The growth of the Bulgarian Artillery : 1886 - 1891
In 1885, at the beginning
of the war against The 9 pdr guns, however,
were regarded as unfit for field service. They were too heavy, weighting
twice as the 75mm and one time and a half as the 87mm field gun, whereas the
topographical conditions of the Bulgarian borders required that artillery was
light and mobile. In addition the muzzle velocity of their shells was too
small, and consequently the slope and accuracy of their fire were inadequate.
If their range was sufficient and their blasting charge was great – twice as
the 87mm and even three times as the 75mm gun – their effectiveness was
inferior, since the shell exploding produced fewer fragments that scattered
in a more little area. Being weighty, slow and unable to operate in the
probable theatres of operations of the Bulgarian Army, the 9 pdr guns could
be effectively employed only as fortress and siege guns, where their powerful
fire could be still useful. Actually they were removed from the line units,
but were used as position guns even during World War I. The replacement of the
outdated Russian artillery with modern guns became a priority for the
Bulgarian Army. Already at the end of August After the war the
Bulgarian Army ordered another 6 field and 3 mountain batteries, with 80
Krupp guns in all (6 – 87mm and 50 – 75mm field and 24 – 75mm mountain guns),
which were delivered in 1886-87. They were used to re-equip the 9 pdr
batteries of 2nd artillery regiment and to raise the remaining 3
batteries of 3rd artillery regiment. Consequently the Russian
guns, both 9 pdr and 4 pdr, were assigned to the fortress artillery. After
the delivery of the last guns, the Bulgarian artillery was composed by 3
regiments, each with 6 eight-guns batteries. In peace however only 4 guns
were horsed. In every regiment 1st, 2nd and 3rd
battery were armed with 75mm guns, while 4th, 5th and 6th
battery with 87mm guns. The decision to adopt
German guns can be easily explained. After the Franco-Prussian war, the
Imperial German Army was regarded as the most powerful army in Among the powers that
adopted Krupp field guns there was also All the long range guns
were manufactured by Krupp and were very similar; nevertheless there were
some minor differences among them. The old guns, dating back to the Russo-Turkish
war, were “built-up
guns” (Ringkanone) made of several
layers of forged steel. They were composed by the liner, the tube, the
jacket and the hoops. The liner was a single piece which extended the length
of the bore and was intended to contain the rifling and the powder chamber.
It was enclosed by the tube, which was too in one piece, surrounding the
liner throughout its length. On the outside of it there was the jacket, made
in two pieces and shrunk on the tube. Over the jacket lied six hoops, which,
like the jacket, were shrunk on. The trunnions were carried on one of the
hoops. The
new guns, bought from 1885 onwards, were known as Mantelkanone. The tube without reinforce, was encircled by a
single band or mantle (Mantel, in
German) shrunk on and carrying trunnions and fermature. The object of this
was to substitute for the thick walls of the old models, thinner metal,
susceptible of compression by the mantle, thus increasing its strength, and
obtaining greater resistance with less weight. The shot chamber of the 75mm gun was
rifled and conic, while the chamber of the 87mm gun was smooth and
cylindrical. Both
the models were provided
with a round backed wedge, which was pushed in from the side of the breech,
and forced firmly home by a screw provided with handles. The face of the
wedge was fitted with an easily removable flat plate, which abutted against a
Broadwell ring, let into a recess in the end of the bore. A friction primer
placed in a vent on the top of the ring ignited the propellant charge. On
firing, the gas pressed the ring firmly against the flat plate, and rendered
escape impossible as long as the surfaces remained uninjured. When they
became worn, the ring and the plate could be exchanged in a few minutes. There
were other minor differences between the two models of gun, introduced
according with the lesson learned of the Russo-Turkish War, and present also
in the Krupp guns adopted by the Russian Army. The breech-block and the sight
were improved; the elevating gear had a wheel divided into 16 graduations,
connected with the sighting gear in order to allow changing the sigh simply
working on the hand-wheel. The back of the carriage was reinforced and its
link with the limber changed. The gun was hooked through a trail eye fixed by
two screws and it could be easily removed and replaced when it was damaged.
Previously when the trail eye wore and its diameter increased owing to the
continuous friction, it could be replaced only in the Arsenal. The
first modern mountain guns were purchased in 1886. Initially they were
provided with a carriage similar to those of the 75mm Krupp mountain guns M.
1877 adopted by the Swiss Army. The weight of barrel and shell was almost the
same, but the muzzle velocity of the Bulgarian gun was greater (294 m/s against
256 m/s), so
it was unable to withstand the force of the recoil to such a degree that
sometime it overturned. Therefore in 1892 these carriages were removed, sent
back to In order to arrest the
recoil both the old and the new carriages used a rope brake. On the recoil,
the rope was tied between the brake beam and the hub and the brake beam were
thus pressed against the wheels. When the gun moved forward, the rope running
from the hub was relaxed and arrest stopped. In such a way the recoil, that
in a flat and solid ground was more than 10 paces, could be reduced to only
2-3. But the recoil strength had another negative effect. After the shot, the
elevating screw fell down owing to the recoil, and the aimer wasted much time
to lift up it again at the same position where the shot had been fired. As a consequence of all
these disadvantages the rapidity of fire of these guns was not very great.
They were however employed during the Balkan Wars and even in the early stage
of the First World War, when 24 of them were still on duty. With these guns
the artillery regiments raised one pack artillery section, and at the end of
1888 they were expanded into half batteries. During troubled years of
the regency the development of the Bulgarian Army suffered a temporary
setback, and in 1888, after the arrival of Prince Ferdinand of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the Bulgarian artillery was in a great disadvantage
compared to its neighbours, since Serbia had recently ordered 270 field 80mm
guns system De Bange, while Romania had 300 Krupp field guns and Turkey, not
including the artillery placed in Arabia, Libya, and in the islands, had 1068
Krupp field guns, 642 of them deployed in Europe. To fill the gap and reach
the right ratio between guns and bayonets, which at that time was fixed in
about 3 guns every 1,000 bayonets, the Bulgarian Army should double the
number of its guns. Therefore in 1889 three new artillery regiments were
raised. The problem was how to arm them. In fact at that time the modern guns
available were enough only to equip the 4 horsed guns assigned to the
batteries in peacetime. The best thing seemed to
adopt only the 87mm gun. In fact But to arm six artillery
regiments entirely with 87mm guns, Bulgaria had to bought roughly 250 guns,
with all their attachments : ammunition wagons, tool carts, field forges,
spare carriages, ammunition, and so on. Such an amount of military hardware
could not be purchase in a single settlement with the restricted budget of
the Bulgarian War Minister. The only effective solution was to advance by
degrees. In 1888 major Konstatin Nikiforov, who had been War Minister in
1885-86, proposed to reduce the number of the guns in the battery from 8 to 6
and to assign 2 batteries armed with 75mm guns to every artillery regiment,
while the remaining 4 batteries should be equipped with the more powerful
87mm guns. In this way with only 72 guns, the Bulgarian Army would have six
artillery regiments with 36 guns each. Major Nikiforov thought that such
units would be more powerful not only than the Serbian ones, armed only with
80mm guns, but also than the Turkish and Romanian ones, having a higher
proportion of 87mm guns (66% against 50%). The proposal of major
Nikiforov nevertheless was not entirely accepted : the contract signed in
1891 with the German firm Krupp provided for the delivery of 72 – 87mm guns,
but the batteries remained with 8 guns, and the new guns were uniformly
shared among the existing units |
Krupp 75mm mountain gun M. 1886 Schneider 75mm mountain gun M.
1897 |