Talk:Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1893/96 gun

Checking a source

The 01:40, 20 February 2009 version edited by Rcbutcher has the following statement:

During World War I Modèle 1893/1896 guns were mounted on rotating centre-pintle and sliding-carriage mountings on railway wagons to provide mobile firepower on the Western Front. They fired shells weighing from 321 - 351 kg to a maximum range of 31,000 metres.

The 16 September 2020 version has the following statements besides the same reference:

The 12-inch/40 calibre Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1893/96 gun was a typical built-up French heavy gun of its period. It used a Welin interrupted-screw breech and bagged propellant with a de Bange obturator to get a good gas seal during firing.

During World War I surplus Modèle 1893/1896 guns were mounted on both rotating centre-pintle, cradle recoil, and sliding-carriage mountings on railway carriages to provide mobile firepower on the Western Front. They fired shells weighing from 321–351 kilograms (708–774 lb) to a maximum range of 31,130 metres (34,040 yd). The railroad mounts had a maximum elevation of 40° which accounts for the extra range over the naval guns.

The link in the reference is a dead link. I tried using wayback machine to retrieve it; for 2012 this got me to a page from the "Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library", labelled "Lecture on high-powered heavy artillery." It did not show me the document. But I did find the front page on by searching the "Ike Skelton Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library" - document details. This confirmed that the document found on the following link was the document meant.

Page 20 says: "305-chassis guns. This is the 1893-1896 model 305 on an 1889 model center-pintle chassis mount. The breech has the Navy type metal obturator." There is a diagram on page 21 showing the 305mm gun on a railway truck mount. There is also a statement on page 21: "Cradle-mounted 305. The arrangement is in general identical with the 370 howitzer, which is discussed below."

Page 31 gives different figures for the 305mm chassis gun and cradle gun - i.e. there two different mountings used - a chassis gun mount, which the source explicitly says was the 1893-1896 model 305, and a cradle mount but there is no explicit statement that the 1893-1896 model 305 was the gun used in the cradle mount.

Please note that the source does not support the statement that the 1893-1896 model 305 was "a typical built-up French heavy gun of its period. It used a Welin interrupted-screw breech and bagged propellant".

The reason for looking at this was that I saw a scan of a postcard entitled "338 - MARINE MILITAIRE. En Escadre Casement d'une Piece de 305 m/m, Manoeuvre du chargement de l'Obus. ND Phot." that showed a gun crew of the French battleship Patrie, and the it was clear that the gun did not have Welin breech block.-- Toddy1 (talk) 16:42, 16 September 2020 (UTC)