Turkish 7,5 cm M03 Krupp field gun

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Fina
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Location: Trento

Turkish 7,5 cm M03 Krupp field gun

#1

Post by Fina » 12 Oct 2019, 15:42

Hallo,
at Museo Storico Nazionale della Guerra (National War History Museum) of Rovereto, Italy, there is a 7,5 cm M03 Krupp field gun with steel wheels clearly coming from the batch ordered by Ottoman army in Germany between 1903 and 1905.
According to the Museum, the piece was in Italian service, but they do not know much more; on their behalf I am trying to find out the whereabouts of the gun.
So far I could ascertain the number delivered to Turkey and the fact that several hundred of them were lost to Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece during Balkan Wars. According to Storia dell'Artiglieria Italiana in 1942 six of these guns were in Italian service (while none in 1940): in my opinion this means that they were war booty aquired either from the Greeks or from the Yugoslavian.
Could anybody add any more detailed information on this point? Do you know whether the Greeks or the Yugoslavians replaced the wooden wheels with steel ones?
thank you

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Hoplophile
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Re: Turkish 7,5 cm M03 Krupp field gun

#2

Post by Hoplophile » 20 Oct 2019, 22:09

The Bulgarian Artillery website (https://www.bulgarianartillery.it/) provides lots of information about comings and goings of Ottoman field guns between 1912 and 1918. I doubt that you will find a clear answer to your question, but you will get a sense of the possibilities.

Speaking of possibilities ... I wonder if the piece in question could have been captured in the course of the Italian conquest of Libya in 1911. For example, a popular account of that war mentions the Italian capture of four Krupp artillery pieces of "the most recent type" during the battle of Ain Zara. https://archive.org/details/tripoliital ... t/page/210

I look forward to reading about your solution to this puzzle.

PS: As far as the steel wheels go, are these fitted with pneumatic tires? Or are they steel wheels of an older type, similar to the ones fitted to some of the field guns made by Ehrhardt for the export market between 1898 and 1914?


Fina
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Joined: 12 Oct 2019, 13:02
Location: Trento

Re: Turkish 7,5 cm M03 Krupp field gun

#3

Post by Fina » 21 Oct 2019, 08:55

I have been wondering myself whether the piece could come from the italo Turkish war 1911-1912, but sofar I have not found hard proof of the presence of these guns on Lybian soil.
Accounts of the battle of Ain Zara by Ufficio Storico report the capture of 7 Krupp guns 87mm without recoil system and pictures that I have found show exactly these guns, plus a couple more destroyed by Italian artillery.
The steel wheels are of the type used between the wars to adapt artillery to mechanical towing: at first sight I would say are the type used by Regio Esercito, but I really do not understand why RE should waste steel wheels on pieces not even put to use...
I have noticed that the Yugoslav in the '30 went on modernizing their artillery, although I wonder whether they had any gun of this type left after the Great War.

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