Landships II

MLW · Lieutenant-Colonel

Baltimore Memorial Building Trophy Artillery Pieces

CharlieC · Legend

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I don't now how the US war trophy system worked but it may have been somewhat similar to the Australian system. The Australian war trophies came from two sources:

1. Captured guns - many of these were tagged by the capturing unit. These were returned to Australia after WW1 and often allocated to towns with associations with the capturing unit.

In a few cases the serial numbers of captured guns were noted in unit diaries. Untagged captured guns made up the numbers of guns returned to Australia.

2. Surrendered guns - Negotiations after the Armistice required the Germans surrender most of their artillery - Allied demands were in excess of the actual strength of the active German artillery

so the Germans made up the numbers with guns from training units and the Landswehr. There are examples of very old and inactivated training guns in Australia which seem to have

come from the pool of surrendered guns.

The concrete wheels aren't too unusual - it was a quick fix when the original wooden wheels started to rot. At least the rims and hubs are original with the "Flintstone" wheels so it's reasonably easy

to rebuild the wooden wheels - although not cheap.

Regards,

Charlie

28juni14 · Hero

Hello Marc,

Much of the artillery displayed in the US and labeled as "captured" fall into Charlie's second category. The Germans were required to leave �IN PLACE all heavy artillery( all guns not organic to divisional TOE ) and 25% of field artillery. ( Not part of the preliminary �agreement but added to the final document shortly before the German Socialist Armistice Team arrived.)

�American intelligence officers then began to systematically recover multiple examples of everything they found on the battle field and had them shipped to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. �They arrived at the Hoboken docks in New Jersey and much war material remained where it was unloaded. �In the early 20s evaluation of the weapons was supposedly complete and the army found they had literally hundreds of "captured" guns and vehicles to deal with. �After the American Legion was organised it was decided to "gift" �those posts springing up in every city and town, and other municipalities with examples of "captured" guns. � That's how Baltimore and a host of other locales received their trophies.

Meanwhile, tons of limbers, wagons, ambulances, and barrel carriers were rotting away in Hoboken for all those years and it was eventually all loaded up, taken out to sea, and dumped. � �

MLW · Lieutenant-Colonel

I do know that the War Memorial Building in Baltimore is one of two monumental buildings constructed in the US to commemorate the end of the Great War. It is appropriate for the trophy guns to be there. But I do wonder about the choice of guns - two 15cm howitzers and four trench mortars. A 21cm howitzer would have been impressive.

The history of the building is here - warmemorial.baltimorecity.gov/History.aspx - unfortunately it does not mention the trophy guns.

Regards,
Marc