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7.7 cm FK 16

WW1 German field gun

Field	Value
name	7.7 cm Feldkanone 16
image	7.7 cm FK 16 CMHM Brantford 3.JPG
image_size	300
origin	German Empire
type	Field gun
is_artillery	yes
service	1916–1945
used_by	German Empire
Bulgaria
China
Finland
wars	World War I
Spanish Civil War
World War II
designer	Krupp
manufacturer	Krupp
production_date	1916–1918
number	3,020+
weight	1318 kg
part_length	2.695 m L/35
cartridge	Separate loading, cased charge and projectile
77 x 230mm R
caliber	77 mm
velocity	545 m/s
range	9100 m
7.2 kg(HE shell)
max_range	10700 m (gas shell)
breech	horizontal sliding-block
recoil	hydro-spring
carriage	box trail
elevation	-10° to +40°
traverse	4°

Bulgaria China Finland Spanish Civil War World War II 77 x 230mm R 7.2 kg(HE shell)

The 7.7 cm Feldkanone 16 (7.7 cm FK 16) was a field gun used by Germany in World War I. Most surviving examples in German service were rebarreled after the war as the 7.5 cm FK 16 nA (neuer Art, meaning "new model"). A total of 298 guns of the old type were still in German army service in 1939, making it the oldest field artillery piece in German inventory at the beginning of the Second World War.

History

The older 7.7 cm FK 96 n.A. field gun was very mobile, but, once the war settled into trench warfare, its lack of range became a serious disadvantage. The FK 16 was intended to remedy this problem. The barrel was lengthened and it was given a box carriage to allow for greater elevation, which increased the range. It was also given separate-loading ammunition to reduce powder consumption and barrel wear at short ranges, although this had the drawback of reducing the rate of fire compared to the older gun.

It was prematurely rushed into production in 1916 and early guns suffered from a number of defects, mainly stemming from the German use of substitute materials to reduce consumption of strategic metals. It also suffered from a large number of premature detonations of its shells during 1916. These were traced to poor quality control of its shells, which were sometimes too large in diameter, and problems with the picric acid used as high explosive filler in lieu of TNT. The picric acid would form very sensitive picric salts within days of filling the shells and would often detonate from the shock of firing. Lacquering the insides of the shells and spraying them with a turpentine/starch solution neutralized the picric acid and prevented it from forming picric salts.

The barrel of this gun was mounted on the carriage of the 10.5 cm Feldhaubitze 98/09 as the 7.7 cm Kanone in Haubitzelafette (i.e. "cannon on howitzer carriage") to allow it greater elevation and range.

Belgium modified the guns it received as post-war reparations as the Canon de 75 mle GP II and the Canon de 75 mle GP III. After the war, some guns were retained by Germany, re-barreled into 75mm caliber, and used in World War II as the 7.5 cm FK 16 nA.

References

Publications

Hogg, Ian. Twentieth-Century Artillery. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2000
Jäger, Herbert. German Artillery of World War One. Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire: Crowood Press, 2001

References

Chamberlain, Peter. (1975). "Light and medium field artillery". Arco.
"77-77 MM CALIBRE CARTRIDGES".
"7.7 cm FK 16". Landships.freeservers.com.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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