When World War One began, nobody could really have guessed the unprecedented level of destruction
the war would bring.
An observer might have been able to guess how the war would be fought by looking at
the weaponry developed by the nations that did the fighting, though, and the most destructive
of these was artillery.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode about French, British, and
German artillery before World War One.
The First World War was, generally speaking, an artillery war.
The overwhelming majority of casualties were caused by artillery, and much of the technological
and tactical development of the war was in direct response to the destructive power of
shrapnel or high explosive shells.
However, when the war began, none of the nations had an understanding of the decisive role
artillery would play.
I’m going to look now at the artillery of the nations initially fighting on the western
front.
We’ll hopefully look at the artillery of other nations in future specials, depending
on what source materials we can find, as well as the development of artillery and artillery
tactics as the war went on.
Okay, France had suffered a disastrous and humiliating defeat at Prussian hands in 1870-71.
The Prussian military machine had been extremely mobile, and this led France to develop weapons
that favored mobile warfare- relatively light field guns with high rates of fire.
In 1898, the Canon de 75 modéle - the French 75 - developed a year earlier, entered French
service.
The French 75 is regarded by many to be the first modern artillery piece.
It had a very efficient recoil system that allowed it to fire up to 20 shells a minute
in rapid-fire operations.
So batteries of 75s could saturate the battlefield with hundreds and hundreds of shrapnel shells,
which would destroy enemy infantry formations and pave the way for the French infantry.
To do that, it was designed to fire over a flat trajectory and could not elevate above
18 degrees, which meant it couldn’t do plunging fire.
This is important because when you also take into account the light weight of the shells,
either 5.5 or 7.5 kilos, it meant that the 75s were pretty much useless against fortifications
and earthworks.
Now, most of the French military did not see this as a problem, since the 1870 experience
led them to place their faith in speed and mobility.
That faith came at the cost of heavy artillery.
With the possible exception of a few nearly or even completely obsolete heavy guns, France
went to war in 1914 without a modern heavy artillery piece.
As you may know, this would come back to haunt the French, particularly commanders like Philippe
Petain, who had warned against relying on a single weapon system.
The Battle of the Frontiers in August 1914 showcased this huge mistake.
Don’t get me wrong, the 75s performed excellently when correctly deployed, and were actually
superior to the German field guns, but plunging counter battery fire from German howitzers
which could reach the 75s even on reverse slopes, forced the 75s to withdraw, leaving
the French infantry totally unsupported, and contributing to the enormous French casualties.
German pre-war artillery plans were different.
The German plan for war was the Schlieffen Plan, which had a rigid timetable for moving
through Belgium and into France.
In order to keep that timetable, Germany would have to break through or destroy the Belgian
fortifications.
That would require artillery that fired a heavy shell for a long distance, in a plunging
arc.
However, Germany would also need a field gun that was mobile enough for the rapid movement
of the Schlieffen Plan.
The solution for that was the 7.7cm Feldkanone 96 neuer Art.
It had a similar recoil system to the French 75, but didn’t have the range.
That wasn’t a big deal early in the war, as the 7.7s were used during the mobile warfare
phase to deadly effect in conjunction with heavier pieces.
German artillery doctrine said that the 7.7 was to support the infantry and counter battery
fire would be done by the heavier weapons, and for that they had the 10.5cm Feldhaubitze
98/09, a short-barreled howitzer.
These were very effective at silencing the French field guns as I already said.
However, neither the 7.7s or the 10.5s would be much good against major fortresses like
Liege and Antwerp, so Germany developed several much larger pieces that could crack the Belgian
forts.
The biggest of these were the 42cm Krupp super heavy siege mortars that would be known as
Big Berthas.
They could fire an 800-kilo shell – that’s 1,760 pounds of shell – 9 kilometers, or
a bit under 6 miles.
12 of those saw service during the war, though only two would see action against the Belgian
forts.
These guns are among the largest ever constructed.
Actually, the largest guns constructed during the war were the German made Paris Guns, which
were used to shell Paris from Germany late in the war and which I’ve already spoken
about in Out of the Trenches.
Now, unlike the French and the Germans, the British in 1914 had recent experience with
the requirements of modern artillery.
During the Boer Wars over a decade earlier, the Royal Artillery had shifted from providing
support over open spaces to supporting via indirect fire, not in the line of sight.
This was in direct response to modern rifles.
Field artillery positioned alongside infantry was subject to heavy fire and heavy casualties,
so it had to be moved to the rear and out of direct sight.
The British developed three weapons to respond to the needs of modern war.
In 1903, the Ordnance QF 18 pounder field gun entered service.
It had a similar recoil system to those of the French and German pieces and a range of
nearly 6 kilometers – almost 4 miles.
Since it fired a larger, heavier shell, it could in theory be used against enemy fortifications.
For heavier artillery, the British came out with the BL 60 pounder gun in 1905.
It had a quick recoil and a range of just under 10 km – 6 miles – so it was perfect
for counterfire operations against enemy batteries.
The third weapon was one capable of high angle plunging fire, the QF 4.5 inch howitzer, which
entered service in 1910.
It could fire a 16 kilo shell nearly 7 kilometers – that’s 32 pounds over more than 4 miles.
And it was great against trenches, artillery batteries, and barbed wire.
In addition to the big three already in production before the war, British General of the Ordnance,
Lieutenant-General Sir Stanley Brenton von Donop got an incredibly powerful 9.2 inch
heavy siege howitzer ready for manufacture when the war broke out.
It could fire a 160 kilo shell, that’s around 350 pounds, a distance of 10 kilometers.
I want to make clear that the guns I’ve talked about today were not the only ones
used.
When war came all three of these nations used guns of all calibers and sizes, but it would
be incredibly confusing to list them all and would take forever.
These ones were the most recent ones to be adopted and would likely have been the sole
weapons of their types had not the war necessitated the deployment of ALL weapons of ALL types
to the front lines, when to the horror of everyone, August 1914 revealed the devastating
power of modern artillery.
As said before, we want to talk about the important artillery pieces of the other nations
too, if you have any sources or are an expert on the topic, get in contact with Flo, our
social media guy.
We want to thank Natham McCall for his research on this episode.
If you want to find out more about the trenches on the Western front, click here to check
out trench warfare special.
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