A photograph taken from a Keystone View Company stereoscope card depicts a French gun crew manning a camouflage painted de Bange 155mm Long Canon Modèle 1877. As the date suggests, the 155 L de Bange (the short name for the gun) was by no means a new gun by the time World War One began in 1914. Development of the gun started in February 1874 by a committee made up of French artillerymen. The intent of the committee was to learn lessons from the Franco-Prussian War which took place between July 19, 1870 and January 28, 1871 and from these lessons, conceive of a new heavy caliber gun for siege purposes as well as equipping fortresses. Towards the close of April 1874, the caliber of 155mm was selected and three manufacturers produced their designs which were put to test beginning in 1876. The winner of the competition was Charles de Bange with his 155 L gun and the French military put in an order for 300 guns in November 1877.
The 155 L de Bange featured a hooped steel construction style and the barrel utilized gain-twist rifling. This method utilized rifling that had an initial slower twist rate at the breech end of the barrel which got progressively faster as the shell traveled down the barrel. This accelerated the angular momentum of the projectile. This wasn't so much as to propel the shell faster but to spread the torque of the spinning shell, which causes stress on the barrel, to be spread across as much of the length of the barrel as possible. This, then, allowed wear of the barrel to be more distributed rather than being concentrated at the breech end. As the photograph shows, the 155 L de Bange had no recoil mechanism and instead, it relied on friction to slow the backwards motion of the box trail carriage. To reduce the recoil further, wooden wedges were put behind the wheels. When the gun fired, the carriage rode up the wedges which bled off momentum and the gun would roll back down the wedges to more or less the same position it started from. This also helped eliminate the need to manhandle the gun back into position after every shot. The loader is likely checking the breech lock, a round already loaded given the gunner is ready with the lanyard to fire the cannon. Once all was set, the loader would retreat away from the gun before firing as the recoil of the gun had the possibility of the carriage jumping the wedges or coming off them. This concern also accounts for the long length of the lanyard so the gunner could be as far away from the gun as possible. The gun fired a 100lb. high-explosive round to a maximum range of 8 miles and a competent crew could fire one round every minute. The gun had a very limited traverse of 4 degrees with a maximum depression of 10 degrees and a maximum elevation of 28 degrees. The combat weight of the gun as shown in the photograph was 7 tons and so it was by no means easily moved.
When World War One began, the French had pinned their hopes on the excellent Canon de 75 Modèle 1897. Some 1,392 155 L de Bange guns were on inventory, either in depots or in fixed positions. The French quickly learned that the Germans used heavier caliber guns that outranged the 75mm French gun and they had no counter to them in the field. In short order, the French started dragging the 155 L de Bange guns out of mothballs as a quick means to even the odds. The wheels on the gun's carriage were updated by fitting them with Rotaie a Cingolo (“Caterpillar Track Rails”), or simply cingoli. These hinged plates had two purposes. The first was to spread the ground pressure of the gun across more surface area which permitted easier movement over soft ground. The second purpose was the plates provided an immediate firing platform without extensive preparation as two plates per wheel would always be flat upon the ground. It took ten horses to pull the 155 L de Bange though gun tractors were used as well. By the end of November 1914, 112 guns were in service and by August 1, 1916, 738 guns were in action with French heavy artillery regiments. The 155 L de Bange served as a standard artillery piece but was also used in the counter-battery role, using its range to destroy German heavy guns when they were located. As the war went on, newer heavy guns began to enter service and usually after 10,000 shots, 155 L de Bange guns were taken out of service. But this did not last long as production of the newer cannons could not keep up with demand and so new barrels for the 155 L de Bange were produced starting in 1916. One way to tell an original barrel from the 1916 barrels is the position of the lifting handle. An original barrel, shown in the photograph, had a lifting handle in-line with the barrel while the new barrels had the lifting handle across the barrel. Even by November 1918, each French Army Corps had a single heavy artillery battalion equipped with the 155 L de Bange.
Following World War One, a number of 155 L de Bange guns were sent to Romania and the Soviet Union who put them to use with the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. In 1937, the Russians sent a number of the guns to the Spanish Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. As for the French, 305 of the guns remained in service, most once more situated in fortresses or placed along the Maginot Line. France donated 48 guns to Finland in 1940 but none arrived in time to see action during the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union which occurred from November 30, 1939 to March 13, 1940. They did, however, see combat under the designation 155 K/77 during the Continuation War which pitted Finland and Germany against the Soviet Union from June 25, 1941 to September 19, 1944. By this time, only 19 guns were left in service. Although the Germans captured some operational 15 L de Bange guns following the fall of France, they did not put them into service.
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