Landships II

GrzeM · Sergeant

Split-trail French 75mm

Peter Kempf · Field Marshal

Never heard of that variant. Could he be confusing it with the 75mm Deport? It was modernized with rubber wheels by the Italians post-war. Besides, I think from an engineering standpoint that would be quite tricky to do, as the split trail would mean major reconstruction work - and for what? Increased elevation - but wouldn't that be restricted by the original design anyway?

Sounds fishy to me. Until your friend can produce a photo of this gun, I think it is a mistake.

All the best

-- Edited by Peter Kempf at 20:32, 2006-05-15

Centurion · Legend

Peter Kempf wrote:

Sounds fishy to me. Until your friend can produce a photo of this gun, I think it is a mistake. All the best -- Edited by Peter Kempf at 20:32, 2006-05-15

No photo BUT Jane's Pocket Book of Towed Artillery for 1977 lists the 75 mm M-1897 field gun as still (in 1977) being in service with Cameroons, Greece, Moroco, Mexico and Upper Volta and states "some in use by Mexico have split trails" - of course it could be a red herring

but Jane's has always been a pretty authoritive source

Centurion · Legend

And here are some photos
U.S. Army Gun, 75mm M1897

U.S. Army Gun, 75mm M1897

It was a development of the US built 75 and given a series of names including M1897A2, M1897A4, then the M2A1 and finally M2A2 in 1939. Relegated to secondary duties early in WW2 but I understand that Britain acquired some about 1940 (along with all those clapped out destroyers) and they were used. Also a few were still with some parts of US forces in the Phillipenes in 1942 and did see action against the Japanese.

Matt Heil · Lieutenant

Hey there gents,
There is actually a single photo and description of the split-trail 75 in "Light and Medium Field Artillery" by Peter Chamberlain and Terry Gander in the "WW2 Fact Files" series. I don't have a scanner and have no access to one, so I can't show the (rather poor and grainy) picture, unfortunately

. However, here's the description:
"Canon de 75 mle 97/33

In 1933, in an attempt to modernise the ageing mle 1897, Schneider produced a new split-trail carriage for the mle 1897 barrel. The result was the mle 97/33 which entered sevice with the French army. By all accounts the conversion was not a success and large numbers were sold from army stocks to Brazil but enough remained for the Germans to take over in 1940. They used some as the 7.5cm K 232(f)."

The data table provided lists the new weight of the gun as 3307 lbs. and the new elevation as +50 degrees and the traverse as 58 degrees (up from 14 and 6 degrees, respectively). Interestingly enough, there is no new range listed.
The conversion looks a lot like the American gun Centurion pictured above, except for wooden-spoked wheels, a smaller, scallop-sided shield, and a steel guard underneath and behind the tube to prevent the breech from digging into the ground during firing.

Aside from that single paragraph and photo, I'm not sure I've ever seen anything about it, either, but that would seem to wrap up the mystery, at least. Now we just have to wait for a Brazilian forum-member to turn up some photos of a surviving museum piece... (Or for someone to buy me a scanner...)

HTH,
Matt

GrzeM · Sergeant

Many thanks, gentelmen!

G.

Peter Kempf · Field Marshal

I stand corrected!

You get to learn something everything new every day...

All the best