will be furnished by the Italian army. The German and Austrian armies
were equipped with a howitzer of the light field type; this weapon had
a caliber of 105-mm type.
It fired a projectile weighing 34.54 pounds at a maximum range of
10,500 yards. (Streamline shell.) The weight of the howitzer limbered
was 4,500 pounds. In the opinion of the board, the Germans have
proceeded on sound principles in their development of the light field
howitzer. Their ’98 model was a companion piece to their ’96 field gun
and in the years that passed from 1898 to 1916, which included their
early war experience, they kept to the idea of the relation of the two
pieces even to the extent of including in a field artillery regiment
one battalion of light howitzers. Their 1916 models of both light gun
and howitzers show the endeavor to keep the pieces in the same class;
that is, the weight of the gun and howitzer in action nearly the same,
2,750 pounds and 2,700 pounds; the weight of the gun limbered and the
howitzer limbered are the same, 4,500 pounds; the elevation of both the
same—minus 10 to plus 40 degrees; the carriages are of the same type;
and the extreme ranges of gun and howitzer are respectively 11,700 and
10,500 yards. From the foregoing it is seen that all the important
belligerents except the French and the Americans were equipped with
a light field howitzer firing a projectile about twice the weight of
the light field gun projectile and having otherwise the same general
characteristics. There is no evidence to show that the fire of the
French and the American artillery was not fully effective as that of
any other artillery; however the testimony of the French and American
artillery officers is to the effect:
(a) That the lightest howitzer in use, i. e., the 155-mm, was not
sufficiently mobile to be a suitable companion piece for the 75-mm gun.
(b) That many times the fire of the 75-mm gun proved ineffective due to
its flat trajectory; a howitzer would have been more effective in the
attack of certain targets.
(c) That a large volume of fire is necessary.
(d) That while the 155-mm howitzer is more powerful than the light
field howitzer its consumption of ammunition for many purposes is
wasteful and extravagant and its volume of fire is insufficient.
(e) That the light howitzer is particularly suited for the destruction
of wire entanglements; its better accuracy and more powerful projectile
make it more suitable than the field gun for that purpose.
(f) That the 75-mm field gun projectile is not so satisfactory a gas
shell as the howitzer projectile which has greater weight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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