Tourelle Mougin de 155 mm modèle 1876

The Tourelle Mougin "R" in Fort de Boussois (east of Maubeuge), destroyed in August 1914 by shells from a German 21 cm mortar 10. (The cover plate is missing, one of the side panels has popped out.)

Tourelle Mougin de 155 mm modèle 1876 was the name of a French armored turret, which was equipped with two cannon of the Canon de 155 mm L modèle 1877 cannon . It was part of the equipping of various forts of the Système Séré de Rivières at the end of the 19th century. This tower model was not retractable and the gun well was still made of hewn stones.

concept

The idea of ​​the armored turrets went back to the British Commander Cowper Phipps Coles during the Crimean War in 1855 . He had the idea to mount naval artillery in armored rotating towers on warships. His idea was then realized in the Royal Navy . After a test attempt in 1861 with the floating battery HMS Trusty , various ships of the Royal Navy were equipped with it, such as the HMS Prince Albert in 1864 and the Captain in 1869. In the US Navy in 1862 , John Ericsson adopted the concept for the USS Monitor .

In France, the "Commission des cuirassements" carried out tests on the shooting range near Gâvres from 1874 to 1878 . As early as 1876, a model made of steel was accepted which was named after the head of the commission, the Capitaine Henri-Louis-Philippe Mougin, and which was armed with two barrels of the 155 mm L modèle 1877 cannon. As part of the construction of the Système Séré de Rivières , 25 copies were ordered between 1879 and 1887. 21 of the towers were supplied by the Compagnie des forges de Châtillon-Commentry et Neuves-Maisons in Saint-Chamond and four towers by the Schneider company in Creusot . The price per copy was 205,000 francs .

In the 1880s, with the introduction of explosive shells, the masonry fortifications of the "Système Séré de Rivières" suddenly became almost unusable (referred to in France as the "Crise de l'obus-torpille"). The solution was to strengthen the walls with concrete coverings and to replace the free-standing turrets "Mougin" with retractable armored turrets. However, the procurement costs for a Tourelle Galopin modèle 1890 at 850,000 francs were four times as high as for the “Mougin” turrets. For this reason, five of these old towers were strengthened and lowered (they were harder to hit in a direct shot). In August 1914, the two towers in Fort de Manonviller, the one in the Ouvrage de Boussois and the one in Fort de Cerfontaine, were hit by German shells - in September and October 1914 that of Fort de Liouville followed.

description

The towers were armed with the tubes of the Canon de 155 mm L modèle 1877 . These were 4.20 m long, the tower had an inside diameter of 6.00 m, the clearance height was 1.50 m. The carriage was equipped with a hydraulic return brake, the elevation range was between −5 ° and + 20 °. The cannon could fire 40 kg grenades, the maximum range was 7.5 km. The tower walls consisted of four 60 cm thick cast iron shells that did not close completely. This opening in the ceiling was covered with a 20 cm thick cast iron plate. The gun well had a steel armor armor . The gun room on which the dome was placed was six meters in diameter. The underside ran with a ring over 16 rollers, which ensured the rotary movement. The drive was outside the gun room and was done by hand via a winch with an endless chain. The winch had two gears, one turning in three and the other in one minute. To move the 180-ton tower in this way, three teams of six were available. From 1883 steam engines with three or four horsepower were used to rotate the tower .

List of towers

25 copies were installed between 1879 and 1887. Only forts in eastern France were equipped with it.

Locality	Cont	Running name	Whereabouts
Belfort	Fort de Giromagny coordinate	A and B	Scrapped in 1943
Epinal	Fort de Longchamp coordinate	C.	Scrapped in 1943
Remiremont	Fort du Parmont coordinate	D.	Scrapped in 1943
Paris	Fort de Saint-Cyr coordinate	E.	without cannons still in place
Toul	Fort de Lucey coordinate	F.	Scrapped in 1943
Toul	Fort de Villey-le-Sec coordinate	G	with cannons still in place
Luneville	Fort de Manonviller coordinate	H and I.	destroyed in August 1914
Paris	Fort de Vaujours coordinate	J	without cannons still in place
Paris	Fort de Villeneuve-Saint-Georges coordinate	K	Scrapped in 1947
Besançon	Fort de Montfaucon coordinate	L.	Scrapped in 1943
Nancy	Fort de Frouard coordinate	M.	without cannons still in place
Commercy	Fort de Liouville coordinate	N	destroyed in September – October 1914
Trouée de Charmes	Fort de Pagny-la-Blanche-Côte coordinate	O	scrapped in the 1930s
Lyon	Fort de Corbas coordinate	P	without cannons still in place
Lille	Fort de Bondues coordinate	Q	Scrapped in 1955
Eye of the mouth	Fort de Boussois coordinate	R.	destroyed in August 1914
Nice	Fort you barbonnet coordinate	S and T	one without, one with cannons still in place
Nancy	Fort de Pont-Saint-Vincent coordinate	U	Scrapped in 1943
Eye of the mouth	Fort de Cerfontaine coordinate	A ′	destroyed in August 1914
Hirson	Fort d'Hirson coordinate	B ′	dismantled by the Germans in 1914
Paris	Fort de Domont coordinate	C ′	without cannons still in place
Paris	Fort de Stains coordinate	D ′	without cannons still in place

Web links

• Cédric and Julie Vaubourg: La tourelle Mougin modèle 1876 en fonte dure in Fortiff'Séré

Footnotes

1. ↑ for example: "Armor Equipment Commission", responsible for the armored parts of the fortifications
2. ↑ Canon de 155mm L Mle 1877 de tourelle. In: Passion & Compassion 1914–1918
3. ↑ by the German Wehrmacht