De Bange 80 mm cannon

De Bange 80 mm cannon
De Bange 80mm Mle 1877
"Canon de campagne de 80 modèle 1877"
De Bange 80mm Mle 1877.jpg
De Bange 80mm Mle 1877, at the Musée de l'Armée, Paris.
Type Breechloading cannon
Place of origin  France
Service history
In service 1877-
Production history
Designer Charles Ragon de Bange
Designed 1877
Manufacturer Puteaux
Produced 1879
Specifications
Weight 423 kg
Length 2.28 m

Shell 4.9 kg explosive shell
Caliber 80 mm
Barrels 1, steel
Rate of fire N/A
Sights unknown

The De Bange 80mm cannon (Mle 1877) was a type of field artillery piece developed in France by Colonel Charles Ragon de Bange in 1877,[1] and adopted by the French Army that same year. It superseded the earlier Reffye cannon (1870) and the Lahitolle 95mm cannon (1875). De Bange also manufactured another cannon of a rather similar size: the De Bange 90mm cannon.

De Bange 80mm Mle 1877 breech portion.

The cannon was breech loading and used the original mushroom-shaped obturator system developed by de Bange, allowing to properly seal the breech during each firing.[2] The cannon still had an important recoil, meaning that it moved backward at each firing, necessitating re-aiming every time, which considerably slowed the rate of firing. This would remain a problem with all artillery pieces until the development of the recoilless Canon de 75 in 1897.

See also

Media related to De Bange 80mm cannon at Wikimedia Commons

Notes

  1. ^ The Americana by Frederick Converse Beach, George Edwin Rines [1]
  2. ^ Field Artillery and Firepower by Jonathan B. A. Bailey, p.208 [2]