17cm Schnelladekanone i.R. L/40

[David]

Soon after stalemate had set in the West, all warring parties realized that they badly needed to bolster their artillery, especially with heavier calibres. In Germany, as in most other coutries, naval and coastal defence guns were hurriedly taken from forts, fortifications and naval stores and placed on more or less improvised field carriages. The 17cm Schnelladekanone i.R. was one of these naval guns, originally made by Krupp. (The "i.R." is an abbreviation of "in Räderlafette", i.e. "on Wheeled carriage", and "Schnelladekanone" meaning "Fast loading cannon".)

The result was a very effective but also very cumbersome long-range cannon: it weighed no less than 23.50kg emplaced, including the special bedding. (It was the heaviest german gun of naval origin to be put on a wheeled carriage.) The bedding also contained the traversing channel, that took the end of the tail - it can be seen in the photo above. The problem with the bedding was off course that it reduced the usability of the gun, confining it only to the special directions within the bedding. Also, the gun WAS as mentioned very heavy, even though it was broken down into three loads for moving, often proving to heavy for for horses and sometimes even for the rather weak tractors of this time. Still it was a very powerful cannon: it could shoot a 62.8kg heavy shell up to a maximum range of 24km, making it ideal for both harrassing fire and counter-battery work. (It had a traverse of 8˚ and a elevation of -0˚to +45˚.) It came into use from March 1917, and all in all some 70 guns were produced.

The solution to this was a bit strange, although, in a way, practical: guns were put on special railway carriages: these cannons (given the designation 17cm Schnelladekanone E, "E" standing for "Eisenbahn", i.e. Railway) could shoot straight from these special railway wagons, which meant that the mobility was much improved, at the same time that the set-up time off course was drastically reduced. All in all 30 of these guns were converted into the "E" variant.
There exists, as far as I know, not any surviving gun of this type anywhere in the world.


Addition by Jack Mueller
The 17cm SK L/40 was affectionately known as "Samuel" when rail-mounted. It was originally casement mounted secondary armament on pre-dreadnought battleships. As information all capital ships had gun "spares" supplied to the shipyards in anticipation of replacement needs. Because of the corrosive powders used in the period, the normal tube life was about 100 fired rounds. In all about 60 of these guns were made available for land use over the long months of the war. According to my records about 10 ground, and 16 rail-mounted pieces were still on inventory 31 October 1918.