Well, just because I want to try keeping up with the releases this year instead of the somewhat sporadic releases that I managed to achieve last year when we launched I’ve decided to share with you all some new artillery pieces that we’ve had finished.
Mostly German, I would first like to introduce you to the Krupp 7.7cm Feldkanone 16. A venerable piece of World War 1 vintage to be sure but it did sterling service during the first war and would still be in service into the Second World War in some numbers, serving with Bulgaria, China, Finland and Belgium.
Just under 100 pieces would find themselves on both sides of the Spanish Civil War with 60 of them being retained by the Republicans
Now, the next two artillery pieces I would like to introduce you to saw their first historical combaT deployments in the Spanish Civil War and were deemed so successful that they became the backbone of the Wehrmachts artillery arm throughout the Second World War and beyond, in fact Sweden used one of these bad boys right up until 1982 with the other being maintained and modernised by Finland right up until 2007
So, first of all let me introduce you to the 10.5cm leFH 18 light howitzer. Adopted for service in 1935 by the rearming Heer in Germany and used right up to the end of the Second World War.
It was produced in numbers of around 20,000 including its immediate variant and also equipped many of Germany’s allies artillery parks.
Sweden decommissioned her stocks of these guns in 1982, whilst Finland retired hers in 2007. The last known battlefield deployment of one of these beauties was in Syria, bombarding the town of Al-Fu’ah in 2015.
Only four of these were taken out to Spain for field testing but they were deemed highly successful owing to the hard Spanish earth making mobility no problem and the fact that studies that had determined that a 105mm shell was far more effective than a 75mm shell for little difference in cost of fire units. Its future in the axis armed forces was set.
The Immergrün a.k.a. 15cm sFH 18 heavy howitzer was one of three 15cm howitzers that the Germans kept in their artillery parks throughout World War 2 but this one was without a doubt the most widely used.
Twice as heavy as the sFH 13 it did however have considerable advantages over it. Muzzle velocity increased by 40% increasing the range by almost 3 miles and a new split trail that allowed a twelvefold increase in traverse.
The first combat deployment of the 15cm sFH 18 was actually by the Chinese during the Second Sino-Japanese war by the National Revolutionary Army providing the Chinese with an artillery system that hopelessly outclassed its Japanese opponents.
There were many users of this system with the last national army known to have deployed them was the Finns who retired their stocks of them in 2007.
As with their little brother, there was only a single battery of four guns deployed out to Spain where field trials were done. As with the leFH 18 the same results were determined with regards to effectiveness and mobility.
Both batteries formed Gruppe Lucht which was, owing to the lack of ammunition supplied kept as training batteries right up until the start of the Ebro campaign when Franco rode roughshod over all agreements between Von Thoma who was precious about these guns bluntly allocating them to support the northern operations in the Ebro campaign
These batteries by the way, in case anybody is interested were amply supported with the new German Kommandogerät 36 goniographic directors that were brought into service in 1936 which operated by plan prediction or angular travel prediction.
There was an abject lack of motorisation in the Spanish armies before the flooding of the country with American and Soviet trucks and in light of this the Nationalists were forced to employ national stocks of the Fordson tractor to move its artillery and whilst at the artillery training centre in Abuela the Germans were forced to use horse limbers and tractors to move these new artillery pieces.
Whilst the artillery training batteries were being set up Comandante General de Artilleria Garcia Pallasar shared that the battery had been supplied with 6 american Caterpillar Model 22 tractors to move the artillery pieces with. Hopefully we’ll have these ready to grab soon(ish) along with our new Komintern. One new tractor for each side
The last of the artillery pieces I would like to share with you today is something of an old maid. The Putilov 76.2mm Model 1902 light field gun.
Designed in 1902 and entering production early enough to see service in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905 this gun, throughout its history was used by practically every man and his dog including Poland who employed it with their cavalry brigades and perhaps more interestingly represented the sole field artillery piece providing support to the Polish on Westerplatte and that shelled the Nazi machine gun positions across the canal in the granary!
79 of these pieces were made available to the Republic throughout the war and whilst they certainly didnt set the world alight they at least provided and appreciable contribution in alleviating the desperation for artillery support that the Republicans frequently found themselves crying out for…
So, there you have it. Some more grist for the mill in your Spanish Civil War gaming. We hope you can find some use for all of these bad boys!
