Canon de 75 antiaérien mle 1913-1917

The Canon de 75 antiaérien mle 1913-1917 was a French anti-aircraft gun which was developed before the First World War and was also used in the Second World War.

Even before the First World War, the engineers at Schneider et Cie realised how important it would be to fight aircraft in future wars. For this reason, they used the Canon de 75 modèle 1897, which was widely used in the French army, and adapted it to fight flying targets.

The first version, known as the Canon de 75 mm antiaérien mle 1913, was mounted on the loading platform of a De Dion-Bouton truck so that it could remain mobile and follow the advance of its own army. This version was ready for use within 5 minutes, but the speed of the vehicles was still too low and in the terrain it failed completely. In 1913 only 20 units were produced and by the end of the First World War only 196.

 

 

The second version was a bit heavier and was intended as a fixed anti-aircraft cannon in war important places. First a pit had to be dug, in which a steel girder or a concrete base would serve as a foundation for the gun. The construction took about a day. The target distance was carried out with optical coincidence rangefinders and the height with optical height finders. This version was most frequently built in unknown numbers. As a rule, 4 of these anti-aircraft guns were used in important cities, industrial plants or military facilities. Until 1940, 20 of these guns remained in the French army and were largely captured by the German Wehrmacht in 1940 and subsequently used.

 

 

 

The third variant, developed during the First World War, was the Canon de 75 mm antiaérien mle 1917. In this version the anti-aircraft gun was mounted on a uniaxial car to make it mobile again. However, it turned out that with this version both the accuracy and the firing sequence were too low to produce it in larger quantities.

 

 

During the First World War, the German army captured large quantities of French Canon de 75 mm antiaérien mle guns. These were converted by the Krupp company to the 7,7 cm ammunition used by the Germans and used as 7,7 cm FlaK L / 35 in the German army.

 

Other versions built after the First World War:

In the version Canon de 75 mm antiaérien mle 1928 GB the old gun barrels were replaced by the new caliber 53 mm barrels. This allowed the height of the projectiles to be increased to 7,5 kilometres and the muzzle velocity to be increased to 700 metres per second.

With the 75 mm cannon from Antiaérien in 1917/34, only the body of the car was rearranged and replaced by more modern bodies.

In 1932, the Atelier de Bourges company developed a new platform car four folding cross-shaped arms for the anti-aircraft guns. This carriage was designed for the newer trucks and could be towed at a speed of up to 40 kilometers per hour. Although the 1928 gun barrel was still used, an automatic breech allowed the fire rate to be increased to 25 rounds per minute. By May 1940, a total of 332 units of this variant had been produced.

In 1933, a newly developed platform car for the gun, developed by Schneider itself, followed. It also used four folding cross-shaped cantilevers, but had a maximum speed of only 8 kilometres per hour and a fire rate of only 20 rounds per minute. Until May 1940 only 192 pieces were built.

 

 

 

Data sheet:

Designation:	Canon de 75 antiaérien mle 1913-1917
Manufacturing country:	France
Introductory year:	1913
Number of pieces:	unknown
Calibers:	75 mm
Tube length:	2,7 meters
Range:	Max. 6.500 meters, in later versions up to 7.500 meters
Weight:	3 tons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can find the right literature here:

 

Flesh and Steel During the Great War: The Transformation of the French Army and the Invention of Modern Warfare

Michel Goya’s Flesh and Steel during the Great War is one of the most thoughtful, stimulating and original studies of the conflict to have appeared in recent years. It is a major contribution towards a deeper understanding of the impact of the struggle on the Western Front on the theory and practice of warfare in the French army. In a series of incisive, closely argued chapters he explores the way in which the senior commanders and ordinary soldiers responded to the extraordinary challenges posed by the mass industrial warfare of the early twentieth century.

In 1914 the French army went to war with a flawed doctrine, brightly-colored uniforms and a dire shortage of modern, heavy artillery How then, over four years of relentless, attritional warfare, did it become the great, industrialized army that emerged victorious in 1918?

To show how this change occurred, the author examines the pre-war ethos and organization of the army and describes in telling detail how, through a process of analysis and innovation, the French army underwent the deepest and fastest transformation in its history.

Click here!

 

 

Breaking Point of the French Army: The Nivelle Offensive of 1917

In December 1916 General Robert Nivelle was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the French armies fighting the Germans on the Western Front. He had enjoyed a meteoric rise to high command and public acclaim since the beginning of the war - he was a national hero. In return, he proclaimed he ‘had the formula’ that would ensure victory and end the conflict in 1917. But his offensive was a bloody and humiliating failure for France, one that could have opened the way for French defeat.

This is the subject of David Murphy’s penetrating, in-depth study of one of the key events in the history of the Great War. He describes how Nivelle, a highly intelligent and articulate officer, used his charm to win the support of French and British politicians, but also how he was vain and boastful and displayed no sense of operational security. By the opening of the campaign, his plan was an open secret and he had lost the ability to critically assess the operation as it developed. The result was disaster.

Click here!

 

 

They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front 1914-1918

This graphic collection of first-hand accounts sheds new light on the experiences of the French army during the Great War. It reveals in authentic detail the perceptions and emotions of soldiers and civilians who were caught up in the most destructive conflict the world had ever seen.
Their testimony gives a striking insight into the mentality of the troops and their experience of combat, their emotional ties to their relatives at home, their opinions about their commanders and their fellow soldiers, the appalling conditions and dangers they endured, and their attitude to their German enemy. In their own words, in diaries, letters, reports and memoirs - most of which have never been published in English before - they offer a fascinating inside view of the massive life-and-death struggle that took place on the Western Front.
Ian Sumner provides a concise narrative of the war in order to give a clear context to the eyewitness material. In effect the reader is carried through the experience of each phase of the war on the Western Front and sees events as soldiers and civilians saw them at the time. This emphasis on eyewitness accounts provides an approach to the subject that is completely new for an English-language publication.
The author’s pioneering work will appeal to readers who may know something about the British and German armies on the Western Front, but little about the French army which bore the brunt of the fighting on the allied side. His book represents a milestone in publishing on the Great War.

Click here!

 

 

Artillery in the Great War

Artillery was the decisive weapon of the Great War - it dominated the battlefields. Yet the history of artillery during the conflict has been neglected, and its impact on the fighting is inadequately understood. Paul Strong and Sanders Marble, in this important and highly readable study, seek to balance the account.Their work shows that artillery was central to the tactics of the belligerent nations throughout the long course of the conflict, in attack and in defense. They describe, in vivid detail, how in theory and practice the use of artillery developed in different ways among the opposing armies, and they reveal how artillery men on all sides coped with the extraordinary challenges that confronted them on the battlefield. They also give graphic accounts of the role played by artillery in specific operations, including the battles of Le Cateau, the Somme and Valenciennes.Their work will be fascinating reading for anyone who is keen to understand the impact of artillery

Click here!

 

 

 

 

 

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