07-07-2009, 04:42 PM
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Administrator
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76.2mm Putilov M1900 Field Gun
The 76.2mm M1900 field gun was pretty powerful, considering its weight. It could fire a 6.4kg shell at a muzzle velocity 590 m/sec to a maximum range of 6,7km. In action it weighed about one ton. It actually had a recuperator system, although not a technically advanced one. The barrel was mounted on a carriage which slided backwards on top of the trail, an oil buffer in the trail acting as a recoil brake. Inside there were 40 india-rubber 'doughnuts' which were compressed during the recoil stroke and then expanded again to return the barrel into firing position. Originally it had no shield.
It was a design born obsolete, and the relative backwardness of the gun was well demonstrated in the Russo-Japanese War. Some attempts were made by the Russian Army to update it: a shield was added, but this made the equipment heavier and thus less manoeuvrable.
Officially it was superseded by the excellent 76.2mm Putilov M1902, and put into reserve stores. A number of M1900, however, appeared in the first part of the war to replace heavy losses the Russian Army suffered in the opening battles of 1914, but as soon as new M1902’s were available, they were again withdrawn.
When not employed as a fields gun the M1900 found use in the many big fortresses, and also as a anti-aircraft gun, or to be more precise, as a anti-airship gun. (The chance to hit a fast and small aircraft with a gun of this type was practically nil (despite what the box art says), but it had a small chance to hit one of the big and slow-moving Zeppelins, that the Germans employed with some success on the Eastern Front in 1914-1915.) In the anti-airship role the mobile Ivanov Mount was used, which consisted of a cradle for the wheels, mounted upon a pivoted platform that sat on the ground.
After 1917 the newly formed Finnish Army took control of some 20 M1900’s, and they used it in the Winter War and actually also in the opening phase of the Continuation War in 1941.
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