7.7 cm FK 96 n/A. Field gun (Germany)

Light field artillery piece, with horizontal sliding breech. The gun's recoil system is hyro-spring operated, with the mechanism mounted below the barrel. The carriage mounts two wooden wheels. Barrel is bulged just forward of the shield; this may have been due either to faulty ammunition or an ineffective demolition charge. The tip of the traversing lever has been pierced and the wheels splintered. The breech is stamped with the gun's serial number: 549, the manufacturer, Rheinische Metallwaren und Maschinen Fabrik, and the date of manfuacture: 1915. This gun is currently on outdoor display at the Royal Military College, Duntroon.

This German 7.7 cm gun is one of seven captured by the 46th Battalion on the fateful 8th of August, 1918, when that unit took part in the great offensive launched by the Canadian, the Australian, and the III British Corps, which broke the enemy's resistance and led to his final capitulation.

Corresponding to the British 18 pounder and the famous French 75, this weapon known to the troops as the "Whylong" weighted about 25 cwt., was horse drawn, and threw a projectile of 16 Ib., either high- explosive or shrapnel, at the rate of 20 rounds per minute, to a maxium range of 9,186 yards.

It could, when desired, fire gas, star, and anti-tank shell. The shrapnel rounds used with this piece contained 300 lead or 220 steel pellets.