87 mm C/73 Field Gun (Germany/Turkey) : 12th Australian Light Horse Regiment, Damascus

Slow firing jacket field gun (Mantelrohr), cylindro-prismatic wedge breech mechanism with an expanding steel obturating ring. It was fitted with a direct fire sight and aiming circle. It was modernised to use smokeless powder, but the rapidity of fire was not very great. It was adopted also by the Rumanian and Turkish Army. Calibre was 87mm, L/24. Weight of the entire unit was 1060kg.

This example is missing its wheels, but has a full splinter-proof shield, and wire mesh crew seats mounted on the front of the shield. It has been painted post service in a tan/mustard. The maker's name Fried Krupp, the date of manufacture - 1886, and the barrel number '178' are inscribed onto the face of the breech. The barrel is elevated by means of a screw mounted vertically under the breech. Breech block is numbered '324'. Carriage is fabricated from sheet steel, with rivetted transoms.

This gun was taken from the Turks by the 4th Light Horse Regiment at Khan esh Shina, south of Damascus, on the 30th of September, 1918. At 4.50 that morning the regiment had become the advance guard of the Australian Mounted Division, and two hours later it arrived at Khan esh Shina, where at the cost of one killed and four wounded it captured 340 prisoners and eight machine guns as well as this field piece.

The gun was already obsolete when war broke out. Its barrel lacks an axial recoil system, and relied upon a spring spade at the rear of the trail to hold the piece in position when fired. The shell weighed about 16 Ib. and the maximum range was 7,000 yards. The whole weighs about 1 1/2 ton and was horsedrawn. This gun may be seen in a 1920s photograph, taken in Melbourne: AWM J00291.