Profikit's 1/72 75mm Cannon mle 1897

The French "75" - or to be more precise: Canon de 75, modèle 1897 - was a new and revolutionary piece of weaponery. The truly great invention, and a tribute to French engineering skills, was of course the hydro-pneumatic recoil system, that allowed the whole recoil to be absorbed by the carriage. 

This meant that the gun - if properly placed - could be fired without moving at all, which meant that the gun layer didn't have to relay the gun after each shot, perhaps only checking it, and that it could be reloaded a whole lot faster, as the loader only had to wait for the gun tube to recoil back, before putting another round into the breech. The result was a rate of fire never seen before: a maximum of 20 shots per minute was possible - one shell every 3 seconds!

At the outbreak of the war in 1914, the "75" was the main gun of the French Field Artillery. Every Division had one Artillery Regiment attached, consisting of three groupes, each with three batteries equipped with four guns, or 12 guns per groupe, or 36 guns per Artillery Regiment. The Army had a total of 1.011 of these 4-gun-batteries in service in August 1914. 

You could very well say that the "75" was the main gun of the French Army in 1914, period. The French had an enormous faith in this fenomenal gun, with it's tremendous rate of fire, ease of maneuver (it was light) and accuracy. The gun was also very sturdy.

It had some problems but remained a formidable gun, that, if the conditions were right, could make a very telling effect indeed. And it is a testimony to the excellence of this gun, that it was also adapted by the US Army, and later also by the armies in Poland, Greece, Portugal, Romania, Portugal, Estonia and Lithuania. It was also used by a number of countries in WW2.

For more info on this gun, click here!

Contents of the kit:

The kit comes packed in a very functional small plastic box, with illustrated cover. The kit itself consists of some 20 parts, all moulded in light-grey, hard resin. The moulding is so-so. There is a lot of flash to be cleaned off the wheels, and here and there I found small air bubbles. Another problem is that the parts all comes with pretty hefty pouring stubs / pour blocks, that will require quite an effort. 

The accuracy of the kit is excellent. You get everything that could be found on the real gun, icluding the dial sight and the Earth Anchor, the contraption that was fitted under the wheels when it was deployed for fire. Nice! The kit comes with a good set of plans.

You can get this kit from, among others, Tracks & Troops. 

This is a very good "75", in accuracy only surpassed by the Al.By offering. The enthusiasm one can feel over the accuracy of the kit is however marred by the moulding problems: the flash, the air bubbles and the big pouring stubs. But I hopefully this was just me getting a unlucky kit. This kit is highly recommended!