French 75
The French 75, the Canon de 75 modèle 1897, was the first modern quick-firing field gun. A hydraulic and air recoil system let the barrel slide back and return while the gun stayed in place, so the crew could fire about 15 rounds a minute without re-aiming. It was the main French field gun of the First World War and helped stop the Germans at the Marne in 1914. The United States also used it in 1917 and 1918, and it was still in service in 1940.
Also known as Canon de 75 modèle 1897, Canon de 75 mle 1897, Soixante-quinze, 75 mm Model 1897, 75mm Gun M1897, 7.5 cm Pak 97/38
Origins
When a nineteenth-century field gun fired, the whole gun and carriage jumped backward. The crew then had to push it back into place and aim it again before the next shot, so even a good crew could fire only two or three aimed rounds a minute. Several inventors worked on a way to absorb the recoil. France, still smarting from its defeat by Prussia in 1870-71, took up the idea at its state arsenal at Puteaux in the 1890s. Officers including Albert Deport and Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville developed a long-recoil gun with a hydro-pneumatic brake. It was adopted in 1897 and entered service in 1898. The French kept its details secret for years.
Design & Construction
The 75 fired a shell of 75 millimeters, or about 3 inches, from a steel barrel roughly 2.7 meters long. Its key feature was the recoil system under the barrel. When the gun fired, the barrel slid back more than a meter against a cylinder of oil, which pushed on compressed air or nitrogen. The air then pushed the barrel smoothly back to its firing position. A spade at the end of the trail dug into the ground, and the carriage did not move, so the layer could keep his eye to the sight. The gun used a quick-opening eccentric screw breech and fixed ammunition, with the shell and brass case loaded together. A special device set the time fuses of shrapnel shells in seconds. A trained crew of about six could fire 15 aimed rounds a minute, and more for short bursts. The gun weighed about 1,140 kilograms in action, had a steel shield for the crew, and was pulled by a team of six horses. Its range with the shells of 1914 was about 8,000 to 8,500 meters. French batteries had four guns, fewer than German ones, because each gun could fire so fast.
Combat Use
The 75 was the backbone of the French army in World War I. France went to war in 1914 with about 4,000 of them. Its shrapnel was deadly against troops in the open, and at the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914 French batteries broke up German attacks and covered the French counter-offensive. Its weaknesses soon showed. It had a flat trajectory and a small shell, so it could do little against deep trenches and dugouts, and France had neglected heavier guns. Even so, it fought on every French front, fired huge numbers of shells, including gas shells, and was also mounted as an anti-aircraft gun. The American army bought it when the United States entered the war, and Captain Harry Truman commanded a battery of 75s in France in 1918.
Legacy
The 75 showed the world what a modern field gun should be. Every major army copied the principle of recoil absorption, and later artillery pieces are its descendants. The United States kept it in service as the 75mm Gun M1897 and mounted it on half-tracks early in World War II. The French still had thousands in 1940, and the Germans reused captured barrels as the 7.5 cm Pak 97/38 anti-tank gun. A cocktail of gin, champagne, lemon and sugar is named after it.
Sources
Hogg, Ian V. The Guns, 1914-18. Ballantine Books, 1971.
Bailey, J. B. A. Field Artillery and Firepower. The Military Press, 1989.
Doughty, Robert A. Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005.
Herwig, Holger H. The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle That Changed the World. Random House, 2009.
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