Depression tripod

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Depression mount with 10 cm tower howitzer THM9 in a rotating armored car dome. (The design of the battery deck allows it to be used with a negative tube elevation)

A depression mount is a mount for a gun that is specifically designed to aim it with a negative elevation; H. the barrel can also point downwards when shooting from the horizontal.

These mounts were used where targets lying deeper than the gun were to be fought directly. This was often the case with fortifications located high up.

Initially, wall mounts were used for this, in which the leveling mechanism was modified and the gun was mounted higher than usual in the mount. Such a gun is exhibited on the ramparts of the Königstein Fortress . Due to the high center of gravity, use was limited to light and medium calibers .

In the 19th century, depression mounts were also used in fortifications built in the mountains, for example in the Austro-Hungarian fortress artillery .

When the fortifications began to be expanded on the border with Italy at the end of the 19th century, plants with armored, rotating tower howitzers were built for the first time. In order to get the maximum field of fire, these works were built at the greatest possible height ( Sommo intermediate works at 1648 m above sea level). Due to their geographical location, some of these fortifications had a glacis that sloped steeply into the valley and was semicircle or three-quarters of a circle. In order to be able to cover the deeper areas in direct fire, the depression mount was developed. This differed from the normal tower howitzer mount by the elevation angle. While the elevation range of normal guns was around +45 to −5 degrees, the depression mounts had an elevation of +45 to −30 degrees.

See also

literature

  • Erwin Anton Grestenberger: Kuk fortifications in Tyrol and Carinthia . Mittler, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-8132-0747-1 .
  • Rolf Hentzschel: Fortress war in the high mountains . The struggle for the Austrian and Italian high mountain forts in South Tyrol in the First World War. Verl.-Anst. Athesia, Bozen 2008, ISBN 978-88-8266-516-6 .