The growth of the Bulgarian Artillery :
1891 - 1904
In
1891 the Sixth Ordinary National
Assembly passed the Law for the
organization of the Armed Forces of the Principality of - 6
artillery regiments with 6 four-guns field batteries in peace, and 6
eight-guns batteries in wartime (six guns for the mortars batteries); - 6
mountains half batteries in peace, that should be expanded to 6 six-guns
batteries at the mobilization; - 3
fortress artillery battalions with 3 companies each in peace, and - 6
reserve artillery batteries with 4 sections each, that should be expanded to
4-6 six-guns batteries at the mobilization; - 6
four-guns reserve mountain batteries, that should be raised at the
mobilization; - 6
four-sections field replacement batteries, that should be raised at the mobilization; - 2
mobile artillery workshops and 2 mobile artillery depots. This
plan was ambitious, but the trained men available at that time were not
enough to raise so many units. Supposing 200 men on average for every
battery, the Active Army would require 12,000 men and the Reserve Army
another 5,700 men. In fact on 1 October 1894 the men serving in the Active
Army (1884-1893 levies) were only 8,300, in the Reserve 5,730, 14,030 men in
all. As
for the materials in wartime the Bulgarian artillery would have all together
78/90 batteries with 504/576 guns (408/480 field, 60 mountain, and 36
mortars), not counting the fortress artillery. All the field batteries of the
active army should be armed with 87mm guns, while the 75mm guns should be
assigned to the reserve batteries (2nd, 3rd, 5th),
along with the old 9 pdr Russian guns (1st and 6th) and
the short range 9cm Krupp guns (4th). Later all the reserve
batteries would be re-equipped with modern guns. They brought the number of
the Infantry Division at whom they were attached, and not that of the
relative artillery regiments. In order to have also some artillery pieces
that could fire at high
elevations with the curved trajectory, one battery in every
regiment should be armed with 120mm field mortars. Some
changes were introduced by the law passed by the Tenth Ordinary National
Assembly in 1897, when the War
Minister was colonel Nikola Ivanov. The reserve artillery regiments were
disbanded, and gave their gun to the active regiments, that were then
composed by 3 active and 1 reserve divisions, each with 3 six-guns batteries.
Only the active batteries, however, were horsed in peace. Finally, after a
debate lasted many years, the batteries were reduced to 6 guns, and new units
were raised with the surplus guns. The
mortars, now designed howitzer, were attached to the fortress artillery. A 5th
company was added to each fortress artillery battalion. The mountain
batteries were detached from the artillery regiments and formed 3 independent
divisions, with 3 six-guns batteries each, garrisoned respectively at
Berkovitza, Vratza and Samokov. Later with an Order
of 3 June 1899 they were administratively grouped into a mountain artillery brigade with headquarters at
Sofia, the divisions keeping their previous garrison. In
order to arm the new units, the Bulgarian War Ministry should purchase a
great number of artillery piece. In 1891 an order was planned for 192 – 87mm
field guns (24 batteries), 30 – 75mm mountain guns (5 batteries), and 36 –
120mm mortars (6 batteries). But it was not made in a single settlement,
since the military Budget did not allow a so considerable expenditure,
especially because at the same time it was necessary to modernize also the
heavy artillery, required to attack the fortress of Odrin, in the event of a
war against In
In
1892 another 64 field guns, 12 – 120mm mortars, and 12 – 120mm siege guns
were ordered in The
last big order before the introduction of the quick-firing artillery came in
February 1897, when 90 – 87mm guns with 23,000 shrapnel were ordered to Krupp
at a cost of 2 135 000 leva, while an order for 18 mountain guns and 48 heavy
artillery pieces had been signed with the French firm Schneider-Canet only a
few days before. This was the first time that the Bulgarian artillery
purchased French guns, and it happened after a long debate, and under the
conflicting pressure of the French and German governments. In
fact the Bulgarian War Ministry was not satisfied with the Krupp mountain
artillery adopted in 1886 regarded the Schneider guns superior to the Krupp
ones. In addition the French diplomacy threatened to refuse the loan of 30 million franks, vitally
important for the Bulgarian economy. Above all the Bulgarian Army was trying
to free itself from the dependence on the factories of a single country,
thinking that it could be very dangerous if it adopted a hostile politics
towards The
solution was a sort of compromise. The main order was directed to Krupp, to
keep the uniformity of the field artillery batteries. In fact Schneider
equipped its guns with a different breech mechanism, and at that time had not
an 87mm gun, therefore adopting French weapons the Bulgarian Army should
change entirely the features of its artillery matériel. The heavy artillery, regarded
as more moveable than the Krupp ones, and the mountain guns were purchased in
The
field guns were the standard Krupp 87mm Mantelkanone adopted
already in 1885, with only little changes and updates. The Schneider mountain
gun was similar to the Krupp ones, bought after the war against The
120mm field howitzers, at first designed mortars as in the Russian Army, had
been intensely tested in the Krupp proving ground at Meppen in 1886-1888 with
positive results, popularized by the official report of the firm Krupp Nr. 80
published in 1890. Besides These howitzers however were regarded as poorly
mobile, both for the excessive weight and the peculiar features of the piece
in marching order. This fault clearly appeared during the march that the
mortars of the 3rd artillery regiment without ammunition wagons made from |
In
1903 the Thirteenth Ordinary
National Assembly passed a new Law for
the organization of the Armed Forces of the Principality of Unfortunately
a great number of the units planned in 1903 remained only on paper. In Especially
the artillery could develop very slowly, both for the restrictions on the
budget of the War Ministry, and the need of replacing the existing artillery
pieces with new quick-firing guns. Therefore in 1904 only 3 artillery
regiment were raised, and, instead of 9 brigades with 18 regiments, the
Bulgarian artillery could deploy only 9 regiments, of whom 6 with 9 (6
horsed), and 3 with only 6 batteries, while the mountain artillery had half
of the planned artillery divisions (3 instead of 6). Still at the beginning
of the War against |
Cost of artillery matériel in 1891 |
|||
|
87mm field gun |
75mm mountain gun |
120mm field howitzer |
battery fully equipped |
194 615 leva |
|
|
barrel |
4200 leva |
1855 leva |
6210 leva |
carriage with limber |
9385 leva |
7625 leva |
13 585 leva |
ammunition wagon |
7565 leva |
|
|
store wagon |
3975 leva |
|
|
store wagon N. 1 with tools |
7005 leva |
|
|
store wagon N. 2 with tools |
5525 leva |
|
|
common shell |
10 leva |
|
|
shrapnel |
30 leva |
|
|
Remarks : for an
ammunition wagon manufactured in |
Krupp 75mm mountain gun M. 1886 Schneider 75mm mountain gun M.
1897 |