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
1891 three contract was signed: - in
February for 24 – 87mm field guns with 24 ammunition wagons, - in
March for 48 – 87mm field guns with 84 ammunition wagons and 18 – 120mm
mortars, - in
April for 6 – 75mm mountain guns and 18 carriage of new model for mountain
guns already in service. The
first 24 guns arrived at the end of 1891 and were assigned to the 3rd
and 4th batteries of 1st, 2nd and 6th
artillery regiments that gave their 75mm guns to the reserve batteries. The
48 guns of the second order arrived at the beginning of 1892, and were employed
to raise the 5th batteries of the six artillery regiments. The mortars too arrived
at the beginning of 1892 and were assigned to the 1st batteries of
2nd, 3rd and 4th artillery regiment. The carriages
at the end of 1891, but when the new carriages were mounted on the guns, it
was found that, although longer and heavier, they had more or less the same
instability as the old carriages. Furthermore, their transport was hampered by
their greater weight and length, so they were not functional. Therefore in
mid-1892, it was proposed to return the carriages ordered in 1891 to the
Krupp factory and to replace them with new ones, ordering two 75mm mountain
batteries instead of one. After various negotiations, in July 1892 an
agreement was reached with the factory : the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th artillery regiments
returned their carriages and received new ones, while the 4th and 5th artillery
regiments received one new six gun mountain battery.
In
April 1892 another 64 field guns and 12 – 120mm mortars were ordered in
Germany. They arrived respectively in May 1893 and in 1894 and were employed
to rearm the 2nd batteries of the artillery regiments (the guns),
and the 1st battery of the 1st and 6th artillery
regiments (the mortars). The last mortar battery, that should have been
assigned to the 5th artillery regiment was never bought, and was
replaced by another field battery. A field battery was also assigned to the proving
ground. It seems that at least one field battery was armed with 75mm guns
that should be assigned to the 1st battery of the 4th
artillery regiment at Sofia, to be attached in wartime to the Cavalry
Division as horse artillery. In The
last big order before the introduction of the quick-firing artillery came on 7
March 1897, when 90 – 87mm with spare carriages, 90 gun-limbers, 45 ammunition
wagons, 23000 shrapnel with 23000 time & percussion fuzes and 100000 percussion
fuzes to Krupp at a cost of 2 135 000 leva. The ammunition was to be
manufactured by the Essen factory and the guns, the carriages, the carriages
and the ammunition wagons by Magdeburg. Maj. Nyagul Tzvetkov and Lt. Stefan
Slavchev were detached from the 5th artillery regiment at the
Sofia Arsenal to examine the manufacturing specifications of guns and were
appointed controller officers for the production and delivery of all artillery
material. However, the delivery of it was delayed by the decision to also
purchase a new model of Krupp bar sight, which were ordered in April 1898. In
May the controller officers drew up a schedule according to which the guns
and were to be delivered at the rate of 18 a month starting in April, but further
problems arose when the guns with the new sights were tested, resulting in
further delays. The guns arrived their between June and September 1898 and
were assigned to the first five artillery regiments to raise their 3rd
artillery division. Every regiment received 18 guns with their carriages and limbers,
9 ammunition wagons, 4600 shrapnel, 4600 time & percussion fuzes e 20000 percussion
fuzes. An
order order for 18 mountain guns and 48 heavy artillery pieces had been
signed with the French firm Schneider-Canet on 8 February 1897, only a few
days before the after signing the contract with Krupp. 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 and regarded the Schneider guns superior to the
Krupp ones. In addition, the French diplomacy threatened to refuse the loan of 30 million francs, 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 |