122-mm howitzer model 1910

Its is a light field howitzer, developed by the French company Schneider in the First World War.

The experience of the russain-Japanese War pointed to the need to put into servise this type of howitzer. The caliber of 119 mm (47 lines) was considered the minimum caliber required to effectively destroy field fortifications.

The General Directorate of Artillery developed a caliber of 48 lines (122 mm) for the light howitzer. Both russian and foreign-made guns took part in the tests, including those made by the German company “Krupp” (with a horizontal wedge breech) and the French company “Schneider” (with a piston breech). As a result, both German and French howitzers were approved.

This decision was caused by the influence of Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, who held the post of Inspector General of Artillery. The Grand Duke and his mistress Matilda Kshesinskaya were in a league with the Schneider company and the management of the private plant Putilovsky. Therefore, despite the victory of the Krupp gun in the competition, Sergei Mikhailovich ordered the adoption of the Schneider gun. The cadets of the Mikhailovsky Artillery School immediately called the Schneider gun a howitzer of the “Kshesinskaya system”.

The howitzer had a classic short-barreled gun, which was used at angles of elevation from +20 to +44° with a single shot with separate loading.

The howitzer's ammunition consisted of a 22.93 kg high explosive round with a fuze and a shrapnel with a 45-second delayed tube. The shell is 159 mm long and weighed 1773 grams. The maximum range of the high-explosive round is 7681 meters, and the range of shrapnel shot is about 7700 meters.

The howitzer received a shield, which became a mandatory element of field guns of the First World War.

From the gun factories (Putyliv, Obukhiv, and Petrograd), 1081 howitzers (1257 guns of 1910 and 1909 type by January 1917) were delivered to the front line and to the reserve. By mid-June 1917, there were 944 howitzers on all fronts.

Later, the howitzer was modernized into a 122-mm howitzer of the 1910/30 type: the chamber was lengthened, a normalized gun sight was installed, and the carriage structure was reinforced. This enabled the possibility to fire a long-range high-explosive grenade, with an initial muzzle velocity of up to 364 m/s and a range of up to 8910 meters.