Krupp gun

Krupp gun

A 75mm Krupp gun used during the War of the Pacific
Type artillery
Place of origin  Prussia,  German Empire
Service history
Used by  Prussia,  German Empire,  Chile, Qing dynasty Qing China,  Honduras,  First Philippine Republic, Spain Spain
Wars War of the Pacific, Philippine Revolution, Philippine American War, World War I

The Krupp gun is a family of artillery pieces that was adopted for use by several world armies from the nineteenth century onwards.

History

In 1811, Friedrich Krupp founded his cast-steel factory Gusstahlfabrik, but it was his son, Alfred Krupp, who attained notable success. In 1856, Fried. Krupp A.G., produced a 9cm muzzle-loading rifled gun of cast steel, which gave such good results that Prussia adopted steel for making army guns, and Prussia being the first country to do so.

The Krupp guns were purchased by the Russian, Austrian, and the Ottoman Empire armies during the 1860s. By the 1870s, their small arms were being purchased by countries all over the world. Naval guns were also rapidly developed; from 1863, guns were being manufactured for several navies, including the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Ottoman Empire and Russia.

By the 1880s, Krupp had developed an 88mm naval gun and adopted 75mm as the caliber for the army's field and mountain guns. In 1897, when the French 75mm quick-firing gun appeared, Krupp produced the similar 77mm, which was used in World War I.

The Honduran Navy has maintained one Krupp cannon since 1948 at the Amapala Naval Base in the Pacific Honduran, according military sources, and is still in working order.

Characteristics

The principal characteristic of Krupp guns is that they are made of steel. Alfred Krupp was introduced to the Bessemer process to mass-produce steel by his London agent and friend, Alfred Longsdon, in 1859-60.[1] After a lengthy period of trial and error, this steel was developed to such quality that the royal factory of Woolwich in England acquired steel from Krupp to manufacture guns that conformed to British naval ordnances. Also, Krupp was one of the first manufacturers to design practical breechloading guns for army use.

Initially, Krupp developed a breechloading system with a wedge breech block, but, because of problems with escape of gas, it continued to manufacture muzzle-loading guns until the adoption of the Broadwell ring allowed the problem to be solved. By this means, they developed the best breechloading guns of the time, assisted by Longsdon's patented designs.[2] Initially, Krupp only sold its breechloading guns to Prussia, but, from 1888, it began exporting all over the world. Breech closure was achieved by a steel wedge that slid transversely on a short groove at the rear part of the gun. The movement was imparted by a screw mechanism and the gas-check by the Broadwell ring system.

Krupp also copied the Blakely system to manufacture banded guns.

Caliber

At first, the caliber of the Krupp guns was determined by the weight of the projectile in pounds, but, in the 1860s, they began to designate caliber by the diameter of the bore in centimeters or millimeters.

The principal guns between the 1860s and the 1880s were:

Designation Caliber (cm) Weight of barrel (kg) Weight of projectile (kg) Maximum range (m) Muzzle velocity (m/s)
mountain 6 107 2.14 2,500 300
field 7.5 4.3 4,600 465
mountain 7.5 100 4.3 3,000 294
field 7.85 290 4.3 3,000 357
field 8.7 6.8 4,800 465
naval 17 6,000 54.5 4,800 460
coastal 21 9,700 99 3,800 430
naval 24 17,700 160 6,000 582

See also

References

  1. ↑ Krupp. A century's history of the Krupp works, 1812-1912, Krupp Works, 1912
  2. ↑ The London Gazette, Patents, 17 May 1878

External links