Chilean Artillery

[Stephen_Rynerson]

Does anyone happen to have information on what the major types of artillery pieces being fielded in the late 1920s to early 1930s by the Chilean army were? My specific area of interest concerns what sort of artillery pieces were used in connection with shelling the naval base at Talcahuano in 1931, but any information is appreciated.

[peeved]

Some general info from Artilleristische Rundschau 2/1930 below.

Markus

[Stephen_Rynerson]

Thank you very much, Markus! The artillery unit at Talcahuano was the Regiment Silva Renard. If I'm translating the source document correctly, the unit would normally have been equipped with 75 mm and 105 mm cannons, correct?

[peeved]

At the time Silva Renard was characterised a reitende Artillerieabteilung (Horse artillery batallion) which seems to be borne out by a Chilean source I found with the Silva Renard code: https://issuu.com/albedu/docs/ej_rcito_ ... mera_guerr ; The unit being called el Grupo de Artillería a Caballo Nº 3 Silva Renard at Talcahuano [p. 310] which if done by the book [p. 105] was a two battery [75 mm?] outfit. On p. 170 there is a list of major Chilean artillery pieces according to which e.g. 7,5 cm Mod. 1898 was used in the infantry accompanying role so maybe also present at Talcahuano.

According to http://landships.activeboard.com/t51281 ... ns/?page=3 20 batteries of 75 mm Mod. 1910 Krupp guns and 32 105 mm howitzers were delivered.

According to Gebirgsartillerie by Franz Kosar Pre-WW1 Rheinmetall delivered one battery of 7,5 cm Mountain Gun L/16 M 1911 and one of 7,5 cm Mountain Gun L/19 M 1912 and Krupp an unknown amount from a 12 battery order of 7,5 cm Mountain Gun L/14 M 1913, deliveries of which were cut short by the war [According to http://landships.activeboard.com/t14766 ... ntain-gun/ four of the guns were taken by German Army which would suggest that the Chileans may have received up to 11 Krupp batteries]. Post-WW1 Schneider delivered 12 batteries of 75 mm Mountain Gun M 1919 and nine batteries of 105 mm Mountain Howitzer M 1919.

The 155 mm heavy field howitzer Schneider Mod. 1919 [pic of a modernised example from Regimiento Logístico Nº 2 "Arsenales de Guerra" in Santiago] appears similar to the Mle 1917:

No idea as of yet of the 10,5 cm (heavy) gun mentioned in the German text.

Markus

[peeved]

A Chilean military yearbook has an article on the 1931 events at http://myslide.es/documents/anuario-n-25-ano-2011.html
The equipment of the two Silva Renard batteries that took part is given as 75 mm cañones Krupp de montaña [sic] Modelo 1910.
Maybe there is a systematic error in Chilean documents; see the top pic from p. 151 on the availability of some guns around the time where apparently cañon de campaña M.10 is again called cañon de montaña. OTOH on the next page the Chilean OOB shows that M. 10s were counted as field artillery; Apparently the p.156 document only listed the then recent Schneider purchases as mountain guns of effective military value (and expected a 105 mm heavy gun). On p. 151 some obsolete/obsolescent mountain gun inventories are mentioned.

Markus

[peeved]

According to the yearbook [p. 140 & 142] the 4th Companies of Regimiento de Infantería Nº 6 “Chacabuco” and Regimiento de Infantería Nº 9 “O´Higgins” had a gun section each with 70 mm Modelo 02 Krupp mountain guns.

Markus