page_title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897
section_title: Anti-aircraft
hierarchical_section_title: Canon de 75 modèle 1897 / Variants and derivatives / Anti-aircraft
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph showing French gunners with 75 mm anti-aircraft gun, Salonika Front, World War I. See also&#160;: File:French 75 mm AA gun Salonika 1917 IWM HU 091353.jpg
context_page_description: The French 75 mm field gun was a quick-firing field artillery piece adopted in March 1898. Its official French designation was: Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897. It was commonly known as the French 75, simply the 75 and Soixante-Quinze. The French 75 was designed as an anti-personnel weapon system for delivering large volumes of time-fused shrapnel shells on enemy troops advancing in the open. After 1915 and the onset of trench warfare, other types of battlefield missions demanding impact-detonated high-explosive shells prevailed. By 1918 the 75s became the main agents of delivery for toxic gas shells. The 75s also became widely used as truck mounted anti-aircraft artillery. They were also the main armament of the Saint-Chamond tank in 1918.
  The French 75 is widely regarded as the first modern artillery piece. It was the first field gun to include a hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism, which kept the gun's trail and wheels perfectly still during the firing sequence. Since it did not need to be re-aimed after each shot, the crew could reload and fire as soon as the barrel returned to its resting position.
context_section_description: self-propelled anti-aircraft variant, on De Dion-Bouton chassis using Canon de 75 antiaérien mle 1913-1917.
  canon de 75 mm contre-aéroplanes sur plateforme mle 1915
  static anti-aircraft variant on rotating platform
  canon de 75 mm contre-aéroplanes mle 1917
  anti-aircraft variant on 1-axle trailer with stabilizer legs.
caption: On rotating AA platform, Salonika Front, World War I
exif: {}