I'm stuck with a term in French describing the carriages used for the components of the 280mm Schneider Mle 1914 howitzer. The carriages are referred to as being quite fragile and were limited in towing speed to a maximum of 7km/hr. The term is "les fausses-flèches" in the sentence "La suspension ultérieure des matériels puis l'adoption des roues pas sensiblement la vitesse des convois qui demeurera limitée à 7 km/h, même sur bonnes routes, car les fausses-flèches des voitures d'artillerie se révéleront très fragiles."
The fausses-fleches term won't translate to anything sensible - anyone know what this is or at least a description so I can find an equivalent English term.
fleche, underpole connecting the fore and hind parts a carriage (4-wheel)
fausse ------, ------ fausse, (art.) false trail (used for limbering up short-trailed, heavy car- riages, e. g., that of the French 220mm siege mortar)
Cheers
-- Edited by Ironsides on Friday 16th of March 2012 10:35:27 AM
The carriages for the 4 components for the 280mm Mortier (the baseplate, gun carriage, recuperator and barrel) were not like most gun carrying carriages of the time with a frame between the axles that the parts sat on. The Schneider solution seems to have been to use the parts as the main part of the carriage and bolt an assembly which had the axles on each end of the gun part. This certainly would have saved weight but all the shocks and forces of moving the carriage would be transmitted to the attachment points.
Even when the carriages were equipped with pneumatic tyres the towing speed was limited.
I have read the american book "Handbook of artillery" edited in 1925.In this book, the 240 mm Howitzer model 1918, which is quite similar to the "mortier de 280 TR", except for the barrel, is explained with many details.The french term "fausse flèche" is translated "false trail". French artillery adopted the Schneider 280 mm TR after the russian artillery.In Russia, the 11 inch mortar (280 TR for the french) was moved by horses in pre-war plans, in french Army, all the 280 TR were towed by heavy tractors and the "false trail" was weak.The wheels with rubber and the suspension of the axle-trees do not corrected the weakness of these false trails, so the speed was limited to only 7 km/h. Yours sincerely, Guy François.