Pl. 20
Plate 20 of 87 · Class III, Artillery
French 75
The French 75 mm field gun, Mle 1897, adopted in 1898 and regarded as the first modern artillery piece, with a hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism that kept the gun in place between shots. Designed to fire shrapnel at advancing troops, it switched to high-explosive shells once trench warfare began.
Mentioned in
- Chapter IV Deadlock §1 Why the Trenches? Firepower and the Shell Crisis
- Chapter VII The Last Gamble §5 The Americans Arrive, and the Second Marne
- Chapter X The Machinery of War §2 Artillery: The True Killer