerk in Magdeburg?

I'd say it is a 77mm....

Thanks for the replies.

The AWM records are usually accurate about where guns were captured (where known), the Casino gun was captured in Palestine in 1918. This probably means it was in Australia (1920) before the 7.5cm FK 16 n.A conversions occurred.

HM meaning Hannoversche Maschinenbau AG sounds reasonable to me.

The Casino local council has offered to put up some money towards restoration of the FK 16. There is more interest in conserving and restoring the WW1 guns in Australia with the centenary of the Gallipoli landings approaching.

The Germans certainly seem to have dispersed artillery manufacture in the last years of WW1. There is an lFH 16 at Moonta, South Australia which has the manufacturer "RWF" stamped on the breech which has not been identified - any ideas?

Regards,

Charlie

The Germans certainly seem to have dispersed artillery manufacture in the last years of WW1. There is an lFH 16 at Moonta, South Australia which has the manufacturer "RWF" stamped on the breech which has not been identified - any ideas?

Indeed.

Never seen RWF before, but its just a breech, so it could have something to do with the Rheinisch-Westfaelische Sprengstoff AG?

Thanks Nuyt.

The RAEMESA website article (http://www.raemesa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1:ww1gun&catid=4:site) on the Moonta lFH 16 hasn't been updated with the identification in the thread you pointed to.

Regards,

Charlie