This is a great short historical summary. One is amazed at how small the 21 Corps Artillery was and how ill equipped: one lone regiment of only 3 battalions (12 firing batteries) and only 2 (?) with modern weapons. Schneider must have had enormous difficulties producing enough Canon de 105L Modèle 1913 to supply the French Army as it was clearly superior to the older systems. I do wonder why its maximum elevation was limited to +37 degrees if it was intended as a counter battery weapon. Since its maximum range of 12,700 meters could have been extended a good distance of its maximum elevation was +45 degrees instead. Still, it was far better than the +18 degrees of the “Fabulous French 75”, the +16 degrees of the QF 18pdr Gun or the +15 degrees of the 77mm Field Gun M96nA (there is a real price for optimizing your Direct Support artillery for speed and direct fire).
I suspect that the limitation on elevation had something to do with the difficulty of creating a recoil-absorbing mechanism that could deal with the combination of a large propellant charge and a higher angle of fire. The German counterpart to the Model 1913, the Model 1914 10cm gun, was limited to 30 degrees.
Yet a few years later, Krupp managed to produce the 10cm (105mm really) M1917 Gun with an elevation range of -2 to +45 degrees and a max range of 14,100 meters. There must have been a technical development or two that allowed for this, although only around 200 of them were produced during WW I.
This is a great short historical summary. One is amazed at how small the 21 Corps Artillery was and how ill equipped: one lone regiment of only 3 battalions (12 firing batteries) and only 2 (?) with modern weapons. Schneider must have had enormous difficulties producing enough Canon de 105L Modèle 1913 to supply the French Army as it was clearly superior to the older systems. I do wonder why its maximum elevation was limited to +37 degrees if it was intended as a counter battery weapon. Since its maximum range of 12,700 meters could have been extended a good distance of its maximum elevation was +45 degrees instead. Still, it was far better than the +18 degrees of the “Fabulous French 75”, the +16 degrees of the QF 18pdr Gun or the +15 degrees of the 77mm Field Gun M96nA (there is a real price for optimizing your Direct Support artillery for speed and direct fire).
I suspect that the limitation on elevation had something to do with the difficulty of creating a recoil-absorbing mechanism that could deal with the combination of a large propellant charge and a higher angle of fire. The German counterpart to the Model 1913, the Model 1914 10cm gun, was limited to 30 degrees.
It's worth noting in this respect that the other 105mm long guns in the Schneider catalogue of 1914 were also limited to 37 degrees. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6516812h/f122.item
Yet a few years later, Krupp managed to produce the 10cm (105mm really) M1917 Gun with an elevation range of -2 to +45 degrees and a max range of 14,100 meters. There must have been a technical development or two that allowed for this, although only around 200 of them were produced during WW I.