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The 10.5cm Field Howitzer 98/09 was one of the most numerous and important guns in the arsenal of the German artillery during WW1, but is strangely unknown, at least if compared to it's brother, the 7.7cm FK 96 n.A. Field Gun. Like the 7.7cm Field Gun, the 10.5cm Field Howitzer 98/09 started out as an old type of gun with rigid carriage. In 1902 work started on modernizing the howitzer in the same manner, mating the old tube to a modern type of recoil mechanism and carriage. This work was completed in 1904, but it was not recommended to be accepted until 1909, hence the designation. The design was pretty standard. The barrel was short - partly to keep the weight down. The recoil mechanism was based on a combination of springs and fluid. The breech was of the single motion wedge block type. The lavette alone weighed some 825 kilos, and was equipped with a earth spade that could be set in different angles, depending on the ground. In action, the gun functioned very well, delivering grenades at a high rate with much more destructive power than the Field Gun was ever capable. And when the trench warfare started, it became pretty well indispensable (and much more useful than the Field Gun) as it was a howitzer and as such capable of delivering devastating plunging fire over obstacles or right into trenches. (At the same time, many of Germanys opponents lacked a similar weapon at the start of the war.) And in contrast with the Field Gun, the grenades were very effective. The importance of the gun was showed when the German artillery was reorganized in 1916, and the number of Field Howitzer batteries being increased to 1/3 of the total. For more info on this gun, click here! My model is made from HÄT's soft plastic kit, that comes with their Ottoman Artillery Set. The model is simple, but accurate in basic shape, and just needs a lot of additional detailing. To see what has been done in more detail, click here!
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