120 mm howitzer Model 1901

120 mm howitzer Model 1901
120 mm howitzer Model 1901
	A Russian model 1901 captured during the Finnish Civil War at the Hameenlinna artillery museum.
Type	Howitzer
Place of origin	German Empire
Service history
In service	1901-?
Used by	See Users
Wars	Second Boer War; Russo-Japanese War; Balkan wars; World War I; Finnish Civil War; Hungarian–Romanian War;
Production history
Designer	Krupp
Designed	1901
Manufacturer	Krupp
Produced	1901
No. built	Russia: ?; Romania: 31
Specifications
Mass	Travel: 1,835 kg (4,045 lb); Combat: 1,065 kg (2,348 lb)
Barrel length	1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) L/11.6
Shell	Cased separate-loading
Shell weight	HE: 15.6 kg (34 lb 6 oz); Shrapnel: 21 kg (46 lb 5 oz)
Caliber	120 mm (4.7 in)
Breech	Horizontal sliding block
Recoil	Spring loaded recoil spade
Carriage	Box trail
Elevation	0° to +42°
Muzzle velocity	300 m/s (980 ft/s)
Effective firing range	6.5 km (4 mi)

The 120 mm howitzer Model 1901 – was a German howitzer used by the Imperial Russian and Romanian Armies during the First World War.^[1]

Design

The model 1901 was a short ranged field howitzer capable of both direct and indirect fire.^[2] The model 1901 had a short steel barrel, a box trail carriage, two wooden spoked wheels with steel rims, a horizontal sliding-block breech, it fired cased separate-loading ammunition and had a spring-loaded recoil spade. For transport, the trail of the carriage could be connected to a limber and caisson for towing by a six-horse team.^[2]

Orange Free State – The Boers used an unknown number of model 1901 howitzers during the Second Boer War.^[3]
Russian Empire – An unknown number of model 1901 howitzers were used by the Imperial Russian Army. The photos in the gallery below are of a model 1901 that was captured from the Russians during the Finnish Civil War and is displayed at the Hameenlina artillery museum.
Romania – In 1902 two batteries of four guns were assigned to the 2nd artillery regiment in Bucharest. This was followed by three more batteries assigned to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd regiments.^[1] In 1915 the Romanians added a gun shield to protect the gunners. In 1916 the Romanian Army had 31 of these howitzers when they entered the First World War.^[4]

^ ^a ^b Stroea, Adrian (2010). Artileria Română în date şi imagini. Băjenaru, Gheorghe. București: Editura Centrului Tehnic-Editorial al Armatei [CTEA]. p. 44. ISBN 9786065240803. OCLC 895490826.
^ ^a ^b "Krupp 120mm 1901_Hb_Romania". www.bulgarianartillery.it. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
^ "South African Military History Society – Journal- Guns in South Africa 1899–1902". samilitaryhistory.org. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
^ Romania in World War 1916–1919. Volume I. Documents-Annexes. Official Gazette and State Imprints, Bucharest, 1934–1940. p. 56.