§§- deux 15 cm sFH Krupp prototypes à Canberra et Jamestown, Australie

De la part de Charlie Clelland

J'ai d'abord cru que le tube de cet obusier Allemand de 15cm sFH 02 exposé dans un bien bel abri, a Jamestown, South Australia avait été remonte a l'envers au cours de son installation...

Mais C Clelland et d'autres passionnés ont démontré que la disposition étrange de cet obusier de 15cm était originale et rare, et qu'il en existait un autre exemplaire dans les réserves de l'Australian War Museum de Camberra :

Hi Bernard,

Two very rare guns. One, you've seen before, is at Jamestown, SA - this has been completely restored now (serial no. #19).

The other is in AWM storage at Mitchell, Camberra (serial no. #20).

Both guns are dated 1907. Both guns were captured by

the ALH (Australian Light Horse) in Palestine. It's not certain where #19 was captured but #20 is recorded as captured at

Damascus in Oct 1918.

The guns seem to be part of a batch of 4 guns sold to the Turkish Army by Krupp in 1912. Best interpretation is that these guns

were prototype guns built by Krupp to trial rear-mounted trunnions and placing the recoil assembly above the barrel. German

texts after WW1 suggest that one of these prototypes was tested against a Rheinmetall prototype in 1911. As a result of these

trials neither gun was accepted and a new hybrid gun composed of both Krupp and Rheinmetall components was proposed.

This hybrid gun became the 15cm sFH 13. The Krupp records no longer exist but there's enough other information to build

a reasonable case for the identity of the guns.

I have the argument for the identity of the guns as a .pdf which I prepared for the restoration group at Jamestown - I can send you

a copy if you're interested (sorry English only).

Regards,

Fiches détaillées : 

http://www.passioncompassion1418.com/Canons/AfficheCanonGET.php?IdCanonAffiche=53

http://www.passioncompassion1418.com/Canons/AfficheCanonGET.php?IdCanonAffiche=26

Comments

[Nick Hector]

Bernard, thankyou for getting the story half correct. The Jamestown gun is, as I have said, Nr.20. Canberra's is Nr.19. Not the other way round. PLEASE correct your records accordingly.My research uncovered that the Jamestown gun was likely captured by the 9th Australian Light Horse at Huj on 8th November, 1917. Either by Lt. Lancelot Hargrave (who was awarded the MC for his actions, survived the war and became lord mayor of Adelaide) or LCPL Keith Bennett (who was KIA at Berkursie 4 days later). We reached this conclusion because we know that the gun was taken by the 9th ALH and they only ever captured three guns of this calibre, one by Hargrave, two by Bennett. All of them were taken on the same date, 8 November 17 at the same place, Huj. Cheers. Nick

[Nick Hector]

This gun is a rare variant of the sFH02 and is meant to look the way it does.

[Nick Hector]

Hi there,

During the late 1990s thru to the early 2000s I was the historian on the committee that restored the sFH02 in Jamestown SA. The Jamestown gun is a RARE VARIANT of the standard sFH02, specially built for the Turks. Our research (which even involved contact Krupp in Germany) showed that there is only one other of this variant still surviving, it is at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Theirs is Nr.19, Jamestown's is Nr.20. The differences between this variant and the standard sFH02 are as follows: 1 the barrel is LONGER than the recoil cylinder. 2 The recoil cylinder is circular in cross-section, not square 3 the recoil cylinder is mounted ATOP the barrel, not square and 3 the recoil spade is different.

I hope the SO-CALLED "experts" will come and VIEW the gun before shooting their mouths off in future. Honestly, do you think we would be so stupid as to restore a gun upside-down...????