Austro-Hungarian 12cm Kanone M.80
15cm Kanone M.80
18cm kurze Kanone M.80

Although big modernizations were underway, the Austro-Hungarian Army, like all European Armies, went to war with a not small part of its artillery being old, obsolete types. Three of these types were almost identical, save for the calibre of the gun tube, and that's the M.80 12cm and 15 cm cannons, and the 18cm short cannon, in reality a howitzer. The lavettes were all the same.These guns were mainly deployed either in a static role, as Fortress Artillery, or in the semi-static role as so called Siege Artillery, which really was an old mis-nomer, harking back to the 19th century days of sieges proper. The 12cm guns were, however, not only used in these more static roles, but many were designated as Mobile Festungsartillerie, mobile fortress artillery.

All three types were, as can easily be seen, rigid mount guns, without any modern recoil mechanism. But, as a substitute, an long cylindrical hydralic mechanism was often put under under the gun, and attached to the properly prepared platform that the guns used as standard procedure when deploying. When the gun was fired it rolled back, up on a coupe of wedges, and at the same time a piston attached to the lavette was pulled out of the cylinder attached to the platform, braking the recoil, and eventually moving the gun back towards its initial postion. The main differences between these guns was, as mentioned, the gun tubes, giving them their respective prestanda. These are summarized in the table below:

	12cm M.80	15cm M.80	18cm M.80
Length of the tube, in calibres	26.6	24.2	12.3
Length of the tube, in meters	3.2m	3.6m	2.22m
Weight of the tube and breech	1700kg	3200kg	2030kg
Weight of the shell	16.7-19.8kg	31.5kg	62.5kg
Maximum range	8.000m	11.200m	6.600m

It seems like that the 15cm and 18cm M.80's were employed almost exclusively only in the static role, especially in fortresses like Krakow and, of course, Przemysl. The 12cm gun, however, with it's comparatively long range and low weight, was as mentioned used as mobile artillery. When the war opened 20 batteries 4 gun 12 cm M.80 batteries were in service. Initially it was the main long range gun of the Austro-Hungarian Army during the first two years of the war, and therefore surely defends its place in the artillery annals of WW1. The need for more artillery support in the mid-calibre range, however, forced the Austro-Hungarian soon to withdraw a number fortress batteries of 12cm and 15cm calibre M.80's and use them in the field.

Shown below is the M.80 lavette, that was for all intents and purposes identical, regardless of calibre: 12, 15 or 18cm. This lavette can be seen in the Army Museum in Budapest.

Shown below is the most common and most important, the 12cm gun, in action:

 

Shown below is the 15cm gun in action (a rare view, compared with the numerous pics that exists of the 12cm in action - a testament to the importance of the latter gun):

 

Shown below is the 18cm gun, the first during maneuvers during the late 19th century, in the middle in action during the war, heavily dug-in, and the last in the form of a contemporary plan, also showing the recoil device: