(3 soldiers with small canon)

Places
Accession Number ART50263
Collection type Art
Measurement Overall: 12.2 x 18.8 cm
Object type Work on paper
Physical description pen and ink with water colour, heightened with white on paper
Maker Cheffer, Henri-Lucien
Place made France
Date made 1917
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Unlicensed copyright

Description

Three French soldiers with breech loading trench mortar, probably about 70-100 mm calibre. The soldiers are French, identifiable from their ‘M15 Adrian’ style helmets. The weapons are good representations of a ‘Mortier de 75 de Tranchée'. This was the first trench mortar to be widely issued after the Champagne offensive, and could fire up to 1700m, using the shell of a field gun – the canon de 75 Modéle 1897. The weapon was breech loaded, and to make the shell easier to ram home, the lands on the rifling were reduced by 2.5 mm. The weapon rested on a bed fabricated from sheet steel.