120 mm Schneider-Canet M1897 long gun

120 mm Schneider-Canet M1897 long gun was a heavy artillery piece manufactured by the French company Schneider-Creusot. It was a slow firing gun without a recoil mechanism but with significant range and weight of the shell.

Schneider-Canet 120mm long gun M. 1897
M1897 in use with the Serbian Army, date unknown
Type	Heavy/Siege gun
Place of origin	France
Service history
In service	1897–1918
Used by	Kingdom of Serbia  Bulgaria
Wars	Balkan Wars, World War I
Production history
Designer	Gustave Canet
Manufacturer	Schneider et Cie
Produced	1897
Specifications
Mass	Travel: 3,450 kg (7,610 lb) Combat: 3,080 kg (6,790 lb)
Barrel length	3.12 m (10 ft 3 in)
Shell weight	18 kg (39 lb 11 oz)
Caliber	120 mm (4.7 in)
Elevation	-12° to +28°
Muzzle velocity	575 m/s (1,890 ft/s)
Maximum firing range	HE 8.4 km (5.2 mi) Shrapnel 6 km (3.7 mi)

Serbia ordered 17 pieces in 1897. However, only 16 were delivered in 1902. Serbia entered the First Balkan War with 15 pieces (6 batteries), since one gun was destroyed during the exercises before the war. It was used in the First and Second Balkan Wars and in the first phase of the First World War (1914-1915). Most of the surviving pieces were abandoned and destroyed before the Serbian retreat to Albania.

Bulgaria also ordered this type in 1897, and received 24 pieces and used them in the Balkan and First World Wars. Serbian type (L/26) and Bulgarian (L/28) were slightly different in respect of the breech lock while in other aspects they were identical.[1]