More on Trophy WW1 German Artillery

Lats Friday, our National Guard returned the third and final trophy WW1 German gun after refurbishment.  See http://colcampbellbarracks.blogspot.com/2010/05/figurehead-and-some-guns.html for the first two that were returned.  I thought that it was being kept for the Mississippi Military Museum at Camp Shelby, but evidently they decided it wasn't needed there.

In my original post (above) I identified the guns as two 150mm and one possible 105mm.  But actually they are two 105mm and one 77mm.

The refurbishment of the three guns consisted of complete reconstruction of the wooden wheels, repair or reconstruction of various components, cleaning and repair of rusted portions, and a complete repaint.  I was involved a little bit in the discussions on what to paint them.

First here are a couple of pictures sent to me by the National Guard maintenance officer who oversaw the refurbishment.  Please click on all pictures to see an enlarged version.

Reconstructed wheels for one of the 105mm guns.  They are made from hard yellow pine and were painted and lacquered for protection against the sun and weather.

The 77mm gun in its coat of red lead base paint.

 

One of the 105mm guns being stripped down prior to a light sandblasting to remove surface rust and corrosion.

The 77mm gun was brought up to Jackson from Camp Shelby on a trailer and was off-loaded by a M984 HEMTT wrecker.  Then the guardsmen muscled into position on the concrete pad.  The first two pictures are by one of my co-workers, a newly retired National Guard special forces sergeant.  The rest are by me.

View from one of our building's windows as the gun is being off-loaded.  [Photo by Joe W.]

A closer look as it is being muscled into position.  [photo by Joe W.]

View of gun from a window in my office area.

Close-up of front right of gun.  From this close, the new rusty areas are very apparent.  The gun must have sat outside since it was refurbished.  Sure doesn't speak well of how it will fare here.

View from left rear quadrant.

 The next three pictures show the detailed engraving on the barrel of the gun.  Unfortunately it was very bright the day (Saturday) I took these pictures so the engraving is not as distinct as it should be.  See http://www.lovettartillery.com/7.7cm_leichte_Feld_Kanone_%28l.F.K.%29_1896_n_A.html for a more detailed description of the gun including a partial translation of the engraving, although that gun's barrel isn't as ornate as ours.

 And finally, a picture of the breech block, clearly showing the serial number (4859), manufacturer (Fr. Kp. - Friedrich Krupp), and the date (1907).

Well, that's all for now.  I'll post more on these three guns if and when I develop more data.

A Figurehead and Some Guns

This posting is a brief departure from my little world of wargaming.  The other day was nice and sunny here in Mississippi so on my lunch hour I drove over to the grounds of our state capitol and took these pictures.

Battleship Figurehead

The figurehead of the Battleship USS Mississippi (BB-23).

As one of the last of the American pre-deadnoughts, she was laid down in 1904, commissioned in 1908, and decommissioned in 1914.  She was turned over to Greece and, as the Kilkis, was sunk by Luftwaffe Stuka bombers in 1941.

Here is a photograph of her in 1908.  If you look closely, you can see the figurehead on her bow.

German Guns

Also on the grounds of the state capitol are two WW1 German guns.  They are both Krupps and, I believe, 152mm.  I was going to look in our records (I work in the state archives) but forgot.  I'll update this post Monday with their details.  These guns were part of Mississippi's share of German military trophies from WW1.  Some of the trophies are still in existence but many were turned over during the WW2 scrap metal drives and saw new life as parts of American military equipment used to defeat the Axis forces.  Kinda ironic, ain't it!

This shows the right side of one of the two guns.  The wooden wheels were completely refabricated by our state National Guard maintenance shops several years ago.  They also cleaned the guns, repaired any rust damage, and repainted them.  I was involved in the discussions over the paint scheme.

This is the rear of the gun showing some of the various levers and mechanisms.

(Can you tell that I'm not an artilleryman or an ordnance expert!)

The breech of one of the guns.  They are both engraved/stamped with the serial number of the breech and the legend Fried. Krupp  1916.

There  was a third gun, a 105mm if I remember correctly, that was outside of the War Memorial building.  The National Guard retained that gun for the Mississippi Military Museum in Camp Shelby.  One of these days I'll get down there to tour it.

Later I'll post some pictures of the decorations of our War Memorial building.  I hope you enjoyed this brief excursion.