The

Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...

C64 (sometimes C/64) steel, breech loaded field gun was one of the main artillery pieces of the Prussians in the 1870–1871 war with France. It was superior to the French counterparts in every way: accuracy, rate of fire, range and reliability of the fuse. The guns were, however, unpopular with artillery specialists of the day as the difficulty in cooling the steel barrel during the

casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or ...

process could cause flaws which would lead to the barrel shattering when the weapon was fired. The

obturation Obturation is the necessary barrel blockage or fit in a firearm or airgun created by a deformed soft projectile. A bullet or pellet made of soft material and often with a concave base will flare under the heat and pressure of firing, filling the ...

, a big problem in earlier Krupp

rifled breech loader A rifled breech loader (RBL) is an artillery piece which, unlike the smoothbore cannon and rifled muzzle loader which preceded it, has rifling in the barrel and is loaded from the breech-loading weapon, breech at the rear of the gun. The spin im ...

s, was ensured by Broadwell ring design borrowed from American engineer Lewis Wells Broadwell.

Development

With the introduction of the in 1859, it was examined if a 4-pounder cannon should be developed. In 1860, the Artillery Testing Commission () decided to apply for the production of a rifled 4-pounder. Although no agreement was reached on the design of the cannon, two test barrels were ordered from the Krupp company in

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

. These were produced in the workshops from

Spandau Spandau () is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs of Berlin, boroughs () of Berlin, situated at the confluence (geography), confluence of the Havel and Spree (river), Spree rivers and extending along the western bank of the Havel. It is the smalle ...

and were delivered in March 1861, with tests beginning in May. The first experimental gun was presented on 1 September 1861.

Service history

Service with Prussia

Based on the reports received from the tests, the Prussian Ministry of War issued a directive in January 1862 that four cannons should be sent for further testing with each artillery regiment. The tests began in July 1862, and by 1863 it was decided to produce the rifled 4-pounder cannon for inspection by the King on 1 April 1864. Meanwhile, a battery of eight experimental guns was formed and successfully participated in the German-Danish War. With the favorable reports and the approval from the King, the C64 gun began introduction to the troops in 1865. In the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War (German: ''Preußisch-Österreichischer Krieg''), also known by many other names,Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Second War of Unification, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), ''Deutsc ...

, it was noticed that some C64 guns failed without any detectable material defect. Due to this mistrust of the cast steel barrels, the General Inspectorate of Artillery decided to order the production of bronze cannon barrels instead, while an investigation was ongoing. Regardless, it was decided to replace the

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. Some examples of smoothbore weapons are muskets, blunderbusses, and flintlock pistols. ...

12-pounders of the

horse artillery Horse artillery was a type of light, fast-moving, and fast-firing field artillery that consisted of light cannons or howitzers attached to light but sturdy two-wheeled carriages called caissons or limbers, with the individual crewmen riding on h ...

sections with the C64 steel guns as well, and by 1867, the conversion was completed. After the investigation was finished, it was discovered that the problem was not with the steel construction, but with the design of the breech. After redesigning, the problem was fixed and the new guns were adopted as the C/67, or C/64/67. During the Franco-Prussian War, there were 11 Prussian artillery regiments, each with one horse, one reserve and three foot units. Each

unit comprised three batteries, each battery was equipped with six C64 guns, for a total of eighteen guns per unit. The foot artillery units had an equal mixture of and the lighter 4-pounders.

Service with Romania

With the establishment of the 2nd Artillery Regiment, the

Romanian Army The Romanian Land Forces () is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. Since 2007, full professionalization and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Land Forces. The Romanian Land Forc ...

purchased 48 cannons in 1867. These were adopted as the Krupp Model 1868 guns and were the first breechloading cannons of Romania. Similarly to the Prussian guns, they were fitted with the Kreiner type double wedge breech mechanism with

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

obturation, however, as the steel construction did not show much confidence, these first cannons were ordered to be made out of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

. In 1871, another 48 cannons made out of steel and equipped with a cylindrical-prismatic wedge mechanism were purchased and adopted as the Krupp Model 1871 guns which became the first steel cannons of Romania. Unlike the Turkish carriage which was metallic, the Romanian guns had wooden carriages made out of

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus ''Ulmus'' in the family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical- montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ...

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

wood. The C64 cannons were nicknamed ("cannons of 8"), referring to their caliber. During the

Romanian War of Independence The Romanian War of Independence () is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the phase of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), in which Romania, fighting on the Russian side of the war, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. On ...

, both types were used with the Model 1868 guns equipping the 1st and 2nd Artillery Regiments, and the Model 1871 guns equipping the 3rd and 4th Artillery Regiments. The cannons were retired in 1880 and moved to the reserve. A number of 48 pieces along with 35,455 projectiles were still registered on 15 August 1916.

Service with Turkey and Bulgaria

Between 1864 and 1874, the Ottoman Empire purchased 653 C64 guns. These were almost identical to the Prussian guns, except they were fitted with a cylindrical-prismatic wedge breech mechanism. Some of these Turkish guns were captured by the

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and later given to the

Bulgarian Army The Bulgarian Army (), also called Bulgarian Armed Forces, is the military of Bulgaria. The commander-in-chief is the president of Bulgaria. The Ministry of Defense is responsible for political leadership, while overall military command is in ...

Gallery

File:Keilverschluss 1862.tif, Illustration of the wedge lock of a C64. File:C64.png, Side view of the closure of a C64 File:C64 Verschluss.png, Section through the closure of a double wedge C64 File:C67 01 Verschluss.png, Section through the closure of a double wedge C64/67

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book, url=http://www.worldwar2.ro/documents/004-artileria-romana-in-date-si-imagini.pdf , title=Artileria Romana in date si Imagini , language=ro , first1=Adrian , last1=Stroea , first2=Gheorghe , last2=Băjenaru , publisher=Editura Centrului Tehnic-Editorial, date=2010

External links

Ammunition pictures

Picture in Turkish service
Field artillery of Germany Artillery of Romania Artillery of Bulgaria Artillery of the Ottoman Empire