Do you know what this gun is?

[Romani]

I took this picture at the Athens War Museum. I don't recall much of what the plaque said other than it was a Krupp gun (77mm?) captured on Bulgaria. It may be slightly off topic but I thought it was an AA gun so maybe somebody of you can shed some light on this contraption. Who built it and for what purpose and when it was employed.

[Barrett]

R2D2 meets Pinnochio?

[Barker]

Are we allowed to goof off (here)?

well, um, Barrett took my first so:

"An ex-tra emphatic deployment of litter receptacle in a rather dire amusement park"?

*growling noises*
"Feed me your Trash, tovaritch!"

Ecktuelly, it could fairly reasonably be seen as horse-drawn anti-tank or anti-infantry, towed weapon.
A variation on a gun shield.
A moving pillbox.
On a budget.

Am being serious.
Stranger things happen.
What does everybody think of ATR's?
Odd weapons, them.

Anythings possible ? . Walking around a collection of trench mortars in Pozieres made me realise that there's plenty of ones I've never seen . Some of them looked like they had been used in a war from the 1500's !! . But they all got dug out from old trenches . Anyone able to magnify that plaque on the front of the salt shaker ??...I tried but it came out too fuzzy .
Oh well Romani , at least it's a good lesson why you need to always carry a notepad around with you at a museum . 1) for jotting down imformation ...2) for getting the address of that cute girl behind the admin counter ....Although being married I only need to worry about number 1 .
Phil.

[Volker_Nemsch]

Here is another photo of a 70mm Flak made by Krupp photographed during exercises. Look how deep the wheels have sunk into the ground (and the field seems to be dry)!

I wonder why this even more heavy gun was used on the Balkans and not in France, where more targets could be found and definitely was a higher need for modern weapons.

Or is it possible that the gun was modified after capture for use in a fortified position? Just a guess ...

Any ideas?

[Romani]

Anythings possible ? . Walking around a collection of trench mortars in Pozieres made me realise that there's plenty of ones I've never seen . Some of them looked like they had been used in a war from the 1500's !! . But they all got dug out from old trenches

Mmm, that was because those mortars where *indeed* from ancient times. Not 1500s, but of the Napoleonic era. The basic bronze mortar didn't change from the Renaissance until past the Napoleonic era.
What happened is that when trench warfare started, the Allies found themselves without any indirect fire weaponry (mortars) to be used in the trenches. (The Germans on the other hand had some minenwerfers... same thing happened with hand grenades). In desperation, the French resorted to old bronze mortars from armories and museums to lob modern grenades, and later, as a stopgap measure until truly modern mortars were developed, they designed an "aerial torpedo" a rocket with fins that looked like it might have inspired the lunar rocket of Tintin comics.

. Anyone able to magnify that plaque on the front of the salt shaker ??...I tried but it came out too fuzzy

Don't bother, the plaque said something like "Krupp gun, weight so and so, caliber so and so... and I think it was in greek anyway.

Oh well Romani , at least it's a good lesson why you need to always carry a notepad around with you at a museum . 1) for jotting down imformation ...2) for getting the address of that cute girl behind the admin counter

Well, Phil, I was going with my cute greek girlfriend and she was getting restless with my endless photo taking so I couldn't do 1) and 2) was out of the question

But I'll bring a notepad next time, thanks for the advice

[Romani]

Here is another photo of a 70mm Flak made by Krupp photographed during exercises.

Mmmm, I'm fairly sure the gun was a 70 something Krupp... but it's smaller than the one of the picture you posted. Hell, I might be wrong and it could be a 50mm... but I don't know of any gun by that caliber.

I wonder why this even more heavy gun was used on the Balkans and not in France, where more targets could be found and definitely was a higher need for modern weapons.

The gun is lighter than the one in the pic,and I think only one gunner or maybe two could squeeze inside this pillbox, and the armor was fairly thick, I think that an inch or so.

The gun was captured in Bulgaria, so my guess it's that it could be an older artillery piece of the late 1800s.

The gun is interesting because it's an early predecessor of the tank. Look at the dual recoil system, the gun recoils on rails mounted on the wheeled carriage. All you needed is mounting this turret into a motor carriage.

I think it was an early attempt at a motorized gun. Maybe it was towed by an automobile.

My conjecture is that it could have been used by the fast columns that the Germans used to defeat Romania in 1917, and then the gun ended in Bulgaria in 1918 where it was captured by the Greeks.

[GrzeM]

Querido Romani!
In fact this "thing" is "5cm Panzerlafette" - German armoured turret with the 53mm gun, used in fortifications.
Details here. In French:
http://modelarchives.free.fr/photoscopes/PzLafette/
and drawings here:
http://www.mars.slupsk.pl/fort/a003-5.htm
You can also find one photo in the Dittman's photo collection:
http://www.flieger-album.de/
in the "photos", "1914-15", 2nd album, where it is shown mounted on the river armed ship "Fortuna" in Warsaw in 1915.
One example of this early R2D2 is preserved in Brussels, and one in Warsaw.
Cheers!
G.

[Romani]

Thank you very much GrzeM!

In fact I actually was expecting you to solve this riddle :