| 15 cm Ring Kanone L/30 | |
|---|---|
 A 15 cm Ring Kanone L/30 captured by the British atCambrai. | |
| Type | Naval gun Coastal artillery Siege gun |
| Place of origin |  German Empire |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1883-1918 |
| Used by | German Empire |
| Wars | World War I |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Krupp |
| Designed | 1883 |
| Manufacturer | Krupp |
| Produced | 1883 |
| No. built | 150 |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 10 t (9.8 long tons; 11 short tons) |
| Barrel length | 4.47 m (14 ft 8 in) L/30[1] |
| Shell | Separate-loading,bagged charges and projectiles |
| Shell weight | 40 kg (88 lb) |
| Caliber | 149.1 mm (5.87 in) |
| Breech | Horizontalsliding-block |
| Recoil | None |
| Carriage | Box trail |
| Elevation | +35°[1] |
| Traverse | 10° |
| Muzzle velocity | 609 m/s (2,000 ft/s) |
| Maximum firing range | 12.1 km (7.5 mi)[1] |
The15 cm Ring Kanone L/30 was anaval gun andcoastal artillery piece that was used by theGerman Navy before theFirst World War. It was converted to asiege gun for theGerman Army during the First World War, when the ships that carried it were decommissioned.
The majority of military planners before the First World War were wedded to the concept of fighting an offensive war of rapid maneuver which in a time before mechanization meant a focus oncavalry and lighthorse artillery firingshrapnel shells. Although the majority of combatants had heavy field artillery prior to the outbreak of the First World War, none had adequate numbers of heavy guns in service, nor had they foreseen the growing importance of heavy artillery once theWestern Front stagnated andtrench warfare set in. The theorists hadn't foreseen that trenches, barbed wire, and machine guns had robbed them of the mobility they had been counting on and like in theFranco-Prussian War andRusso-Turkish War.[2]
Once the front stagnated, the need for high-angle heavy artillery reasserted itself. Since aircraft of the period were not yet capable of carrying large diameter bombs, the burden of delivering heavy firepower fell on the artillery. The combatants scrambled to find anything that could fire a heavy shell and that meant emptying the fortresses and scouring the depots for guns held in reserve. It also meant converting coastal artillery and surplus naval guns to siege guns by either giving them simple field carriages or mounting the larger pieces on rail carriages.[2]
The 15 cm Ring Kanone L/30 was a typicalbuilt-up gun constructed of steel with a central rifled tube, reinforcing layers ofhoops, andtrunnions. The type of breech was known as a cylindro-prismatic breech which was a predecessor ofKrupp's horizontalsliding-block. The gun used separate-loading,bagged charges and projectiles. As a navy gun, the L/30's recoil was handled by a brake system.[1]
The 15 cm Ring Kanone L/30 was fairly conventional for its time. Most combatants during the First World War had similar conversions of naval guns, such as the BritishBL 6-inch Mk VII or the FrenchCanon de 155 L modele 1916. The barrels were mounted on simple two-wheeled steelbox trail carriages which did not have arecoil mechanism or agun shield. The carriages were tall and there was an opening behind the breech to allow high angles of elevation. To facilitate towing on soft ground, the wheels were often fitted withBonagentegrousers patented by the Italian major Crispino Bonagente. These consisted of rectangular plates connected with elastic links and are visible in many photographs of World War I artillery from all of the combatants. A set of wooden ramps were placed behind the wheels and when the gun fired the wheels rolled up the ramp and the gun was returned to position by gravity. A drawback of this system was the gun had to be re-aimed each time which lowered the rate of fire.[1]
Also see15 cm MRK L/30
