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75 mm mod. 1911 by Massimo Foti, on Flickr

65 mm mod. 1913 by Massimo Foti, on Flickr

Months ago I promised I was going to talk about 75 mm in WW II Italian Army. A bit later, here I am

At the end of WW I the 75/27 you can see above was the standard field piece, the 65 mm was the equivalent for mountain artillery.
The Italian Army captured a lot of excellent Skoda 75/13 mountain howitzers and used them to replace the 65 mm for mountain units (the 65 mm were put in storage):


7.5 cm Gebirgshaubitze M 15 by Massimo Foti, on Flickr

The Skoda 75/13 was never fully replaced by the newer 75/18 and served on every front during WW II, most notably in Russia with the Alpini Corp and in the Balkans, for anti-partisans warfare.

Later on, they realized the 65 mm could still be handy and re-issued it as infantry piece (kind of an equivalent of 7.5 cm le.IG 18). As such the 65 mm had a second life in WW II.

In the thirties, as I said, the Army realized too much material was already obsolete, at the very same time most armies were realizing 75 mm wasn't good enough as caliber for a standard field gun, most of them moved to something that could deliver a bigger (25 pdr, 105 mm etc). Main exceptions were Russia, with its unique dual-role 76 mm and France, who had to keep around thousands of 75 mm 1897.

Italy was in a somewhat similar situation, with plenty of 75 mm mod. 1911 that was, for WW I standards, a very advanced design. So priority was assigned to heavier calibers (see my previous posts), yet new design were developed for regimental artillery too.

Unfortunately the obsession for mountain warfare badly affected the results. Not only the Army insisted with a 75 mm gun, they accepted a shorter barrel to minimize weight and make it a pack howitzer too! Because in many people mind, mules were more important than artillery tractors... The results was the two 75/18s, excellent design but totally anachronistic:

Regimental gun:
www.flickr.com/photos/...9306630228

Mountain variant:
www.flickr.com/photos/...9306630228

In the end, few of these new 75 mm pieces reached front-line units, and the obsolete guns, dating to WW I, formed the back-bone of Italian artillery in WW II even at the regimental level. The most notable results instead was achieved by mounting the 75/18 on a "Carro M" chassis, to create the "Semovente da 75/18".

Massimo

Massimo -

Great photos!! What a beautiful location! Thanks for posting and also for the history. Much appreciated!

Cheers!
VB