76 mm divisional gun M1902
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The 76.2 mm divisional gun model 1902 (russian: 76-мм дивизионная пушка образца 1902 года) 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 ...
light field gun 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 ...
, World War I,
Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...
and a number of interwar armed conflicts with participants from the former Russian Empire (
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, Finland,
Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
, etc.). Modernized versions of this gun were employed at the early stage of World War II.


History

This gun, known as the "three-incher", (трёхдюймовка) was developed by Putilovski Works in Saint-Petersburg in 1902. The lead designers were L. A. Bishlyak, K. M. Sokolovskiy and K. I. Lipnitskiy. It incorporated many new features for that time - carriage with recoil devices, traverse and elevation tracking mechanisms, precision sight for direct and indirect firing, manual
interrupted screw Breech from Russian 122 mm M1910 howitzer, modified and combined with 105 mm H37 howitzer barrel An interrupted screw or interrupted thread is a mechanical device typically used in the breech of artillery guns. It is believed to have be ...
breech and single-piece ammunition loading. For simplifying the mass production process designers used in the gun's construction cheap types of carbonized steel without or with minimal use of rare and expensive nickel-,
manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...
- or chromium-added types of steel. Early version had two seats for the crew on both sides of a barrel, from 1906 they were replaced with an armoured shield.Voycekhovich, Sergey. ''Rossiyskaya polyevaya artilleria. 1382-1917 gody.'' Series "Artilleriyski muzyey" (Artillery muzeum) No.13. BTV-Kniga, 2008. p.79-83 The shield had a specific design: an outer shield, with a big rectangular opening, and a smaller, inner shield behind it. The upper and lower portion of the bigger shield were folding during transport. The gun had fragmentation
shrapnel Shrapnel may refer to: Military * Shrapnel shell, explosive artillery munitions, generally for anti-personnel use * Shrapnel (fragment), a hard loose material Popular culture * ''Shrapnel'' (Radical Comics) * ''Shrapnel'', a game by Adam C ...
and canister ammunition. More specialized types of projectiles included smoke, incendiary, and chemical rounds. Many ammunition pieces were French originated. Limbers could carry 40 or 44 rounds in a light artillery and 28 rounds in a mounted artillery, while caissons carried 48 rounds in both cases.


Employment


Russo-Japanese War

M1902 divisional guns were the mainstay of Russian Empire artillery and were accepted well by the army. Their characteristics were at the same level with similar 75-mm French and German guns. The gun was used in action for the first time 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 ...
at the
Battle of Telissu The Battle of Te-li-ssu ( '), also called Battle of Wafangou (russian: Бой у Вафангоу) after the nearby railway station, was a land battle of the Russo-Japanese War. It was fought at a hamlet some north of Port Arthur, Manchuria. ...
, but proved ineffective due to lack of crew training and the outdated conceptions of the senior artillery officers.


World War I

The M1902 was also used during World War I. After the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917 M1902 guns were employed by different factions: bolshevist
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
, monarchist or counter-revolution White Guard, nationalist forces in Russian-minority areas, national armies of Poland and Finland and simply anarchists and bandits throughout the vast territories of former imperial Russia. In some episodes the gun saw its first anti-tank usage. The White Guard and intervening Allied forces used a small number of tanks, primarily French
Renault FT The Renault FT (frequently referred to in post-World War I literature as the FT-17, FT17, or similar) was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. The FT was the first production tank to ...
s and British Mk Vs or
Whippet The Whippet is a dog breed of medium size. It is a sighthound breed that originated in England, descended from the Greyhound. Whippets today still strongly resemble a smaller Greyhound. Part of the hound group, Whippets have relatively few ...
s. The M1902 gun with its high muzzle velocity was an effective weapon against such targets with only anti-bullet armour protection. In the 1920 Polish-Soviet War M1902 guns were again used against Polish FTs.


German Use

Due to a string of Russian defeats during the first two years of World War I large numbers of M1902's and their ammunition ended up in German hands. A combination of factors led the Germans to issue M1902's to their troops as replacements. These factors included: * An underestimation of light field artillery losses during the first two years of the war and an inadequate number of replacement guns being produced. * An underestimation of ammunition consumption, inadequate production and resulting shortages. * The superior ballistic performance of the M1902 compared to German designs. Once production of German guns and ammunition caught up during the last two years of the war the M1902's were converted to anti-aircraft guns on a number of different high-angle mounts and these continued in German service until the end of the war with German ammunition.


Romanian service

Romania had a considerable number of World War I guns of 75 mm and 76.2 mm. Some models were modernized at Resita works in 1935 including M1902. The upgrade was made with removable barrels. Several types of guns of close caliber were barreled to use the best ammunition available for 75 mm caliber which was explosive projectile model 1917 "Schneider". The new barrel was made of steel alloy with chrome and nickel with excellent mechanical resistance to pressure which allowed, after modifying the firing brake, the recovery arch and the sighting devices an increase of the range from 8.5 km to 11.2 km and a rate of fire of 20 rounds/minute. During World War 2 these guns also used Costinescu 75 mm anti-tank round. These upgraded field guns were used in all infantry divisions in World War II.


Polish Use

Poland captured large numbers of M1902 guns in a course of the Polish-Soviet War and impressed them into service as a standard piece of the mounted artillery, designated ''76,2 mm armata wz.1902''. In 1923, there were 568 guns wz.1902 in inventory.Konstankiewicz, Andrzej (2003). ''Broń strzelecka i sprzęt artyleryjski formacji polskich i Wojska Polskiego w latach 1914-1939'', Lublin, , Most were converted to wz.02/26 guns in 1926-1930 (see below), however, Poland also retained some of the guns in the original 76 mm caliber to use existing stocks of ammunition. There were 89 of original guns available at the outbreak of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, among others, the sole gun used during the
Battle of Westerplatte The Battle of Westerplatte was the first battle of the German invasion of Poland, marking the start of World War II in Europe. It occurred on the Westerplatte peninsula in the harbour of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). In the ...
on 1 September 1939.Rozdżestwieński, Paweł. ''Armata wz. 1902/26 w pułkach piechoty II Rzeczypospolitej'', Militaria XX Wieku Nr. 1(46)/2012


Interwar development

Poland and Soviet Union modernized their M1902 guns after the end of World War I. Polish designers made their minor enhancements in 1926, resulting in the Armata 75 mm wz.02/26 gun, which was rechambered for firing 75 mm shells used by the most numerous Polish field gun, the
Canon de 75 modèle 1897 The French 75 mm field gun was a quick-firing field artillery piece adopted in March 1898. Its official French designation was: Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897. It was commonly known as the French 75, simply the 75 and Soixante-Quinze (Frenc ...
. The USSR continued mass production of M1902 gun until 1931 when it was replaced by its enhanced M1902/30 variant. For Soviet modernization see 76 mm divisional gun M1902/30. Both variants were utilized in the early stages of World War II. There were still 2066 guns of M1902 model available in 1941.Ivanov, A. ''Artilleriya SSSR vo vtoroy mirovoy voynye''. Sankt Petersburg: Neva, 2003, p.11 The Soviet stockpiles of 76 mm ammunition for this gun were so large that the Soviet army decided to retain the 76 mm caliber ammunition for their modern field guns designed in the 1930s (
F-22 The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is an American single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF). As the result of the USAF's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, the ...
, USV and
ZiS-3 The 76-mm divisional gun M1942 (ZiS-3) (russian: 76-мм дивизионная пушка обр. 1942 г. (ЗиС-3)) (GRAU index: 52-P-354U) was a Soviet 76.2 mm divisional field gun used during World War II. ''ZiS'' was a factory design ...
), even as other armies changed to larger calibers for their basic field gun.


See also


Weapons of comparable role, performance and era

* 7.7 cm FK 96 n.A. German equivalent *
Canon de 75 modèle 1897 The French 75 mm field gun was a quick-firing field artillery piece adopted in March 1898. Its official French designation was: Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897. It was commonly known as the French 75, simply the 75 and Soixante-Quinze (Frenc ...
French equivalent *
Ordnance BLC 15-pounder The Ordnance BLC 15-pounder gun (BLC stood for BL Converted) was a modernised version of the obsolete BL 15-pounder 7 cwt gun, incorporating a recoil and recuperator mechanism above the barrel and a modified quicker-opening breech. It was develo ...
British equivalent *
3-inch M1902 field gun The 3-inch Gun, Model of 1902 was the U.S. Army’s first nickel steel, quick-firing field gun with a recoil mechanism. Like its predecessor the 3.2-inch gun M1897, it was a rifled breechloader. Design During the second half of 1890s the so-call ...
US equivalent *
10 cm M. 14 Feldhaubitze The 10 cm M. 14 Feldhaubitze was a dual-purpose field and mountain gun used by Austria-Hungary during World War I. Between the wars it was used by Austria, Italy, and Poland. During World War II it served as the standard medium howitzer of th ...
Austrian equivalent


References and external links


Bibliography

* Shunkov V. N. - ''The Weapons of the Red Army'', Mn. Harvest, 1999 (Шунков В. Н. - ''Оружие Красной Армии.'' - Мн.: Харвест, 1999.)
Russian Putilov 76.2mm m/02 Field Gun at Landships II76 K/02 at FlamesOfWar
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Field guns World War I guns World War I artillery of Russia Russo-Japanese war weapons of Russia Artillery of the Russian Empire Artillery of the Soviet Union 76 mm artillery Kirov Plant products pl:Armata wz. 02/26