37mm Rosenberg m/15 Trench Gun

[David]

The unforseen demands created by the new type of trench warfare called for many new types of weapons. One of these was the light trench gun. In this type of combat there often araised the need to destroy targets that were very well protected against ordinary indirect artillery fire, regardless if by cannon, howitzer or mortar. The most common target of that kind was dug-in, well-protected, shield-equipped Machineguns: often the only way to destroy them was to use direct artillery fire. Mountain guns was often used in this role, but even they were often too big and difficult to move on the churned-up battlefields. The solution was seen in a light gun, where very high accuracy would compensate for the relative lightness of the projectiles. Typically the gun would be used to put grenades with pin-point accuracy through the embrasures of bunkers or dug-outs. Many of the warring nations put light trench guns into use. Most wellknown are perhaps the famous French mle 1916 (also used by the American forces) and the small Austro-Hungarian 37mm Infanteriegeschütz M.15.

Much less known than these two pieces, were the Russian Rosenberg m/15, which probably was the first trench gun in this light calibre introduced in the war. Conseqently, very little is known of this gun. From the pictures one can see that it had a so called static lavette, meaning that it lacked any kind of recoil device. (A very similar set-up was later used by the Germans in their 37mm TAK anti-tank gun, and there is the possibility of the German designers being inspired by this crude but probably rather effective Russian piece.)
The gun in the pictures here can be seen in the Finnish War Museum in Helsinki. Click on the thumbnails to see the full pictures.