7.7cm Feldkanone 16 (FK16)

History

The Imperial German Army introduced the 7.7cm FK 96 field gun in 1896, although the system became obsolete almost immediately with the arrival of the French Canon 75 Model 1897 the following year. The Model 1897 uses a revolutionary recoil system mounted under the barrel, resulting in a more efficient weapon - the weapon can be fired without being displaced by recoil and without retraining to target range.

This resulted in excellent accuracy and rate of fire unmatched by German artillery. This French gun had a range of up to 8,550 meters with standard high-explosive (HE) rounds and was in use until the end of World War II in 1945.

In 1904, the German Army attempted to modernize their FK 96 roster by adding their own under-barrel recoil mechanism and a new gun guard bracket assembly. This improved the type as a battlefield weapon and served the German rifle team in the First World War (1914-1918).

However, the war that began in July 1914 was once unpredictable and evolved into a stagnant network of fronts that began a bloody "trench battle". As the battle progressed, the FK 96's range was severely diminished, with an effective, accurate range of only 6,000 yards (up to 9,200 yards).

This limitation led to a new need for artillery with a longer attack range. The famous German company Krupp produced a new gun to meet this requirement, the 7.7cm FK 16, which was quickly introduced in 1916 to support the German artillery stockpile. The new weapon has a longer barrel with a range of up to 11,700 yards and a box frame inherited from the 10.5cm Feldhaubitze 98/09 field howitzer. Recoil is controlled by a hydraulic spring system, and the caliber of the gun is kept at 7.7 cm (77 mm) for logistical reasons.

Each grenade weighs approximately 16 pounds and is available in a variety of flavors to suit tactical needs (HE, Shrapnel, Lighting, Smoke, Gas). Shells are fed through a horizontally sliding breech block (like on the FK 96), with elevation control ranging from -10 to +40 degrees, and 4 degrees laterally on either side. The barrel is mounted on a heavy-duty bracket attached to a two-wheeled steel frame.

The transportation was carried out by a team of horses and the crew consisted of five employees. The system weighs approximately 2,900 pounds in total and has a barrel length of nearly 9 feetlarger and heavier than the previous FK 96 design it replaced, making it the bulkier weapon on the battlefield.

Once the new field gun was put into use, the hasty development and shortening of the test period revealed obvious defects, mainly related to the poor quality of the artillery and projectile manufacturing. Still, demand was high, and Krupp delivered 3,000 of them for the German army between 1916 and 1918. The FK 16 certainly has tactical value, capable of firing shells from thousands of yards with direct line of sight or indirect fire. With access to variable ammunition supplies, rifle groups can engage enemy personnel hidden in trenches, attack fortified fortifications, and engage enemy machine gun lairs with relative impunity.

The weapon can also fire horrific gas grenades, inflicting mental and physical damage to the enemy. When the British launched their tank offensive in 1917, the FK 16 was used as a makeshift anti-tank gun - more Allied tanks than any other weapon of war fell victim to artillery fire and mechanical damage.

As Germany became a loser in World War I, the country was deprived of war capability and ex-German weapons were given to Belgium as war reparations. The Belgian Canon de 75 mle TR barrel is mated to the FK 16 frame to make the 75mm "Canon de 75 mle GP11", the other type has a casing installed in the existing barrel of the FK 16 system to make the "Canon de 75 mle GP11" 75 mle GP III" production. The caliber is 75 mm.

When Germany re-emerged under Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, all remaining German FK 16 guns received new 7.5 cm (75 mm) caliber barrels and were re-marked as "7.5 cm FK 16 n.A." ( "n.A.") was renamed. Call them "New Artillery Models").

After the conquest of Belgium in 1940, the Germans recovered lost FK 16 equipment from the defeated Belgian army and designated "7.5 cm FK 234(b)" and "7.5 cm FK 236(b)" for the marking Canon de 75 mle GP III.

With the sinking of Germany in May 1945, the history of the FK 16 and its foreign variants did not end, used by anyone outside of global conflicts.

Specification

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Performance

for everyone else in our database)

Armor

Depends on the ammunition carrier.

Changes