37 mm trench gun M1915

37-mm trench gun M1915
300px 37 mm trench gun M1915
Type	Infantry support gun
Specifications
Weight	180.1 kg (397 lbs)
Barrel length	19 calibers
Caliber	37 mm (1.45 in)
Recoil	none
Elevation	-5° to +15°
Traverse	90°

37-mm trench gun M1915 (Russian: Траншейная 37-мм пушка обр. 1915 года) was a Russian battalion gun employed in World War I.

With World War I switching into a trench warfare phase late in 1914, a need for a highly mobile artillery system to be used against enemy machine gun emplacements and other strongpoints became apparent. In 1915 colonel M. F. Rosenberg, a member of the Artillery Committee, developed such a weapon. The gun was compact enough to fit into machine gun emplacements. It weighed only about 180 kg and could be dismantled into three pieces - barrel (about 74 kg), carriage (82 kg) and wheels (25 kg), making it easy to move around. To protect the crew from enemy fire, the gun was equipped with a shield 6 or 8 mm thick. The weapon was sufficiently accurate at ranges of up to roughly 1 mile or about 1.6 km—this was earlier set out as 1,000-1,200 paces, and a pace is normally the height of the person walking, so this is not a uniform measure.

Image gallery

• Russian WWI 1 pounder shell diagram.jpg

  1-pound explosive shell

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• 37 K/15 at jaegerplatoon.net