Tourelle de mitrailleuses modèle 1899

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Tourelle de mitrailleuses modèle 1899 in Fort d'Uxegney ( Épinal )

Tourelle de mitrailleuses modèle 1899 was the name for a French armored machine gun turret, which was mainly used in the fortifications of the Système Séré de Rivières . It was a retractable tower that was installed on the ceiling of a fort in order to repel enemy infantry attacks directly from there. The model "Type GF 3" (1895) was equipped with a machine gun and the model "Type GF 4" (1899) with two machine guns.

description

The tower had a diameter of 1.31 meters and a total weight of 25 tons. The balanced counterweight made it possible for one man to perform a complete lift in just four seconds. In the firing position, the turret protruded 83 centimeters over the armored armor . The shooters had to perform the rotary movement with a hand crank. In order to prevent the crew from being impaired by smoke gases, manually operated fans were installed between 1912 and 1915 .

As armament of the tower type GF3 a machine gun according to the pattern served Gatling with seven pipes in the caliber of 8 mm having a cadence was 500 rounds per minute. The successor of the type GF4 was equipped with two machine guns "Hotchkiss modèle 1900" - this is already very similar to the Hotchkiss M1914 . Here, too, the 8 millimeter caliber was used, the rate of fire was 700 rounds per minute and per machine gun. These machine guns were longer than their predecessors, so they were placed on a sliding cradle and had to be moved forward to fire. The tower was made of rolled chrome steel , the ceiling was 120 millimeters, the walls 15 millimeters, then 20 millimeters thick. As soon as the tower was retracted, the rain protection plate of the roof overlapped the ring of the armored armor and thus protected the interior from the weather.

From 1905 a fire control system was installed, which made it possible to target the glacis at night or out of sight. A metal band with the relief of the existing contour lines was installed in the tower under the rifle mounts, which forced the necessary tube height to be set up when the tower was pivoted by means of a feeler arm on the mount.

List of towers

A total of 101 towers of the model 1899 (1 of the type GF3 and 100 of the type GF4) were ordered from the companies Fives-Lille , Société de construction des Batignolles , Schneider-Creusot and Compagnie des forges de Châtillon-Commentry et Neuves-Maisons . 89 copies were delivered and 87 were installed in the forts of the Système Séré de Rivières between 1899 and 1914 .

Dunkirk fixed place
Ouvrage Petite-Synthe Tower number 50 & 51
Fixed place Maubeuge
Ouvrage Bourdiau Tower numbers 84 & 85
Ouvrage Hautmont Tower number 83
Fixed place in Verdun
Fort d'Haudainville Tower number 4 & 5
Fort des Sartelles Tower number 22 & 23
Fort de Douaumont Tower number 10 & 11
Fort de Landrecourt Tower number 26 & 27
Fort de Dugny Tower number 12 & 13
Fort de Bois-Bourrus Tower numbers 26, 27 & 30
Fort de Rozelier Tower numbers 14, 15 & 16
Fort de la Falouse Tower number 33
Ouvrage de Thiaumont Tower number 17
Fort de Choisel Tower number 41 & 42
Ouvrage de Froideterre Tower numbers 18 & 19
Fort de Moulainville Tower numbers 43 & 44
Fort de Charny Tower number 20
Fort de Regret Tower numbers 45 & 46
Fort de Déramé Tower number 21
Barrage on the Meuse Heights ( Verdun - Toul )
Fort de Liouville Tower number 52
Fixed place in Toul
Fort de Bruley Tower number 24
Fort du Vieux-Canton Tower numbers 36 & 65
Fort de Villey-le-Sec Tower number 25
Fort de Francheville Tower number 37
Fort de Gondreville Tower number 31
Fort de Chanot Tower numbers 38 & 39
Fort de Trondes Tower number 32
Fort d'Écrouves Tower number 40
Fort de Domgermain Tower number 34
Fort de Blénod Tower number 66 & 67
Ouvrage du Mordant Tower number 35
Away you Tillot Tower number 74
Trouée de Charmes
Fort de Manonviller Tower number 1
Fort de Frouard Tower numbers 47, 48 & 49
Fixed place Épinal
Fort de Longchamp Tower numbers 68 & 69
Fort de Deyvillers Tower numbers 62 & 63
Fort de Adelphes Tower number 60
Fort de Dogneville Tower number 64
Fort d'Uxegney Tower number 81 & 82
Barrier on the Moselle heights ( Épinal - Belfort )
Fort d'Arches Tower numbers 6, 7, 8 & 9
Belfort fixed place
Fort de Fougerais Tower number 53 & 54
Fort de Bessoncourt Tower number 58 & 59
Fort de Roppe Tower numbers 55, 56 & 57
Away you Haut-Bois Tower number 61
Fort du Bois d'Oye Tower numbers 77, 78 & 79
Fort de Chèvremont Tower number
Ouvrage de Meroux Tower numbers 75 & 76
Fort de Vézelois Tower number 71 & 72
Fortification in Bourg-Saint-Maurice
Battery de Vulmix Tower numbers 86 & 87
Fixed place Bizerte
Fort de Djebel Kebir Tower number 2 & 3

Two towers intended for the forts of Belfort could not be installed until 1914. On May 26, 1913, the army command ordered 12 more towers from the “Société de construction des Batignolles”, which had not yet been delivered in July 1914.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Roland Scheller: Les cuirassements dans la fortification terrestre française 1871-1918. Mémoire de maîtrise à l'Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg 1993, chapter 4; La defense of the interval.
  2. ↑ Hotchkiss with only one machine gun
  3. ↑ Les tourelles de mitrailleuses type GF3 pour 1 mitrailleuse Gattling et GF4 pour 2 mitrailleuses Hotchkiss. In: Fortiff'Séré