37 mm trench gun M1915

37-mm trench gun M1915 (Russian: Траншейная 37-мм пушка обр. 1915 года) was a Russian battalion gun employed in World War I.

37-mm trench gun M1915
37 mm trench gun M1915
Type	Infantry support gun
Place of origin	Russian Empire
Service history
Wars	World War I World War II
Specifications
Mass	180.1 kg (397 lbs)
Length	1.6 m (5 ft 3 in)
Barrel length	70 cm (2 ft 4 in) L/19[1]
Width	100 cm (3 ft 3 in)
Height	100 cm (3 ft 3 in)
Shell	Fixed QF 37 x 94 mm R HE, APHE, APHE-T, AP, AP-T, Canister[2]
Shell weight	.512 kg (1 lb 2 oz)
Caliber	37 mm (1.45 in)
Recoil	none
Carriage	Box-trail
Elevation	-5° to +15°
Traverse	90°[1]
Muzzle velocity	442 m/s (1,450 ft/s)
Maximum firing range	3.2 km (2 mi)[1]

With World War I switching into a trench warfare phase late in 1914, a need for a highly mobile artillery system to be used against enemy machine gun emplacements and other strongpoints became apparent. In 1915 colonel M. F. Rosenberg, a member of the Artillery Committee, developed such a weapon. The gun was compact enough to fit into machine gun emplacements. It weighed only about 180 kg and could be dismantled into three pieces - barrel (about 74 kg), carriage (82 kg) and wheels (25 kg), making it easy to move around. To protect the crew from enemy fire, the gun was equipped with a shield 6 or 8 mm thick. The weapon was sufficiently accurate at ranges of up to roughly 1 mile or about 1.6 km—this was earlier set out as 1,000-1,200 paces, and a pace is normally the height of the person walking, so this is not a uniform measure.