German 10.5cm leichtes Feldhaubitze 16 Walkaround

- courtesy of Ivan Stefanovic, Jon Hornbostel and Robin Maslen

The German lFH 16 was designed during the war by Rheinmetall as a replacement for the old, standard light howitzer, the lFH 98/09. It had a longer barrel than the older gun, and also a new type of breech, needing one less movement in order to be opened. It fired the same ammo as the old  gun, with one addition: the so called C-Geschoss, i.e. Gas shell. They were manufactured by a number of different manufacturers, and they began to be issued to the troops from the beginning of 1917. When the war ended 3.044 lFH16:s were in service.

On this page you will find the most detailed walkaround on this gun to be found anywhere! The plan seen below is from a contemporary German manual, and gives you a good overview of this gun. (The black-and-white walkaround photos was sent to me by Jon Hornbostel, Junction City, Kansas, USA, who took these photos of a gun that belongs to a private individual in the same town. Jon also supplied the contemporary plan, which he found at the US Army Military Historical Institute at Carlisle Pennsylvania, USA. The colour photos were taken by Ivan Stefanovic, in Belgrade (Weissenbourg for Austrians) at military museum in Kalemegdan fortress, just above the Danube river, where heavy fighting for the city between Austrian and Serbian forces took place in 1914 and 1915.

For an excellent plan of the lFH16 by Arie Dijkhuis, click here!

And if you want to follow an restoration of a genuine trophy lFH16 down under in Australia, click here! (See under "Articles")
This is the gun in question, courtesy of the man in charge, Robin Maslen:

 

 

 

The Kalemagdan 10.5cm lFH 16

The Junction City 10.5cm lFH 16