"French 7YW 8-inch howitzer article" Topic

…and the quest goes on.
I have added scale drawing and article of the French 8-inch howitzer to my Blog. Another nice piece.
If you like, have a look.

Cheers,
Christian
crogges7ywarmies.blogspot.com

Fascinating read.

Question:

I have read order of battles which list howitzer batteries as part of the reserve artillery park, but have not come across any accounts of their employment on the battlefield.

If you have, perhaps you could steer my in the right direction to further research.

Cheers,
Robert

Very nice work. When do you start on the ACW? ;) Regards, Rob.

ACW? Let's do the SYW Austrians first.

AWI,too! Too much variety in ACW.

Christian, your work just keeps getting better.

Nic Eureka Miniatures

AWI,too!

He has already done a lot of the AWI French cannon that were used by France and the Americans. The Swedish 4-pdr, the French Valliere 4-pdr (or Long 4 pounder), the 8 and 12 pounders. And all of them have been rendered as 1/56 scale models (30mm-ish) by Fife & Drum Miniatures, based on Christian's drawings:

French Valliere 4-pounder:

French ligh 4-pounder ( a la Suedois):

French Valliere 8-pounder:

French Valliere 12-pounder:

And of course, we also have the British 6-pounder:

And the 3-pounder Verbruggen cannon on Patteson carriage:

The above pretty much covers what you need in almost any AWI artillery park. All available from Fife & Drum Miniatures:

link

Clicking on the link above takes you directly to the Fife & Drum Miniatures Artillery Equipment web page.

I hope that nobody takes offense at my posting of the pictures, but the models could only be made with the help of Christian and his drawings and I want to demonstrate that his extensive work is paying off in terms of wargamers being able to benefit from his research and hard work.

ACW !?! I'm sorry, this isn't my century. I'll freely pass this one on to some one else.

I will do Austrians, possibly starting later this year – and – the English.
The letter because I received the insistent request that also the fine material of king George II & III deserves better attention (kronoskaf-wise).
Possibly not the entire range, just some sample pieces.
I'll be in Vienna upcoming June and hope to find more material. So far all I have on Austrian carriages is too sketchy, or belongs to the napoleonic period (metal fittings-wise).

Robert,

I see I completely forgot to include any word concerning employment of this rather heavy class howitzer piece.
The Hannoverian gunner Scharnhorst wrote in his lectures that this type of howitzer wasn't a designated field gun to see service within the line of battle. Especially not in any moving engagement. Any piece of over 6 inch / 10-pounder weight. Too cumbersome to load. He states the numerous 16, 25, and 30-pounder Hannoverian howitzers certainly did not take part in the battle of Minden, as he states. The English light 5.5 inch piece would.
Contades ordered 6 howitzers to sustain Broglie with his initial cannonading of the Allies field works at Todenhausen. Also at Hastenbeck, some howitzers were employed to shell the village of Hastenbeck. That's about all I can say.

Christian,

Thanks for the two references. It seems I should look to battles which had included fixed positions and find what kind of artillery was used to winkle the opposition out.

Cheers,

Looking at those pictures, manufacturers should really put a bit more thought into the poses, if the guy is about to fire the cannon then the sponger should be at ease, if the sponger is in action the firer should be at ease, it looks wrong otherwise. just a suggestion.

Excellent article !!

the pose is excellent, the gunner at the vent is not firing but pressing with a finger in a leather cover on the vent to prevent a draft when the man with the ramrod is pushing the cartridge down the barrel – by that action it was tried to prevent that embers of left over cartridges from the old shoot might again burn and cause a premature shot – and by that inflicting serious injury to the gunner with the ramrod.

You heard me, man. Fire!
YouTube link

And thank you for the excellent work, Christian.

von Winterfeldt, yes I had forgotten about that, although most of the figures I have seen are lighting the fuse not using their thumb, however good point.

Yes, von Winterfeldt has it correct. We have a ventsman in the loading set of figures. And I thought that the spongeman was at ease. He comes with open hands so that a variety of tools can be used and positioned as you see fit.

'I have read order of battles which list howitzer batteries as part of the reserve artillery park, but have not come across any accounts of their employment on the battlefield.'

The French had no actual field artillery in the Seven Years' War. They employed the Valliere artillery system, ca 1732, and used it both with the field armies and for siege and garrison work, but it was too heavy for field use.

The French 8-inch howitzer was first used in 1749 (the first French use of a howitzer) and it was very useful for siege work, but again not with the field armies

The Valliere System was too heavy and cumbersome to compete with the Prussian field artillery and the excellent Austrian field artillery of the Lichtenstein System.

The problem would be addressed and solved after the war was over and a field artillery system developed and employed by Gribeauval. The artillery train that came to the US with Rochambeau in 1780 would be equipped with the new guns as well as with the older, but somewhat modified, siege guns.

B