page_title: Canon de 155mm GPF
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Canon de 155mm GPF / History
caption_attribution_description: AWM caption&#160;: "GARDEN ISLAND, WA. 1943-07-15. 155 MM M1917/M1918 BATTERY - NORTH WEST CORNER OF THE ISLAND." This was known as "Challenger" and "J" battery.
context_page_description: The Canon de 155 Grande Puissance Filloux mle.1917 was a WWI-era French-designed 155 mm gun used by the French Army and the United States Army during the first half of the 20th century in towed and self-propelled mountings.
context_section_description: The gun was designed during the First World War by Colonel Louis Filloux to meet an urgent need for modern heavy artillery and became the standard heavy field gun of the French Army from 1917 until the Second World War. It was also adopted by the United States as the M1917 and a close derivative of it was made in and used by the US as the M1918 through the Second World War.
  The gun was also manufactured in the United States from 1917, after the US switched to metric artillery based on French patterns. It was used by the United States Army and United States Marine Corps as their primary heavy gun as the 155 mm Gun M1917 (French-made) or M1918 (US-made) until 1942, when it was gradually replaced by the 155 mm M1A1 Long Tom. US Army forces in the Far East (USAFFE), including the 301st FA Regiment (Philippine Army), the 86th FA Regiment (Philippine Scouts) and also US Coast Artillery units (91st and 92nd CA Regiments, Philippine Scouts), used this gun against the Japanese in the  Philippines Campaign (1941–42). Some of the guns were originally emplaced in "Panama mounts" on Corregidor, Caballo and Carabao islands at the entrance of Manila Bay. Some guns were dismounted and used as roving batteries and gave effective counter-battery fire. The gun was later mounted on the M12 Gun Motor Carriage and saw action in 1944–45.
  During the Second World War, some US-made guns were used for coast defense of US and Allied territories, such as Australia and Bermuda, typically on "Panama" mountings - circular concrete platforms with a raised centre section, with the carriage tires pivoting around the center section and the split trails spread out on rails at the edge of the platform.
caption: Coast defence gun on Panama mount, Garden Island, Western Australia, 1943
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