07-07-2009, 04:34 PM
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Cannone da 65 mod.1911
Considering both it's mountainous borders, and the often rough terrain of it's colonies, it is not surprising that the Italian Army in their inventory had quite a numer of mountain guns. The Cannone da 65 mod.1911 was originally a French design, intended to replace the small Cannone da 70 A, an old design with rigid mount (old in design, not in years: it was developed as late as 1902). The cannone da 65 mod.11 was a modern gun, with an up-to-date hydro-spring recoil system. (Because of it's cronic lack of guns, the Italian Army was forced to continue using the the old da 70 A all through the war.)
The gun weighed 460kg when deployed, had an elevation from -7º to +20º, and a traverse of 8º. It could shoot two types of ammo: one HE weiging 4.27kg, and one Shrapnel, weighing 4.07kg and containing 216 shrapnel bullets. The muzzle velocity was 343m/sec and the maximum range was 6500 meters. It could be broken down into four loads when moved.
At the beginning of the war, some 50 mountain gun batteries were equipped with this gun, for a total of 200 pieces. It was quite successful and subsequent production exceeded 1.000 pieces. It was of course much used on both the Dolomite Front and on the Isonzo. Later it also saw action during the Spanish Civil War.
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