76.2mm Schneider-Danglis m/06-09 Mountain Gun

[David]

In 1906, as a part of it’s ongoing modernization scheme, the Imperial Russian Army was looking for a new mountain gun, and as was the case with several new artillery procurements, the choice came to fall on a foreign design: in this case the French 76.2mm Schneider-Danglis gun. Danglis was a Greek artillery officer who had invented a method of gun construction which allowed the barrel of the gun to be removed from an enveloping jacket which also contained the breech mechanism. The design also had the wheels mounted on cranked axle stubs, which could be rotated. This meant that the piece could be set in either a high or a low position, the high position primarily used in cases when a high elevation was needed: the high position allowed the breech to recoil down without hitting the ground. A hydro-pneumatic recoil system was set in a cradle beneath the gun. Also, a large and very characteristic S-curved shield was fitted, together with a hinged box trail, that could be fold­ed back so as to allow shafts to be fitted for horse draught. The entire gun weighed only 627kg and could also be dismantled down into six packs. It had a elevation of between –6° and +28°, and a traverse of +-3°. The gun fired a 6.5kg heavy shell, with a muzzle velocity of 371 m/sec up to a maximum range of some 7km. A number of guns were imported directly from France, but some 400 guns was also built under license by the Putilov Works. After the war, it was used by the Finnish Army as well.

The gun below can be seen in the Army Museum in Prague: