Ammunition wagon for 120mm Krupp
howitzers
|
The field
howitzers batteries armed with 120mm not quick-firing Krupp howitzers were
equipped with an ammunition wagon of German pattern. It was composed by the
limber and the caisson, and was drawn by a team of six horses. The limber
looked like the limber of the field artillery gun. It carried 16 rounds placed horizontally, and was divided
into two superposed rows, each containing eight rounds. The shrapnels were
placed into the nests of the upper row, and the shells into the nests of the
lower row. Since the cast iron shells were shorter than the steel ones, a
bottom was put behind them. The caisson
was composed by an axle with two wheels, a chest, two support beams, two
chest girders, a base sheet, a brake
mechanism, and miscellaneous
hardware. The brake mechanism was the old Krupp brake with brake
traverse bar, iron brake pads and threaded spindle. The chest was divided
into two compartments, whose inner arrangement were
like that of the gun limber. The caisson
carried : - 12 common
shells, - 20 shrapnel
with fuzes, in the remaining shelves; - 32 cartidges
with a charges of 0.9 + - 40 primers, in
2 sheet boxes put into the ignition chests; - 15 percussion
fuzes for heavy projectiles, in 3 sheet boxes put into the ignition chests; - 24 screw bolts
for time and percussion fuzes, in 4 sheet boxes put into the ignition chests; - 8 cartridge
bags, in the cartridge shelves; - 2 ignition
chests, in the right equipment case; - 1 jack for
projectiles and 1 screwdriver, in the left equipment case; - 4 padlocks. |
|
limber |
empty : |
|
|
ammunition : |
|
|
|
tools : |
|
|
|
loaded : |
|
|
|
caisson |
empty : |
|
|
ammunition : |
|
|
|
loaded
: |
|
|
|
wagon |
empty
: |
|
|
ammunition
: |
|
|
|
loaded
: |
|
|
|
rounds |
on
the limber : |
16 |
|
on
the caisson : |
32 |