The 11-inch gun M1877 was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

coastal The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

, fortress and

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...

gun that was used in the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

and

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

History

The M1877 was first designed and produced by the

Obukhov State Plant Obukhov State Plant (also known Obukhovski Plant, russian: Государственный Обуховский Завод, Gosudarstvennyy Obukhovskiy Zavod) is a major Russian metallurgy and heavy machine-building plant in St. Petersburg, Russi ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and was fairly conventional for its time and most nations had similar guns with similar roles such as the French

Canon de 240 L Mle 1884 The Canon de 240 mm L modèle 1884 was a heavy artillery piece originally employed as coastal artillery and later converted to siege artillery and railway artillery roles. Mle 1884 guns were used in both World War I and World War II. Histor ...

or British

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Design

The M1877 was a short barreled breech-loading gun. The barrel was a typical

built-up gun A built-up gun is artillery with a specially reinforced barrel. An inner tube of metal stretches within its elastic limit under the pressure of confined powder gases to transmit stress to outer cylinders that are under tension.Fairfield (1921) p.1 ...

of the period with reinforcing

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which was built from cast iron and steel. The gun had an early form of

Krupp The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...

horizontal sliding-block breech and it fired separate-loading, bagged charges and projectiles.

Coastal Defense

In the coastal defense role, the M1877 was mounted on a garrison mount which sat on a concrete slab behind a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

. The mount consisted of a rectangular steel firing platform with a pivot at the front and two wheels at the front and rear to give 120° of traverse. The recoil system for the M1877 consisted of a U shaped gun cradle which held the trunnioned barrel and a slightly inclined firing platform with a hydro-gravity recoil system. When the gun fired the hydraulic buffers under the rear slowed the recoil of the cradle which slid up a set of inclined rails on the firing platform and then returned the gun to position by the combined action of the buffers and gravity. Due to its limited angle of elevation 20°, the M1877 was a low-angle

direct fire Direct fire or line-of-sight fire refers to firing of a ranged weapon whose projectile is launched directly at a target within the line-of-sight of the user. The firing weapon must have a sighting device and an unobstructed view to the target, w ...

weapon instead of a high-angle

indirect-fire Indirect fire is aiming and firing a projectile without relying on a direct line of sight between the gun and its target, as in the case of direct fire. Aiming is performed by calculating azimuth and inclination, and may include correcting aim by ...

coastal defense mortar like many of its contemporaries.

Fortress & Siege Gun

In the fortress and siege gun roles, the M1877 used the same type of garrison mount as in the coastal defense role. Due to their weight, the guns were not designed to be mobile. After a string of Russian defeats in the first two years of the war, a number of M1877's were captured by the Germans. In 1916 the Germans transferred four M1877's to the Western Front where they were assigned to heavy artillery battalions of the army. Details of their employment are unknown and all are believed to have been withdrawn before 1918. However, since they didn't have very good range and they weren't capable of high angle fire they may have been used in their original coastal defense role instead of in a siege artillery role. In German service the guns had better range due to more efficient

smokeless powder Finnish smokeless powderSmokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to gunpowder ("black powder"). The combustion products are mainly gaseous, compared to a ...

and more aerodynamic German projectiles.

Photo Gallery

File:Suomenlinna_gun_6.jpg, An 11-inch M1877 at Suomenlinna. File:BASA-237K-1-361-8-The_Conquest_of_Nowo-Georgiewsk._A_Barrel_of_the_same_Calibre.jpg, A M1877 captured during the Siege of Novogeorgievsk. File:Иллюстрация_к_статье_«Лафет_орудийный»._Фигура_№_9._Военная_энциклопедия_Сытина_(Санкт-Петербург,_1911-1915).jpg, Details of the garrison mount. File:Rundkeil_c73.tif, The M1877's breech block.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:11-inch gun M1877 World War I guns Russo-Japanese war weapons of Russia Artillery of the Russian Empire 280 mm artillery World War I artillery of Russia World War I artillery of Germany