The Mk 61 105 mm

Self-Propelled Howitzer Self-propelled artillery (also called locomotive artillery) is artillery equipped with its own propulsion system to move toward its firing position. Within the terminology are the self-propelled gun, self-propelled howitzer, self-propelled mo ...

was a French self-propelled artillery piece designed and built during the late 1950s for the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...

History

During World War II a number of nations produced self-propelled artillery. These ranged from heavily armored

assault guns Assault gun (from german: Sturmgeschütz - "storm gun", as in "storming/assaulting") is a type of self-propelled artillery which uses an infantry support gun mounted on a motorized chassis, normally an armored fighting vehicle, which are designed t ...

with 360° protection to lightly-armored open topped tank-destroyers and self-propelled guns. Often the chassis for these conversions came from

tanks A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine ...

artillery tractors Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, ...

and two such vehicles were the US built

M7 Priest The 105 mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M7 was an American self-propelled gun vehicle produced during World War II. It was given the official service name 105 mm Self Propelled Gun, Priest by the British Army, due to the pulpit-like machin ...

and

M12 gun motor carriage The 155 mm Gun Motor Carriage M12 was a U.S. self-propelled gun developed during the Second World War. It mounted a 155 mm gun derived from the French Canon de 155mm GPF field gun. Development The idea for the M12 was first proposed i ...

supplied to

Free French Free France (french: France Libre) was a political entity that claimed to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic. Led by French general , Free France was established as a government-in-exile ...

forces during World War II. During the 1950s France began a rearmament program to replace both of these guns to provide mobile artillery support for their mechanized divisions. Like in World War II the chassis for these new weapons was a light tank the French

AMX-13 The AMX-13 is a French light tank produced from 1952 to 1987. It served with the French Army, as the Char 13t-75 Modèle 51, and was exported to more than 26 other nations. Named after its initial weight of 13 tonnes, and featuring a tough and r ...

Design

The new vehicle had the same five-wheeled

torsion bar A torsion bar suspension, also known as a torsion spring suspension, is any vehicle suspension that uses a torsion bar as its main weight-bearing spring. One end of a long metal bar is attached firmly to the vehicle chassis; the opposite end termi ...

suspension with front drive sprocket, rear idler and three return rollers as the AMX-13. The road wheels had solid rubber tires and the metallic tracks could be fitted with rubber traction blocks to lessen damage to roads. An all-welded box-shaped steel superstructure was mounted to the rear of the vehicle to provide 360° of protection from small arms rifle fire and shell splinters. Although protected from all directions the vehicle lacks

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

(nuclear, biological, chemical) capability and is not amphibious. The engine and transmission are at the front of the vehicle and the driver is on the left. The gun compartment has a commanders cupola with a periscope and 360° vision blocks. The cupola also has a ring mount for an external 7.5 or 7.62 mm

light machine gun A light machine gun (LMG) is a light-weight machine gun designed to be operated by a single infantryman, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. LMGs firing cartridges of the same caliber as the other riflemen of the sam ...

(LMG). The gun compartment also has access hatches at the top and rear. The primary armament for the vehicle is an Obusier de 105 modèle 1950 howitzer with a wide range of elevation -4° to +66° but with limited traverse 20° right and left. Traverse and elevation are both manual. French, Israeli, and Moroccan vehicles have a gun barrel which is 23 calibers in length while Dutch vehicles have a barrel 30 calibers in length. Both have a hydro-pneumatic recoil system below the barrel and both are fitted with a double-baffle

muzzle brake A muzzle brake or recoil compensator is a device connected to, or a feature integral to the construction of, the muzzle or barrel of a firearm or cannon that is intended to redirect a portion of propellant gases to counter recoil and unwanted ...

. The gun fires semi-fixed ammunition and 55 rounds of ammunition can be carried in the gun compartment. Generally, 6 of the 55 rounds were

high-explosive anti-tank warhead High-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) is the effect of a shaped charge explosive that uses the Munroe effect to penetrate heavy armor. The warhead functions by having an explosive charge collapse a metal liner inside the warhead into a high-velocity ...

(HEAT) with the remaining rounds being HE (high explosive). The HEAT round could penetrate of armor at an incidence of 0° or or armor at 65°. The Mk 61 has more than likely been retired by its users and replaced by either or self-propelled artillery capable of 360° fire.

Mk 62

A variant with a longer barrel and a turret capable of 360° of traverse was offered to Switzerland and although it was tested it was not adopted by them.

Users

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Photo gallery

File:AMX-105B Mk62 Automoteur de 105mm,, Musée des Blindés, France, pic-1.JPG, The Mk 61 placard at the

Musée des Blindés The ''Musée des Blindés'' ("Museum of Armoured Vehicles") or ''Musée Général Estienne'' is a tank museum located in the Loire Valley of France, in the town of Saumur. It is now one of the world's largest tank museums. It began in 1977 un ...

, France. File:AMX-13 Automoteur de 105mm,, Musée des Blindés, France, pic-2.JPG, A Mk 61 at the Musée des Blindés, France. File:AMX 105mm Mk 62 Self-Propelled Howitzer pic01-1.JPG, A Mk 62 on display at the Thun Army base in Switzerland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mk 61 105 mm Self-Propelled Howitzer 105 mm artillery Cold War artillery of France Self-propelled artillery of the Cold War Military vehicles introduced in the 1950s