Landships II

PDA · Legend

What Type of German Gun is This?

PDA · Legend

Thanks, Ian.

I think I'm convinced this is a 10cm Kanone m17, looking at the photo below and the pic from L2 I can see many comparison points the same.

-- Edited by PDA on Monday 25th of June 2012 01:35:22 AM

Ian Armstrong · Sergeant

The Germans (and indeed many other nations) sometimes used a non standard bore measurement to prevent confusuion in the supply line between shells of the same bore but for different weapons.

Examples of this are Soviet 120mm Katyusha rocket launcher (actually 122mm), British 77mm gun (76.2 short tank round not to be confused with the much longer 76.2mm anti tank round and german 10cm K18 (10.5cm but again different round to the lfh18, 18m, 18/40, KWKs etc.

So, it is likely that your gun is actually 10.5cm, but uses a different round to another contempory 10.5cm weapon.

CharlieC · Legend

�

Pretty solid case that the gun is a 10cm Kanone 17/04.

The German guns of this calibre were known as 10cm, that is the 10cm Kanone 04 and 10cm Kanone 14 even though the physical calibre was 105.2mm.

Regards,

Charlie

Ralph Lovett · General

This is not a 10cm Kanone 1917/04.� I is a 10cm Kanone 1917.� Notice that the 10cm 1917/04 has a very different sight mount.

See the restored 10cm Kanone 1917 in my collection:

�

http://www.lovettartillery.com/10cm_Kanone_1917.html

�Some of you might also find the photos of the restoration interesting:

http://www.lovettartillery.com/10cm_Kanone_1917_Restoration.html

R/

Ralph

�

-- Edited by Ralph Lovett on Tuesday 26th of June 2012 10:36:50 PM

PDA · Legend

Thank you, Charlie and Ralph.

Ralph, I looked at those articles on your web site when I was trying to figure out what this gun is. That helped me to identify it as the m17, not the m04.

I am amazed at just how much these guns are worth and just how little attention is paid to them. This gun is outside the old arsenal in Niagara Falls (a museum, for a time)�and nobody at the tourist information office knew about it - I found it by sleuthing and a process of elimination. The museum has closed and all the exhibits have moved; all except this lonely trophy gun. Will it move? Or will it be sold off, and another little piece of history rubbed out?

PDA · Legend

MLW wrote:
Is this the same artillery piece?
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1601684

No. Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Falls are two different towns, about 20 km apart.

The Niagara Falls gun (there should actually be more than one!) is on a street corner, and the Niagara-on-the-Lake gun is described (in the article) as being on a common.

Niagara-on-the-Lake gun is number 201. Niagara Falls gun is number 39.

Here is Bill Smy's report on the Niagara-on-the-Lake gun. EDIT: Here is another page on the Niagara-on-the-Lake gun.

There is a surprisingly high number of trophy guns from WW1 on the streets of Canadian cities. Not as high as it should be, many more were allocated after the war than we can see today, but still remarkable.

Incidentally, the Niagara Falls gun has been rebuilt. It doesn't always mean poor results (such as those on the Ashford tank in England), take a look:

-- Edited by PDA on Wednesday 27th of June 2012 02:09:43 PM

MLW · Lieutenant-Colonel

Is this the same artillery piece? http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1601684

CharlieC · Legend

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Certainly reads that way although the identification is wrong.

The bit that alarmed me was the proposal to get someone from Govt. to advise on restoration. Australian experience is that this doesn't work - you really need

someone who understands how to restore these guns to advise. Suggest they ask Ralph very politely, waving money at the same time, for real expert advice.

Regards,

Charlie