One of my projects for 2023 is to finish up some old projects that have been languishing. This is a Roco Minitanks 105mm howitzer with the gun barrel replaced with a French 75 gun barrel from a Hat WWI US Army Artillery set. The little shield in the front got cut off and a few other bits on the trails were trimmed down too. Quick and simple conversion. It got glued down to a base because I used mostly Roco bits from the spares box that had lead a rough life and did not fit together well.
In the 1930s the US Army considered upgrading their massive stock of French 75mm guns by putting them on new carriages with split rails.
They also wanted pneumatic tires. Wooden wagon wheels when towed behind a motor vehicle at speeds of more than a few miles per hour tend to bounce to the point where they will flip over, often overturning the towing vehicle with it. So to reduce the Army dependency on horses rubber tires were needed.
Split trails allow the gun to be elevated and increases the range of the gun.
Due to the tiny budget of the military in the 1930s progress was very slow and only a handful of these guns were converted. They were used for training in the US during the war but none saw actual combat. Of course on the wargame table some may be used in the Battle of Grovers Mill, New Jersey, in October 1938 when the Martian cylinder landed there.
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