The 95 mm howitzer M1753, called secret howitzer or Shuvalov's secret howitzer, was an 18th-century

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 ...

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

, a type of

muzzle-loading A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun (i.e., from the forward, open end of the gun's barrel). This is distinct from the modern (higher tech and harder to make) design ...

howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...

, devised and introduced into service by artillery commander, General

Peter Ivanovich Shuvalov Count Pyotr Ivanovich Shuvalov (russian: Петр Иванович Шувалов; 1711 – ) was a Russian statesman and Field Marshal who, together with his brother Aleksandr Shuvalov, paved the way for the elevation of the Shuvalov family to ...

. Shuvalov's gun had an unusual, oval bore, which was designed to facilitate shot dispersal while firing canisters and therefore to increase the

killing field A killing field, in military science, is an area in front of a defensive position that the enemy must cross during an assault and is specifically intended to allow the defending troops to incapacitate a large number of the enemy. Defensive emplace ...

. A special canister round produced for the cannon contained 168 balls; a

grapeshot Grapeshot is a type of artillery round invented by a British Officer during the Napoleonic Wars. It was used mainly as an anti infantry round, but had other uses in naval combat. In artillery, a grapeshot is a type of ammunition that consists of ...

version, with 48 larger balls, was also provided for shooting at 300–600 yards distance. The name of the gun comes from the great secrecy which surrounded it. While not in use, the muzzle was covered with a lid to hide its unusual shape. The

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

was set as the punishment for revealing the secret of the weapon. The first guns built used

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

for changing the elevation, but in 1753–1758

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s were introduced. Originally they had cylindrical powder chambers like howitzers, but guns produced after 1758 had conical chambers like

licorne Licorne (russian: Единорог, ''Yedinorog'', 'unicorn') is the French name of an 18th- and 19th-century Russian cannon, a type of muzzle-loading howitzer, devised in 1757 by M.W. Danilov and S.A. Martynov and accepted by artillery commander, ...

s. The guns proved quite effective in action during

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

, especially at Gross-Jägersdorf, but some were lost to Prussians at Zorndorf (thus revealing their secret). In practice the shot dispersal was hardly better than of ordinary guns, reloading was slower, and the inability of the cannon to fire any other projectiles hampered its effectiveness. Slow reloading was the reason given for the loss of 17 of these guns at Zorndorf, where they were overrun by cavalry before they could fire a second shot. There were some

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and shells produced for it, looking like

rugby ball A rugby ball is an elongated ellipsoidal ball used in both codes of rugby football. Its measurements and weight are specified by World Rugby and the Rugby League International Federation, the governing bodies for both codes, rugby union and rugby ...

s, but they found no practical use. Adding yet another type of ammunition created an additional burden for logistics. Originally used by the Observation Corps and howitzer units, in 1759 they were attached to the infantry regiments; however, next year the decision was reversed. Secret howitzers were withdrawn from service soon after the death of their inventor, in the 1780s.

References

{{Reflist Cannon Artillery of the Russian Empire

See also

References