The Handbook of Artillery (Ordnance Department Document No. 2033, May 1920) has some. You might want to check from page 229 onwards. It is available here:
On the GPF good quality set of drawings can be found in Handbook of the 155 Filloux Gun material 1918 clicking on the title downloads a pdf file of the manual... as far as I know safe....
This manual is very useful to build the RPM kit (in fact, the kit seems to be inspired on drawings like these, judging by the way the pieces are designed).
One of the confusing parts of the kit is the kind of sight one has to use for a WW1 type in French service (there is an option of sights in the sprues) I'd assume that the one appearing on this manual is the correct one for the period?
D.
The manual is for the American M1918 GPF so if you wanted to choose the correct sight for a French gun choose the one which is unlike the sight in the manual.
There aren't many differences between the US M1918 and the Mle 1917 GPF but the sight is one difference.
Thanks Charlie C!
I'll PM you... yesterday I worked on my RPM kit and I'm a bit surprised to see that I'm making visible progress from session to session. It's a new topic for me -I'm much more used to WW1 aircraft and I'm very persnickety- and it has been a refreshing change.
I'm comparing the kit to the detail drawing of the manuals recently poseted in other threads, and while slightly simplified due to scale, the kit has all the parts needed, bar the brake line along the "fléches". But being used to rigging biplanes in 1/72 makes this a trifle. I just hope not to botch it with the paint scheme...
Hello!
I'm interested in the Canon de 155L GPF-Touzard development history. When it was developed - in the early 20-ies or in the 2nd part of 30-ies? So, what gun was developed earlier: GPFT or M1 "Long Tom"?
Thanks!
__________________
Our wifes are charged cannons! (the words from Russian folk song)!
The 155mm GPF-T seems to have been a late 30s development. The concept was to replace the solid rubber tires with pneumatic tires and
introduce a modern braking system without having a brake man sitting on the gun. The advantage of the GPF-T over the standard GPF was that theÂ
axis of the barrel was higher so there was no need to dig out a trench for the breech to recoil into at high elevations. There were only 24 GPF-Ts on strength
with the French Army in 1940. The Germans seem to have kept the production line going because significant numbers of GPF-Ts were used in North Africa
and Russia.
The 155mm M1 Long Tom had a complex development cycle. The initial drive for an improved GPF for the US Army came from the 1919 Westervelt report
where it was suggested that the carriage of the GPF be modified or replaced so that higher angles of elevation could be achieved to improve the range. There
was at least one experimental carriage produced for the GPF barrel in the 1920s with some thought that the same carriage could be used for the 8inch howitzer. The project
died but was restarted in the early 1930s with the creation of the 8 wheel carriage. This was eventually standardised as the M1 in 1938 with production starting
in 1940. The barrel of the M1 is longer than the GPF L/45 vs L/38.2.
There was a much less ambitious project in 1930 to make the M1918 (GPF) more suitable for high speed towing by using pneumatic tires and air brakes. This was
I found Americans developed their 1st 8-wheels carriage T2 in the years 1929 or 1930. With addition of the T4 155-mm modified GPF barrel the M1 "Long Tom" was developed later.
Also I found such photo dated 1917 and located as made in USA! So, it isn't true?
Finally, it seems the French autor of the GPFT canon captain Touzard had simply copied american idea of the multiwheel carriage and put it with some modifications in his design?
-- Edited by Capitan Print on Saturday 18th of April 2020 06:32:26 AM
-- Edited by Capitan Print on Saturday 18th of April 2020 10:14:27 AM
The photo is incorrectly captioned - the 155mm M1917 and M1918 were nearly identical with the French 155m GPF. The barrels
could be swapped between the US and French carriages. The gun in the linked image is a GPF-T.
I had an image of the Ordnance dept's experimental 155mm carriage from the 1920s but can't find it at the moment.
I've added some images of US 155mm guns.
1. Standard M1918 towed by a Holt tractor
2. Experimental 1921 mount with caterpillar tracks
3. M3 carriage - this was the 1936 US equivalent of the French GPF-T modification but it was much simpler - didn't have the pneumatic suspension
of the GPF-T and only replaced the doubled wheels of the M1918 with a single pneumatic tire.
The development of the 8-wheel carriage started in 1930 when funding was allocated for the design of a carriage for both the 155mm gun and 8inch howitzer.
Regards,
Charlie
Â
-- Edited by CharlieC on Saturday 18th of April 2020 08:51:48 AM
-- Edited by CharlieC on Saturday 18th of April 2020 08:54:06 AM
Well! The history of the US 155-mm M1 gun is clear for me now, but what about cpt. Touzard GPF-T gun? Was it parallel and independent design or there was any american influence?
__________________
Our wifes are charged cannons! (the words from Russian folk song)!
Well! The history of the US 155-mm M1 gun is clear for me now, but what about cpt. Touzard GPF-T gun? Was it parallel and independent design or there was any american influence?
No idea - it seems to me that it's a case of similar solutions to the same problem - how to increase the towing speed of heavy artillery.
Found images of the M1920 carriage designed to mount either the 8 inch M1920 howitzer or 155mm gun.
Both the carriage and gun are clearly based on the 155mm GPF. The gun seems to have a longer A (innermost) tube which may be reason that equilibrators
are required to compensate for the longer gun tube. The image isn't clear enough to determine where the trunnions were but my impression is that the trunnions are
rear mounted.Â
It looks as if the Ordnance Dept were working towards a common set of guns and howitzers with similar carriages. There was a new 155mm howitzer tested which
shared a carriage with a new 4.7inch (120mm) gun. About the same time an M1897 with a new split trail carriage which could mount a new 105mm howitzer was tested.Â
The images are from an article by William Westervelt in the "Army Ordnance Journal"Â
Following description is from the Field Artillery Journal:
<quote>
155-MM. GUN 8-INCH HOWITZER CARRIAGE MODEL 1920*
An experimental long-range mobile artillery carriage has been recently completed by the Ordnance Department
at Rock Island Arsenal and is now at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, for test.Â
This carriage, known as the 155-mm. gun, 8-inch howitzer carriage, Model 1920, mounts either a 155-mm. gun orÂ
an 8-inch howitzer. The carriage is of the split-trail type with rubber-tired wheels and permits a total
movement of the cannon in azimuth of 60º and a maximum elevation of 65º. The recoil mechanism is of the hydro-pneumatic type with a variable length ofÂ
recoil.Â
In order to increase the rapidity of fire and ease of loading the cannon when firing at high elevations a quick release mechanism is provided for returningÂ
the cannon to the horizontal for loading without disturbing the sighting mechanism. The maximum range of the gun with a 95-pound projectile is over 14½ milesÂ
and of the howitzer with a 200-pound projectile is over 10½ miles. These ranges are about four miles longer than those obtained with similar artillery of theÂ
same calibre during the World War.
Â
The weight of one cannon and carriage in firing position is about 24,000 pounds. For road travel the total weight of one vehicle is lessened by transportingÂ
the cannon, which weighs about 9000 pounds, on a separate wagon, although the carriage may be moved for short distances with the gun mounted on it.Â
While the range of these cannon is greater than that of World War cannon of the same calibre, the weight of the assembled unit is actually less.
<endquote>
Â
This carriage and gun was not adopted. mostly for financial reason, even though it seems to have been successful. It wasn't until 1930 that work restarted on
a common wheeled carriage for the 155mm gun and 8inch howitzer.Â
Regards,
Charlie
-- Edited by CharlieC on Sunday 26th of April 2020 11:47:27 AM