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The
Brazilian Army had a long history of buying ordnance from Krupp. To rearm its
field artillery with quick-firing guns, in 1905 it adopted a light 75mm L/28
gun produced by Krupp. Altogether Brazil purchased 232 field guns,
followed in 1907 by 24 – 75mm L/14 Krupp mountain guns and in 1908 by 30 – 105 mm field howitzers,
all from Krupp. All the attempts made by Schneider obtain order of war
material in Brazil were frustrated, The field guns were of moderate powder
and in 1913 the Brazilian Government decided to order 108 Krupp guns of a
heavier model, similar to the guns adopted by Argentina in 1909. At the
beginning of the World War these guns were still in Germany, stored
in Krupp’s factories. The German Army seized them, assigning 50 guns to the
improvised divisions of the Eastern Front, while 40 were shipped to the
Turkish Army and the remaining 18 were delivered to the Reichs-Marine-Amt.
According
to a graphic organizational table attached to the Kriegsministerium letter MJ
Nr. 14910/15A1 of 2 August 1915, two field artillery batteries of “Division
von Menges” (which later became the 88th Infantry Division) were
armed with “brasilian. Gesch.”. Each of these batteries had four of these
guns, for a total of eight. The graphical symbol used suggests that these
were quick-firing weapons, probably the standard ‘export’ gun with a calibre
of 75mm. The two batteries belonged to “Feld-Battr. Abt. VI”, which later
became the I./Feldartillerie Regiment 88 when the division changed its name
in the summer of 1915.
According
with История
на служба “Артилерийско
въоръжение” в
Българската
армия 1878-1990
година, p. 98, among the ammunition delivered by Germany to Bulgaria in 1915-16 there were
also 8864 shell for “75mm Brazilian guns”. It is reasonable to assume that
I./Feldartillerie Regiment 88 exchanged its “Brazilian” guns for standard
German guns as soon as the latter became available, as probably soon or later
did the remaining artillery unit equipped with these guns. Then the “Brazilian”
guns were available to be assigned to the German allies and at least some of
them were shipped to Bulgaria.
In
fact in 10 February 1916 a
contract was signed for the delivery of 18 – 75mm Krupp field guns
“бразилски
тип” fully equipped, to form an artillery division with 3
batteries. The guns were delivered quickly if already on 12 May 1916 an
artillery division of 12th artillery regiment attached to 11th
Makedonska Division had its 3 batteries armed with “Brazilian guns”
(Бразилски
оръдия).
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