The M1908 6-inch howitzer, officially the 6-inch Howitzer, Model of 1908, was the principal heavy

howitzer The howitzer () is an artillery weapon that falls between a cannon (or field gun) and a mortar. It is capable of both low angle fire like a field gun and high angle fire like a mortar, given the distinction between low and high angle fire break ...

piece of the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

prior to

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

History

Forty of these weapons had been produced before 1917, and all were employed within the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

for training purposes during the war. Although this weapon appears in World War I-era

tables of organization and equipment Table may refer to: * Table (database), how the table data arrangement is used within the databases * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and column ...

, for combat use in France the Canon de 155 C mle 1917 Schneider was purchased, and variants of this remained the standard weapon of this class until early World War II. All surviving weapons were retired during the 1920s.Williford, pages 76-77 It is unusual among American-designed field artillery weapons in that it has the recoil cylinder situated above the barrel. The 4.7-inch howitzer M1908/M1912 shared this feature. The 75 mm gun M1917 also had this, but was based on the British

QF 18-pounder gun The Ordnance QF 18-pounder,British military traditionally denoted smaller ordnance by the weight of its standard projectile, in this case approximately or simply 18-pounder gun, was the standard British Empire field gun of the World War I, Fi ...

. Ammunition was either common steel shell with a base

fuze In military munitions, a fuze (sometimes fuse) is the part of the device that initiates its function. In some applications, such as torpedoes, a fuze may be identified by function as the exploder. The relative complexity of even the earliest fu ...

, or shrapnel with a combination time/percussion fuze.Handbook 1917, pages 22-23

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6-inch Howitzer M1908
at Landships II {{Authority control 152 mm artillery 1910 establishments in the United States Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1910 World War I artillery of the United States World War I howitzers

History

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