Landships II

CharlieC · Legend

New article on Landships II

Albert · Brigadier

CharlieC wrote:
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Finally finished the article on the St Chamond SPGs - replaces the previous inadequate article.
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Landships II
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Great job! Which other armies used SPGs in WW1? I think I saw a picture of German SPG, but I'm not sure how many of them were produced and if they were used in battle.

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Rob · Legend

British used the Gun Carrier Mk 1 - not with the 60 pounder as frequently seen and modelled, but with the 6 inch 26 cwt howitzer

CharlieC · Legend

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The British had Gun Carrier Mk 1 - it could fire a 6 inch howitzer from the deck. It was used on a few occasions in 1917 as an SPG.

The US had a whole range of experimental SPGs from 1918 onwards - they were mostly fairly simple platforms made by Holt with a range of guns -

none of them saw any service.

I wasn't aware that the Germans had tried to build SPGs - I thought the closest they got was the 3 (?) Flak vehicles based on the A7V Uberlandwagen.

The French built more than the St Chamonds - Schneider built an SPG to carry the 220mm L TR Mle 1917 gun. There were at least 3 different

prototypes of Renault FT carrying 75mm and 105mm guns.

Regards,

Charlie

Albert · Brigadier

Oh, I'm sorry, I meant this: http://landships.activeboard.com/t43161037/german-half-track-with-anti-tank-gun/�and this is a halftrack. Plus Rainer Strasheim doesn't believe it to be real, it's rather a mock-up.

EDUARDO MAMORETTI · General

smile �Dear Colleague,

Congratulations on your fine article,

In this very forum I started a topic on�a scratchbuilt�model�of this�arty piece (asking�how to paint the model properly),��then�I finished it,��and submitted images�to the model gallery.

I remember the helpfull assistance of Mr. Roger Todd� by those days, as well as the encouraging help of many colleagues herein this forum. Attached some images.

Thank you for remembering me nice times!

-- Edited by EDUARDO MAMORETTI on Wednesday 26th of December 2012 12:29:59 AM

TinCanTadpole · Legend

A fine model, Eduardo - 1/35th scale?

EDUARDO MAMORETTI · General

Thank you TinCan,

Indeed, 1/35.

Some more ww1�stuff in my Flickr gallery under the label emamoretti

Regards smile

CharlieC · Legend

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Thank you for the compliment on the article although most of the credit should go to Francois Vauvillier who wrote the GBM articles.

The illustrations in the GBM articles seem to suggest that the St Chamond SPGs were painted "vert-olive" (olive green) although the 194mm survivor, previously at Aberdeen,

looks as if it was painted "gris artillerie" (artillery grey) - the present colour could be a result of many years of weathering of the original grey paint. No period image

of the St Chamond SPG seems to show any indication of camouflage patterns - I guess the lack of camouflage makes sense since the SPGs were designed to operate

a fair way behind the front line.

There are more articles to be written on the French SPGs, Schneider built an SPG to carry the 220mm L gun which was too large for the St Chamond chassis. There were a number

of projects to fit 75mm and 105mm guns to the Renault FT chassis.

Regards,

Charlie

EDUARDO MAMORETTI · General

Look forward to see more on your outstanding work,

Regards smile

CharlieC · Legend

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A couple of interesting observations about the St Chamond SPGs.

1. Looking closely at the images of the surviving 194mm previously at Aberdeen I'm starting to wonder if the St Chamond suspension had anything to do with the

original Holt suspension. There is a row of brackets on the side plates which look, to my eye, pretty much the same as the roadwheel axles on the British rhomboid

tanks. Unfortunately I haven't seen any images of the inside of the St Chamond 194mm SPG track frame.

St_Chamond_track frame.jpg

2. The gun trolley on the howitzer armed (220mm and 280mm) seems to have been pulled back to the front for travelling, but on the 194mm even in travelling mode

it looks as though the trolley is still located at the rear. My thought is that the 194mm gun was designed to be detached from its carriage for transport so in the 194mm

SPG the barrel was unlocked and slid forward without moving the gun trolley.

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Comments?

Regards,

Charlie

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CharlieC · Legend

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Article on the Renault SPGs - designed to carry the 75mm Mle 1897 field gun on a Renault FT chassis has been posted to Landships II.

Regards,

Charlie

CharlieC · Legend

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New article on the Renault FT 75 BS posted to Landships II. Don't know why we didn't have an article on this tank but we have now.

Regards,

Charlie