In 1811, Friedrich Krupp founded his cast-steel factory Gusstahlfabrik, but it was his son, Alfred Krupp, who attained notable success.
The principal characteristic of Krupp guns was that they were made of steel at the time when everyone else still used bronze, cast iron and sometimes wrought iron. Alfred Krupp was introduced to the Bessemer process to mass-produce steel by his London agent and friend, Alfred Longsdon, in 1859–60.[5] After a lengthy period of trial and error, this steel was developed to such quality that the royal factory of Woolwich in England acquired steel from Krupp to manufacture guns that conformed to British naval standards.
Also, Krupp was one of the first manufacturers to design practical breechloading guns for army use. In 1856, Fried. Krupp A.G., produced a 9 cm (6-Pfünder-Feldkanone C/61) rifled breechloader of cast steel with a "piston" breech-lock designed by Martin von Wahrendorff, which gave such good results that Prussia adopted steel for making army guns, which made Prussia the first country to do so.
Initially during the 1850s, Krupp developed a breechloading system with a sliding wedge breech block, but, because of problems with escape of gas, it continued to manufacture Wahrendorff breeches until they were able to copy the Broadwell ring design, and that allowed the problem to be solved. The inventor, American engineer Lewis Wells Broadwell (who worked as a sales agent for the Gatling Gun Company in Europe[6]), was not able to enforce his patents in Prussia or get any money from Krupp[7] (which was not unusual for Germany at the time, then-notorious for foreign patent violation[8]). By this means, they developed the best breechloading guns of the time, assisted by Longsdon's patented designs.[9]
Breech closure was achieved by a steel wedge that slid transversely on a short groove at the rear part of the gun. The movement was imparted by a screw mechanism and the gas-check by the Broadwell ring system.
Krupp guns were purchased by the Russian, Austrian, and the Ottoman Empire armies during the 1860s. By the 1870s, they were being purchased by countries all over the world. Naval guns were also rapidly developed; from 1863, guns were being manufactured for several navies, which included those of Austria-Hungary, Empire of Japan, the Ottoman Empire and Prussia, among others.
Krupp 75mm L30 M1909 field gun in San Juan, Argentina
By the 1880s, Krupp had developed an 88mm naval gun and adopted 75mm as the caliber for the army's field and mountain guns. In 1897, when the French 75mm quick-firing gun appeared, Krupp produced the similar 77mm, which was used in World War I.
Since 1948, according to military sources,[which?] the Honduran Navy has maintained one Krupp cannon, which is the first of its kind made by the company and still in working order, at the Amapala Naval Base on the Pacific coast.
Caliber
At first, the caliber of the Krupp guns was determined by the weight of the projectile in pounds, but, in the 1860s, they began to designate caliber by the diameter of the bore in centimeters or millimeters.
The principal guns between the 1860s and the 1880s were:
A rifled breech loader (RBL) is an artillery piece which, unlike the smoothbore cannon and rifled muzzle loader which preceded it, has rifling in the barrel and is loaded from the breech at the rear of the gun.
The BL 12 inch naval gun Mk I was a British rifled breech-loading naval gun of the early 1880s intended for the largest warships such as battleships and also coastal defence. It was Britain's first attempt to match the large guns being installed in rival European navies, particularly France, after Britain transitioned from rifled muzzle-loading guns to the modern rifled breech-loaders somewhat later than the European powers.
The Krupp C64 steel, breech loaded field gun was one of the main artillery pieces of the Prussians in the 1870–1871 war with France. It was superior to the French counterparts in every way: accuracy, rate of fire, range and reliability of the fuse. The guns were, however, unpopular with artillery specialists of the day as the difficulty in cooling the steel barrel during the casting process could cause flaws which would lead to the barrel shattering when the weapon was fired.
The Erzherzog Ferdinand Max class consisted of a pair of ironclad warships—Erzherzog Ferdinand Max and Habsburg—built for the Austrian Navy in the 1860s. They were the last broadside armored frigates to be built for the Austrian Empire, and the last vessels completed to see action against the Italians at the Battle of Lissa in 1866. Intended to have been armed with new breech-loading Krupp guns, the outbreak of the Seven Weeks' War prevented the delivery of the guns, forcing the Austrian Navy to arm the ships with a battery of sixteen older 48-pounder muzzle-loading guns.
The 15 cm Schnelladekanone Länge 35, abbreviated as 15 cm SK L/35, was a German naval gun developed in the years before World War I. 'Schnelladekanone' means that is was an (early) type of Quick-firing gun. The 15 cm SK L/35 armed a variety of warships from different nations. The navies of Austria-Hungary, China, Denmark, Japan, The Netherlands, The Ottoman Empire, and Romania all used this gun.
The Gonzalez Hontoria de 14 cm mod 1883 was a Spanish naval gun developed in the late 1800s that armed a variety of warships of the Spanish Navy during the Spanish–American War.
The Gonzalez Hontoria de 16 cm mod 1883 was a Spanish naval gun developed in the late 1800s that armed a variety of warships of the Spanish Navy during the Spanish–American War.
The 8 cm Kanone C/73 was a field gun developed after the Franco-Prussian War and used by Germany before and during World War I.
The 8 cm Kanone C/80 was a field gun developed during the late 1800s by Krupp for the export market. It saw action in numerous regional conflicts as well as World War I.
The Heiligerlee-class monitors were a group of five ironclad monitors built for the Royal Netherlands Navy in the late 1860s.
The RML 9-inch Armstrong Gun was a rifled muzzle loading gun, used in substantial numbers by the Dutch navy, the Spanish Navy, and other navies. It should not be confused with the RML 9-inch 12-ton gun, used in the British Royal Navy.
The 7.5 cm Gebirgskanone L/13 C/80 was a mountain gun used by several countries during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Germany and the Ottoman Empire also used them during World War I.
The 21 cm RK L/22 was a 21 cm caliber Krupp gun that was purposefully designed to use a combination of prismatic gunpowder, a built-up gun barrel, and the Krupp cylindroprismatic sliding breech with broadwell ring.
The 21 cm RK L/19 was the later name of a rifled breech loader gun of the Prussian Navy. This gun started with a massive gun barrel, cast from steel in one piece. In 1868 a built-up gun barrel version was tested in Prussia and found to be much more powerful. Many of the massive guns were then changed to built-up guns. These changed guns became known as kurze Ring Kanone, and later as 21 cm Ring Kanone L/19.
The 24 cm K L/20 was a 24 cm caliber Krupp gun which was the first heavy Ring Kanone or built-up gun used by Germany. It was a rifled breech loader with a Krupp cylindroprismatic sliding breech and a Broadwell ring.
The 28 cm L/20 M67 was a Russian early breech loading rifled built-up gun designed by Krupp. It was built for the Russian navy and coastal artillery by both Krupp and Obukhov. The gun was the predecessor of the Krupp 28 cm RK L/22 and the Obukhov 28 cm L/22 M77.
The 30.5 cm Mantel Ring Kanone L/35 was a 30.5 cm 35 caliber long Krupp gun. It was a further development of the earlier 30.5 cm MRK L/22. There were multiple models: The early model was basically a lengthened 30.5 cm MRK L/22. The later model had a heavier barrel and used a heavier charge for a higher muzzle velocity.
The 35.5 cm Mantel Ring Kanone L/22.5 was a 35.5 cm 22.5 caliber long Krupp Mantel Ring Kanone (MRK). It was a rifled breech loader built-up gun with a Krupp cylindroprismatic sliding breech. It was exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition and then bought by Russia. Meanwhile, another gun was sent to Turkey, which made it part of the Fortifications of the Dardanelles.
The 15 cm Ring Kanone L/26 or Lange 15 cm Ring Kanone was a 15 cm 26 caliber long Krupp Ring Kanone (RK). It was a rifled breech loader built-up gun with a Krupp cylindroprismatic sliding breech. It was designed based on the idea that for penetrating armor, it might be more effective to increase the charge then to increase the caliber. Near the end of its development, the navy and the army chose different inner configurations for their new guns, which actually led to two different guns.
The EOC 12-inch L/27.5 43-ton gun was a British and Spanish rifled breech-loading naval gun of the early 1880s. The gun probably originated from the troubles that the Woolwich Arsenal faced when it attempted to create the heavy 12-inch Mk I – II breech loader. The EOC 12-inch L/27.5 was of about the same outer dimensions as the 12-inch Mk I – II and at first appeared less powerful than the Woolwich gun. However, in the end, the designers of the Elswick Ordnance Company (EOC) proved to have made the best design. EOC sold at least one gun to Spain.
References
Citations
↑ Cardozo S., Rodrigo; Angulo A., Renato (1 August 2020). Revolución Liberal (1904) (in Spanish). Editorial Goya. p.105. ISBN978-99925-962-1-0.
↑ "ARMAMENTO USADO". www.revolucionentorreon.galeon.com. Archived from the original on 17 December 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
↑ Dimitracopoulos, Anastasios (1992). The First Balkan War Through the Pages of Review L'Illustration. Athens: Hellenic Committee of Military History. p.44. ASINB004UBUA4Q.
Galté Lockett, Gilles (2006). «Las piezas de artillería de campaña y montaña usadas en la Guerra del Pacífico». Revista de Historia Militar. Santiago de Chile (5). p 52–56.
Grieve Madge, Jorge (1983). Historia de la Artillería y de la Marina de Guerra en la contienda del 79. Industrialgráfica S.A. Lima
Colectivo de autores (1510-1868). Centro de Información para la Defensa (MINFAR). ed. Historia Militar de Cuba
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