Rule of cool
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I find the pre-WW1 US military endlessly fascinating.
After the Spanish-American War the US went about fixing the identified shortcomings and one of these was the artillery. In 1902 the US Army devised an artillery system based on shell weight; 15lb, 30lb, 60lb and 120lb and planned to build a field gun and howitzer for each of these shell weight, except for the 120lb 6" IIUC.
In 1905, after the Russo-Japanese war, emphasis shifted to indirect fire with howitzers. In the end the US build a few hundred 3" field guns, some 3" pack howitzers, maybe 40 3.8" howitzer, over 200 4.7" field guns, over 100 4.7" field howitzer and about 40 6" field howitzers. The 3.8" field gun seems to be the victim of the re-orientation to indirect fire after 1905, I can't find anything thing on it.
Like the British and Germans but unlike the French (and sort of the Russians) the US planned to put the smaller howitzers in their divisions and also had (or planned to have) 'Corps' artillery with 4.7" field gun and 6" howitzer batteries. However, IIUC Congress didn't provide the funds for these plans, so the US Army had 6 Artillery regiments until 1916, 4 of 3" guns, 1 of pack howitzers and a heavy regiment of 4.7" howitzers and 4.7" field guns but IIUC the NY NG division got 4.7" howitzers in 1917.
However, when WW1 started the US Army didn't mass produce and deploy its own designs, rather it adopted British and French designs for mass production that took too long to get delivered as well as buying guns directly from France and Britain. So, these US pieces, perhaps apart from the 4.7" field gun, tended to slide into obscurity.
Does anyone know how these pieces compared to their contemporaries?
After the Spanish-American War the US went about fixing the identified shortcomings and one of these was the artillery. In 1902 the US Army devised an artillery system based on shell weight; 15lb, 30lb, 60lb and 120lb and planned to build a field gun and howitzer for each of these shell weight, except for the 120lb 6" IIUC.
In 1905, after the Russo-Japanese war, emphasis shifted to indirect fire with howitzers. In the end the US build a few hundred 3" field guns, some 3" pack howitzers, maybe 40 3.8" howitzer, over 200 4.7" field guns, over 100 4.7" field howitzer and about 40 6" field howitzers. The 3.8" field gun seems to be the victim of the re-orientation to indirect fire after 1905, I can't find anything thing on it.
Like the British and Germans but unlike the French (and sort of the Russians) the US planned to put the smaller howitzers in their divisions and also had (or planned to have) 'Corps' artillery with 4.7" field gun and 6" howitzer batteries. However, IIUC Congress didn't provide the funds for these plans, so the US Army had 6 Artillery regiments until 1916, 4 of 3" guns, 1 of pack howitzers and a heavy regiment of 4.7" howitzers and 4.7" field guns but IIUC the NY NG division got 4.7" howitzers in 1917.
However, when WW1 started the US Army didn't mass produce and deploy its own designs, rather it adopted British and French designs for mass production that took too long to get delivered as well as buying guns directly from France and Britain. So, these US pieces, perhaps apart from the 4.7" field gun, tended to slide into obscurity.
Does anyone know how these pieces compared to their contemporaries?
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