Field cannon
A field cannon is a type of artillery cannon . In contrast to the mortar or the howitzer, the field cannon only fires in the lower angle group and is therefore a so-called flat-track gun .
Field cannon originally referred to a small cannon that was supposed to follow the infantry on the march and was agile enough in battle to change positions quickly. This characteristic distinguishes the field cannon from the older cannons , which were too large and cumbersome and were only used for sieges . For this reason the field cannons belonged to the field artillery , the heavy artillery, however, to the foot or fortress artillery. The field snakes are the forerunners of the field cannons .
Probably the best-known use of field cannons with regard to modern battle tactics was that of Gustav Adolf , who had large wheels mounted on the field cannons during the Thirty Years War so that they could be quickly relocated on the battlefield. This highly mobile use of the cannons during the battle allowed closed enemy forces to be broken up and thus their operational strength to be effectively reduced.
With the constant development of artillery, almost all guns of all types were made mobile. Even the greatest siege guns were in the First World War to train guns or self-propelled guns mobile in the field. After the war, development was shifted to highly mobile guns with a correspondingly small caliber . However, even in World War II , the German Wehrmacht had large-caliber guns that were extremely ineffective.
In the English-speaking world, field cannons are cannons with a caliber up to about 4.5 inches (114 mm). The medium and large heavy cannons were larger . The largest field cannon was the BL 5.5 inch Medium Gun with a firing range of 14.6 km. In Germany, field cannons were produced in calibers from 75 to 140 mm.
The only Allied field cannon besides the British 5.5 inch cannon was the American 155 mm Gun M1 Long Tom. In Germany, compared to howitzers, very few field cannons were manufactured before and even fewer during the Second World War; Exceptions are the 7.5 cm field cannon 16nA , the heavy 10 cm field cannon 18 and the 15 cm cannon 39 , which were manufactured until 1945 .
The class of small, highly mobile artillery systems up to a caliber of 105 mm was largely replaced by the high-speed artillery used by the infantry (small mortars up to a caliber of 120 mm - grenade weapons ). Howitzers in NATO caliber 155 mm or Russian caliber 152 mm in the form of a self-propelled howitzer or self-propelled gun cover the central area. Far-reaching weapon deployments are perceived by rocket weapons or combat aircraft .
In the Bundeswehr also be machine guns as the Rh 202 referred to as field guns when they made movable and not as a board weapons like the Marder are installed.
literature
- Guide through the Krupphalle , Düsseldorf: Schmitz & Olbertz, 1902 (online-Archive.org)
