Need Help Identifying WWI Cannon/Field Gun?

Are you sure it was WWI and not earlier, perhaps Spanish-American War?

It looks like caliber is fairly short compared to bore diameter.

It's probably a howitzer of some sort, and by the looks of it if it's WWI, it's British or French. Perhaps a Ordnance BL 5-inch howitzer.

I didn't find any good profile shots of the British Ordnance BL 5-inch howitzer, but that was the gun that most closely resembles the picture you posted. It dates back to the Boer War, and was obsolescent during WWI.

Google Books actually has a free copy of a British manual on the gun and its equipment... which as far as I could tell didn't have a SINGLE picture of the gun on the carriage, viewed from the right or left sides...

There is a pic of the BL 5 here - maybe 1/2 down the page. Still not a great profle shot though.


http://www.militair.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3292

John, that was a great link to a cool site. Lots of neat pics on that page, even though I can't read any of it. Here's another website with filters by country, type of field gun, and lots of information: http://www.passioncompassion1418.com/Canons/english_CanonsIndex.html
This is an interesting search for me because the cannon in the OP's post has several unique design features. Pneumatic tires weren't standard until about 1940, because howitzers were still hauled around by horses or even tractors. So these steel-lined wooden wheels make it definitely in the pre-WWII era, as the OP said. The stepped barrel is unique and I can find very few examples of that barrel type in the standard WWI artillery. Also, and most unique, is the recuperator system. On the far right side of the pic, that tube that looks like a compressed spring is what appears to be a hybrid gas/spring recuperator, which was certainly not a standard concept during WWI.
The barrel, along with the recoil system, makes me think it's actually a development howitzer that some firm or country was inventing, sometime in the 1920's.

Good luck in the rest of your search.

I think I've found it!

Kynoch, is this the same cannon you remember?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BL_5.4_inch_Howitzer

I seriously doubt that a British gun would have been dragged to the US after WWI. I suppose that anything is possible though.

Click to expand...

There's a French 75mm gun and a French military railroad carriage behind the ranges at Camp Perry...