The Canon de 120 mm L modèle 1878 – was a French piece of
siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characterize ...
and
field artillery which was widely used during the
First World War
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 fig ...
and despite its obsolescence, it was still in use by some nations during the
Second World War
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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
History
The Canon de 120 mm L modèle 1878 was one of a series of heavy artillery pieces designed by
Colonel Charles Ragon de Bange. On 11 May 1874 three de Bange heavy cannons (120 mm,
155 mm
155 mm (6.1 in) is a common, NATO-standard, artillery caliber. It is defined in AOP-29 part 1 with reference to STANAG 4425. It is commonly used in field guns, howitzers, and gun-howitzers.
Land warfare
The caliber originated in France a ...
,
240 mm) and two mortars (
220 mm,
270 mm) were ordered by the
French Army
The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed Force ...
. The mle 1878 was advanced for its time due to being built completely of steel instead of a steel liner and
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impu ...
reinforcing
hoops of the previous ''Canon de 240 mm C mle 1870''-87.
Design
The 120 mm L mle 1878 was a
breech loaded gun with a
de Bange obturator and used
separate loading bagged charges and projectiles. It had a
box trail carriage, two wooden spoked wheels with steel rims and an unsprung axle. The 120 mm L mle 1878 was lighter and more mobile than its heavier brother the Canon 155 mm L mle 1877.
It had roughly the same range and rate of fire as the Canon 155 mm L mle 1877, but it fired a lighter projectile. The 120 mm L mle 1878 was classified as a ''siege et de place'' (stationary siege gun) for the defense and attack of
Fortification
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
s. In line with this mission, the carriage was tall because it was expected that its barrel would project out over a forts
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'). ...
and use its range to provide
counter-battery fire
Counter-battery fire (sometimes called counter-fire) is a battlefield tactic employed to defeat the enemy's indirect fire elements ( multiple rocket launchers, artillery and mortars), including their target acquisition, as well as their comma ...
against enemy artillery.
First world war
Although the majority of combatants had heavy field artillery prior to the outbreak of the First World War, none had adequate numbers of heavy guns in service, nor had they foreseen the growing importance of heavy artillery once the
Western Front stagnated and
trench warfare
Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising Trench#Military engineering, military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artille ...
set in. Fortresses, armories, coastal fortifications, and museums were scoured for heavy artillery and sent to the front. Suitable field and rail carriages were built for these guns in an effort to give their forces the heavy field artillery needed to overcome trenches and hardened concrete fortifications.
An early drawback of the gun was that it involved considerable time to prepare a firing platform made of timbers before use. An
external recoil cylinder was then bolted to the platform and connected to the bottom of the gun carriage.
Without it, the gun had no recoil mechanism and when fired the gun rolled back onto a set of ramps behind the wheels and then slid back into battery. In order to traverse the carriage had to be levered into position and due to its lack of recoil mechanism, it had to be re-aimed after every shot, which limited its rate of fire. An early modification to make the guns suitable for field use was the fitting of Bonagente
grouser
Grousers are devices intended to increase the traction of continuous tracks, especially in loose material such as soil or snow. This is done by increasing contact with the ground with protrusions, similar to conventional tire treads, and analogo ...
s to the wheels to improve balance and reduce ground pressure on soft ground. An added bonus was they slowed recoil and didn't require extensive site preparation to bring the guns into action.
At the outbreak of WWI, there were 2,417 in reserve or at forts.
Due to its light weight, good range, and heavy shell 120 were chosen to equip horse-drawn artillery units at the outbreak of the First World war in order to give them heavy artillery and they could be towed at . The end of the box trail could be attached to a
limber for towing and each gun was provided with a caisson for ammunition. For transport, the 120 mm L mle 1878 could be transported in one piece by a horse team in comparison to the Canon 155 mm L mle 1877 which needed to have its barrel removed from the carriage and transported separately. However, the barrel could be pulled rearward and fastened to the trail for transport.
Experiments with motor traction during 1914 were successful and there was a requirement for 100 batteries to be motorized in 1915. Motorization promised speeds of and although mobile, the carriage was lightly built which negatively affected its durability when used as a field piece. During the
Second Battle of Champagne
The Second Battle of Champagne ( or Autumn Battle) in World War I was a French offensive against the German army at Champagne that coincided with an Anglo-French assault at north-east Artois and ended with French retreat.
Battle
On 25 Septem ...
in 1915, 60% of the pieces never reached the front due to being damaged during transport and afterwards towing speed was restricted to .
Second world war
At the end of the first world war, there were still 526 guns in French service. In 1939 there were 600 pieces in reserve and During the Second World War. A number equipped the forts of the Séré system of Rivières des Hauts-de-Meuse (Fort Troyon and Fort Liouville ) with another 92 in artillery regiments of the
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line (french: Ligne Maginot, ), named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany and force the ...
.
A number were also still in use with Belgium, Finland, Italy, and Poland.
Variants
*
Affût-truck Peigné-Canet mle 1897 – Was developed by Lieutenant Colonel Peigné and engineer
Gustave Canet at the turn of the century. This conversion involved mounting the guns on rail wagons which ran on
narrow-gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
tracks at the forts of Verdun, Toul, Épinal, and Belfort. Each fortress was supposed to have twelve
155 C and eight 120 L guns on the same carriage.
These allowed the guns to be quickly re-positioned to different parts of the fort and brought up ammunition and supplies. The guns were mounted on flatbed rail-cars with folding side panels that created a circular base when unfolded, they were also stabilized with four folding
outriggers
An outrigger is a projecting structure on a boat, with specific meaning depending on types of vessel. Outriggers may also refer to legs on a wheeled vehicle that are folded out when it needs stabilization, for example on a crane that lifts h ...
. The guns were mounted on articulated center pivot gun mounts which provided high angles of elevation, 360° of traverse and an integrated
hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism.
*Gun Shields – In 1914 some guns were fitted with
gun shield
A U.S. Marine manning an M240 machine gun equipped with a gun shield
A gun shield is a flat (or sometimes curved) piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic, ri ...
s, but the protection provided was poor and they rattled excessively during transport so they were removed.
*Carriage and recoil mechanism – It is believed that in addition to mounting the barrel of the Canon de 155 mm L mle 1877 on a carriage that
Schneider
Schneider may refer to:
Hospital
* Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel
People
*Schneider (surname)
Companies and organizations
* G. Schneider & Sohn, a Bavarian brewery company
* Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG, the former owner of the D ...
designed for the Russian M1910 Howitzer to create the
Canon de 155 L modèle 1877/14 Schneider
The Canon de 155 L modèle 1877/14 Schneider was a French heavy artillery piece designed before and produced during the First World War. A number were still on hand during the Second World War and served in the French and German services.
Histor ...
, a limited number were also built with Canon de 120 mm L modèle 1878 barrels.
*120 mm L mle 1878/16 – In order to replace losses and expand the numbers of guns in service the mle 1878 was put back into production in 1916. The resulting guns were classified as mle 1887/16 and incorporated the following changes: a simplified and strengthened carriage, the carriage didn't need to be connected to a limber for motor towing, increased 45° elevation, and the gun barrel didn't need to be withdrawn before transport. Lastly, the closing mechanism for the breech was reworked.
*
Armata wz. 1878/09/31 and wz. 1878/10/31 – This conversion carried out in 1931 by the Starachowice Arsenal in Poland involved removing the barrel from the original carriage and mounting them on the carriages of
152 mm howitzer M1909
The 152 mm howitzer M1909 (russian: 152-мм гаубица обр. 1909 г.) was a Russian Empire 152.4 mm (6 inch) howitzer. Developed by the French arms manufacturer Schneider et Cie it saw service throughout World War I.
Initially i ...
and
152 mm howitzer M1910
The 152 mm howitzer Model 1910 Schneider or, more properly, ' as it was designated in Tsarist times, was a French howitzer designed by Schneider et Cie. It was used by the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union during World War I, the Polish– ...
captured during the
Polish-Soviet War. The recoil mechanism, lower height and integral loading tray improved the rate of fire to three rounds per minute and an enlarged propellant chamber gave higher velocity and slightly improved range . Approximately 48 guns were converted.
Ammunition
Types of ammunition available were:
*
Common
Common may refer to:
Places
* Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
* Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts
* Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts
* Clapham Common, originally ...
*
Gas
Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma).
A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...
*
High Explosive
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An e ...
*
Incendiary
*
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 ...
Users
* - At least 2 artillery batteries remained in active use until the Second World War. One battery saw limited combat use with the 5th Army Corps, while another battery was employed as coastal artillery.
* – During the Winter War 78 guns were given to Finland. After Poland was defeated Germany sold 24 captured wz. 1878/10/31 guns to Finland and these served until 1944.
*
* – During the First World War Germany operated as many as 40 captured guns and after French ammunition supplies ran out they produced their own ammunition.
* – Received by the French during the First World War. Used in the
Macedonian front
The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers to aid Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, in the autumn of 191 ...
, they later equipped the Heavy Artillery Regiment of the
Army of Asia Minor during the
Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, and were still used during
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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
* – During the First World War 160 guns were delivered to Italy and at the outbreak of the Second World War 74 guns were still in operation. After the occupation of Southern France, another 59 were added.
* - An unknown number were used by Serbia during both the Balkan Wars and First World War.
* – The Germans captured a number of these guns but their use is unknown.
* – 54 guns were supplied to Poland in 1919 and 48 were later converted to Armata wz. 1878/09/31 and wz. 1878/10/31.
* – 72 guns were supplied to Romania during the First World War.
* - US troops used a combination of French and British artillery during the First World War due to insufficient production of US made guns.
Photo Gallery
File:Canon de 120 mm L modèle 1878 sur affût-truck Peigné-Canet mle 1897.jpg, Canon de 120 mm L modèle 1878 sur_affût-truck Peigné-Canet mle 1897
File:Italian battery of 149-35 and 120-25 guns captured by the British.jpg, Italian guns captured in North Africa by the British.
File:Canon de 120 long modèle 1878.jpg, Mle 1878s with gun shields.
File:120K78-16 cannon Hameenlinna 1.jpg, A mle 1878 with Bonagente grousers and recoil ramps.
File:Schneider 120mm mark 78-09-31 gun 1.jpg, A Polish wz. 1878/10/31 at the Hameenlinna artillery museum.
File:Dans le secteur de Florina (juillet 1916) - Kalenik (anciennement) ; Kalliniki (actuellement) (environs) - Médiathèque de l'architecture et du patrimoine - APOR067780.jpg, 2 batteries of 120mm guns in firing positions. Taken in the Florina sector in July 1916.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canon de 120 mm modèle 1878
Artillery of France
World War I artillery of France
World War I guns
Siege artillery
Artillery of Greece