sillygoose
Well-known member
Canon de 75 modèle 1897 - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Many were captured by Germany during the Fall of France in 1940, in addition to Polish guns captured in 1939. Over 3,500 were modified with a muzzle brake and mounted on a 5 cm Pak 38 carriage, now named 7.5 cm Pak 97/38 they were used by the Wehrmacht in 1942 as an emergency weapon against the Soviet Union's T-34 and KV tanks. Its relatively low velocity and a lack of modern armor-piercing ammunition limited its effectiveness as an anti-tank weapon. When the German 7.5 cm Pak 40 became available in sufficient numbers, most remaining Pak 97/38 pieces were returned to occupied France to reinforce the Atlantic Wall defenses or were supplied to Axis nations like Romania (PAK 97/38) and Hungary.[16][17] Non-modified remainders were used as second-line and coastal artillery pieces under the German designation 7.5 cm FK 231(f)[17] and 7,5 cm FK 97(p). The few 60 Mle 1897/33s captured by the Germans were given the designation 7.5 cm K232(f).[18]
Historically over 3,500 French 75mm artillery pieces were modified to serve as anti-tank guns where they performed relatively poorly. What if instead of this the guns were kept as artillery pieces and used existing stockpiles of captured French and Polish (who had over 1300 of this guns in 1939) munitions in independent artillery regiments that were to be corps attachments? Given their high rate of fire they would seem to be a very good saturation fires weapon against both tanks and infantry, both of which were frequently used in tight masses in 1942 and beyond and would form ideal targets to for this sort of weapon. Due to the light weight even if horse drawn they should be able to rapidly move into position to deal with break-ins or breakthroughs as they appear and can be simply attached to existing infantry division artillery regiments for targeting purposes. They could even use French factories to make more ammo if needed.
Even assuming only 2012 are retained for German use they could theoretically form about 42 regiments of 48 guns. Seems like that would have been a better use than as a mediocre desperation AT gun, which actually cost a fair bit to modify and then used different ammo than all the stockpiles captured.
How do you think these regiments would perform as an as-needed firepower enhancement for divisions from corps reserve from 1942 onwards?