British Mountain Gun - Plugstreet Wood 1915

[Snapper41]

Hi all

 

I have just read an account in a Bn War Diary of a German sandbag obs tower being destroyed by a British 'mountain gun' in Plugstreet Wood in May 1915.

 

Any idea what this weapon might have been? Who would have operated it? Was it a standard weapon in the inventory at that time?

TIA

Snapper

[MaxD]

There are war diaries for 3 Mountain Batteries of the RGA in France whose guns were so named.  5 and 7 in 8th Division, 2 with III Corps then 4 Div.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-royal-artillery-in-the-first-world-war/the-mountain-batteries-of-the-royal-garrison-artillery/

 

Max

 

 

[Snapper41]

Thanks Max

[bierast]

In the same period, IR 104 (my Great-Great-Uncle's regiment) of the Saxon 40.ID / XIX.AK held the Ploegsteert Wood sector. Their regimental history indicates that Grabenkanonen (trench artillery pieces) were similarly used for close support on their side. Given the corps policy of minimising needless aggression on their front, it's quite likely that the intention was to have a means of retaliating to the mountain guns when required - in order to encourage the British to desist!

 

Our latest book Von Armentières Nach Langemarck (which will appear in an English language edition in 2020) includes a very rare photograph of one of these weapons with its Prussian Fußartillerie crew in the divisional rear area at Quesnoy-sur-Deûle. This reveals that they were 3.7cm weapons of the type shown below (a conversion made from one barrel of an old revolver cannon).

 

[MaxD]

While this Wiki article ignores the use of mountain guns on the Western Front, the war diary of 5 Mountain Battery records them being issued with "the new 2.75 inch gun" after arrival in UK in October 1914.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BL_2.75-inch_mountain_gun

Rudyard Kipling visited what must have been 5 Mountain Battery at Lyndhurst in 1914 and wrote:

 

http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_newarmy_chapter5.htm#screwguns

 

Gunners reading are invited to join in a rendition of the Screw Gun, words here, tune (as you know) - Eton Boating Song:

 

http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_screwguns.htm

 

Max