3-inch M1902 field gun


The 3-inch Gun, Model of 1902 was the U.S. Army’s first nickel steel, quick-firing field gun with a recoil mechanism. Like its predecessor the 3.2-inch gun M1897, it was a rifled breechloader.

Design

During the second half of 1890s the so-called "quick-firing revolution" was underway, and many countries from Russia and Germany to the Transvaal Republic started to adopt guns with some recoil systems, but the Army adopted an outdated 3.2-inch gun M1897 instead. Quickly realizing the mistake, the Ordnance Department alongside the M1897 production started development of what was termed an "accelerated-fire gun", and Captain Charles B. Wheeler designed a 3-inch gun which allowed more shots to be made faster but still required to relay the gun after each shoot. However by 1900, when its procurement was underway, first concrete information about the revolutionary French Canon de 75 modèle 1897 was declassified and new true quick-firing designs with a long recoil by private manufacturers emerged in Europe, and the Commanding General of [the United States Army] Nelson A. Miles lobbied Secretary of War Elihu Root to block the process. In 1901 long-recoil guns were tested and deemed superior, so in 1902 the Ordnance Department combined Wheeler's piece and an Ehrhardt piece in one design.
The features of rifling, breech loading with fixed ammunition, and a hydraulic-spring system to absorb the gun's recoil and quickly return it to the firing position combined to improve the range, accuracy, and rate of fire of the gun compared with previous weapons, allowing it to be used more effectively in operations with infantry. These new capabilities allowed the gun to provide accurate indirect fire on targets not in a direct line of sight, which provided crucial firepower for infantry attacks. It was also one of the first US artillery guns with an armored shield to protect the crew from small arms fire. The gun fired steel, shrapnel, or explosive shells that weighed. The use of nickel steel construction meant that the M1902 could fire a heavier shell at a higher muzzle velocity and greater accuracy than any other field gun of American origin to that point. It had a muzzle velocity of with an effective range of, and a maximum range of. The maximum rate of fire was 15 rounds per minute.

Service history

This weapon replaced the 3.2-inch gun M1897 in most combat units, but both weapons remained in service until after World War I. General John J. Pershing brought several of the guns with him during the "Punitive Expedition" against Mexican forces in 1916–17, but they were not fired in combat.
The M1902 was in service from 1902 through 1919. During World War I, the Army primarily used the French 75 mm 1897 gun instead of the M1902s, which were mostly kept in the United States for training. Although this weapon appears in World War I-era tables of organization and equipment, very few of the M1902s were used in combat in Europe. They were gradually phased out of active service in the 1920s.

Variants

3-inch Gun, Model of 1904
3-inch Gun, Model of 1905
3.8-inch Gun, Models of 1904 and '''1907'''

Surviving examples

Weapons of comparable role, performance and era