Turkish WW1 Artillery

[Tosun Saral]

Turkish horse Artillery on the back street of former British Embassy in Pera İstanbul. The British consulate today is at the back side of those buildings.

[Tosun Saral]

Turkish horse Artillery at Sultan Ahmet infront of the famous Hagia Sophia Mosque (Today a museum)

[bobcatotago]

Does the barrel of this weapon have rifling or not? And is it just me, or does the barrel appear to be sitting upside down on the carriage - I'm sure that the elevation gear should be underneath the barrel?

[CharlieC]

The gun seems to be an 8.7cm Krupp C73 or C80 field gun - these guns were used by the Ottoman Army throughout WW1 and even into the 1920s. The gun was an early example of a Krupp "ringkanone" - there is a reinforcing tube over the barrel - you can see the front edge of the ring in the image between the troops on the axle tree seats. The barrel was rifled and the elevation gear was a simple screw elevator mounted underneath the breech. The elevation wheel can be seen in the attached image of an 8.7cm at Mount Perry in Central Queensland.

Ralph Lovett has a fully restored C73 at www.lovettartillery.com/9cm._C_1873_Kanone.html.

Regards,

Charlie

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[Tosun Saral]

Turkish artillery at military museum in Istanbul (The year must be 1875 to 1880)

[Tosun Saral]

Turkish artillery at Çatalca battles during Balkan war
From collection of my friend Mr. Mahmut Hakkı Sevgener

[jony663]

Was that light green in the card above the normal color of the guns, or does anyone have a better idea on that?

Jon

[CharlieC]

I think it depends on which theatre a gun was deployed. The guns in Palestine were a pale sand colour - there is a surviving 15cm gun captured at Damascus, 1918, at the AWM which has the original paint. I think I may have posted this but I can dig out the images if I haven't.

Judging by the images of Bulgarian captured Turkish guns on bulgarianartillery.it the colour looks a lot darker than a sand colour. I'll guess the colour "feldgrau" for European theatres. Feldgrau in WW1 was a mid grey colour with a touch of green.

The guns in the image look a lot like Krupp 15cm M1893 - a batch of these was purchased in 1913 for the Ottoman Army.

Regards,

Charlie

[Tosun Saral]

The gun seems to be an 8.7cm Krupp C73 or C80 field gun - these guns were used by the Ottoman Army throughout WW1 and even into the 1920s. The gun was an early example of a Krupp "ringkanone" - there is a reinforcing tube over the barrel - you can see the front edge of the ring in the image between the troops on the axle tree seats. The barrel was rifled and the elevation gear was a simple screw elevator mounted underneath the breech. The elevation wheel can be seen in the attached image of an 8.7cm at Mount Perry in Central Queensland.

Ralph Lovett has a fully restored C73 at http://www.lovettartillery.com/9cm._C_1873_Kanone.html.

Regards,

Charlie

c73_2_5.jpg

C/73 at Keşan see my post at
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 0&start=90

[CharlieC]

Some images of captured artillery after the Battle of Beersheba. These came from an album of photos of Palestine taken by Cpl W.C. Macklow, a dispatch rider with the NZMR (New Zealand Mounted Rifles) held at the State Library of Victoria, retrieved by Mark Clayton. Mark has recently started a forum on ANZAC war trophies (http://anzacwartrophies.freehostingcloud.com).

There are 4 guns of similar type to the 95mm smooth bore Mt Morgan gun on wheels in the first image. I can pick out a pair of Schneider PD 07 guns in the second image as well as another Mt Morgan gun and a damaged one of the same type. The third image seems to have an FK 16 in the foreground.

Regards,

Charlie

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[Tosun Saral]

A German officer posing on a captured British gun probable at Iraq or Palestine

[Tosun Saral]

A Mantelli gun used by Turks during WW1 at every front.
Lt. Col Şefik Bey commander of 27th IR (Col. Aker) who resisted the landing of British on April 25th 1915 at Gallipoli says in his memories that " The 27th IR worked hard to reinforce the fortifications at Arıburnu (Anzac). I also ordered a Mantelli gun to take position on the other side of Kabatepe at the shore which was out of the range of naval guns to fire the landing enemy by their side."

[CharlieC]

The captured "British" gun is a 75mm Krupp field gun. Perhaps it was recaptured from the British - I note that the
gun sight is missing. The breech looks like a later Krupp 75mm an M09 or M11.

I think we may have another Turkish Army slang word. "Mantelli" or mantled originally referred to a gun which
was reinforced in front of the breech to handle higher breech pressures. The gun is a 9cm Krupp C73 or C80 which was built
by Krupp with a reinforcing ring in front of the breech. The German term for these was "ringkanone". The very old Krupp barrels such as that on the C1861 field gun were one piece barrels without the reinforcing ring.

Regards,

Charlie

[Tosun Saral]

Young Turkish NCO cadets learning how to handle a Skoda mörser during WW1. K.u.K officers and artillerymen trained Turkish 163 NCO cadets in İstanbul.
Photo presented by mr. Yetkin İşcen www.gallipoli-1915.org

[infantry]

Turkish artillery at military museum in Istanbul (The year must be 1875 to 1880)

Sorry mate it was not taken at the Military Museum building (I mean Pangalti Barracks) but at the Mühendishane-i Berri Hümayun barracks in Halicioglu. Nowadays it is housing a navy command. You can still see the same façade from side.