The 15 cm schwere Feldhaubitze 13 (15 cm sFH 13), was a heavy field

howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...

used by Germany in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

History

The gun was a development of the previous standard howitzer, the 15 cm sFH 02. Improvements included a longer

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...

resulting in better range and a

gun shield A U.S. Marine manning an M240 machine gun equipped with a gun shield A gun shield is a flat (or sometimes curved) piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, or artillery pi ...

to protect the crew. Variants were: the original "kurz" (L/14 – 14 calibre short barrel version), the ''lg. sFH13'' with a longer barrel; with minor modifications to simplify wartime manufacture of the lg. sFH weapons. Initially there were serious issues of weak recoil spring mechanisms that would break, and gun barrel explosions. The problems were solved with the upgrades. A sub variant of the sFH 13 was the ''lg. 15 cm sFH 13/02'' which combined the long barrel with the carriage of the earlier sFH 02 when those guns became obsolete. The sFH 13/02

wasn't hinged at the top and it only used a hydro-spring recoil system. Approximately 1,000 conversions were completed and their performance was the same with only a 40 kg difference in weight. The British referred to these guns and their shells as "five point nines" or "five-nines" as the internal diameter of the barrel was . The ability of these guns to deliver mobile heavy firepower close to the frontline gave the Germans a major firepower advantage on the Western Front early in World War I, as the French and British lacked an equivalent. It was not until late 1915 that the British began to deploy their own 6 inch 26 cwt howitzer. About 3,500 of these guns were produced from 1913 to 1918.Roger Lee, The Battle of Fromelles 1916 (Australian Army Campaign Series), Big Sky Publishing 2012 They continued to serve in the

Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshape ...

and then the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

in the interwar period as the standard heavy howitzer until the introduction of

15 cm sFH 18 The 15 cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18 or sFH 18 (German: "heavy field howitzer, model 18"), nicknamed ''Immergrün'' ("Evergreen"), was the basic German division-level heavy howitzer of 149mm during the Second World War, serving alongside the sma ...

in the 1930s. They were then shifted to reserve and training units, as well as to coastal artillery. Guns turned over to Belgium and the Netherlands as reparations after World War I were taken into

service after the conquest of the Low Countries as the ''15 cm sFH 409(b)'' and ''15 cm sFH 406(h)'' respectively. Romania captured 12 pieces from the German Army during World War I, putting them into service during the interwar years and in reserve during World War II In the course of World War II about 94 of these howitzers were mounted on Lorraine 37L tractors to create self-propelled guns, designated ''15 cm sFH13/1 (Sf) auf Geschuetzwagen Lorraine Schlepper (f)''.

In literature

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...

expressed the British respect for the "five-nine" in his World War I poem ''

Counter-Attack A counterattack is a tactic employed in response to an attack, with the term originating in "war games". The general objective is to negate or thwart the advantage gained by the enemy during attack, while the specific objectives typically seek ...

'' *

Timothy Findley Timothy Irving Frederick Findley Timothy Findley's
entry in

The Wars ''The Wars'' is a 1977 novel by Timothy Findley that follows Robert Ross, a nineteen-year-old Canadian who enlists in World War I after the death of his beloved older sister in an attempt to escape both his grief and the social norms of oppressi ...

'' *

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced b ...

mentions being shelled by "Five-Nines" in his poem '' Dulce et Decorum est'' *

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celt ...

, in ''

Good-Bye to All That ''Good-Bye to All That'' is an autobiography by Robert Graves which first appeared in 1929, when the author was 34 years old. "It was my bitter leave-taking of England," he wrote in a prologue to the revised second edition of 1957, "where I ha ...

'', says "five-nines erecalled 'Jack Johnsons' because of their black smoke" in reference to "the boxer Jack (John Arthur) Johnson (1878-1946), the first black American world heavyweight champion (1908-1915)."

Citations

Sources

* Engelmann, Joachim and Scheibert, Horst. ''Deutsche Artillerie 1934-1945: Eine Dokumentation in Text, Skizzen und Bildern: Ausrüstung, Gliederung, Ausbildung, Führung, Einsatz''. Limburg/Lahn, Germany: C. A. Starke, 1974 * Gander, Terry and Chamberlain, Peter. ''Weapons of the Third Reich: An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms, Artillery and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939-1945''. New York: Doubleday, 1979 * Hogg, Ian V. ''German Artillery of World War Two''. 2nd corrected edition. Mechanicsville, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997 *Ralph Lovett
15 cm. schwere Feld Haubitze 1913
*Ralph Lovett

*Ralph Lovett

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:15 Cm Sfh 13 World War I howitzers World War I artillery of Germany Artillery of the Ottoman Empire Artillery of the Netherlands World War II field artillery World War II artillery of Germany 150 mm artillery

History

See also

Weapons of comparable role, performance and era

In literature

Citations

Sources

External links