De Bange 155 mm cannon The De Bange 155 mm long cannon mle . 1877 ( or more briefly the 155 L de Bange ) was the French artillery piece that debuted the 155 mm caliber in widespread use today . Although obsolete by the beginning of World War I , the 155 L was nonetheless pressed into service and became the main counter - battery piece of the French army in the first two years of the war . Development and deployment . Drawing from the experiences of the Franco - Prussian War of 1870 - 1871 , a French artillery committee met on 2 February 1874 to discuss new models for the French fortress and siege artillery . Among them was a piece in the 14 to 16 cm caliber range . After several meetings , on 16 April 1874 the committee settled on the 15 . 5 cm caliber . In the subsequent program - letter of the committee dating from 21 April , the caliber was for the first time expressed as 155 millimeters . ( The other two calibers decided by this committee were the 120 mm fortress and siege cannon and the 220 mm mortar . ) Three different 155 mm prototypes were tested in Calais in 1876 . The winner was Charles de Bange ' s model , and the French government ordered the first 300 pieces in November 1877 . In common with the other de Bange cannons , the 155 L had a hooped steel construction with gain - twist rifling . In the 1877 conception , the cannon required a wooden platform from which to fire . Its recoil was absorbed simply by friction with the platform , and the 155 L had to be pushed back into position after every shot . Later , the model 1883 Saint - Chamond hydraulic brake was introduced . This was a separate piece of equipment that anchored the cannon ' s carriage to the firing platform and returned it into position after about 110 cm of recoil . Of the approximately 1 , 400 pieces built , most were placed in France ' s numerous fortresses , most notably at Toul , Belfort , and Verdun ( part of the Séré de Rivières system ) . In 1882 , about 200 were retained for offensive operations as siege artillery . In this type of deployment , each gun was drawn by ten horses . World War I . At the turn of the century the de Bange cannons were rendered obsolete by the newer quick - firing guns using the French 75 recoil system , in which only the tube recoiled . The 155 mm de Bange was then retained in forts and in reserve , the French army ' s doctrine at the time emphasizing mobility . The " 75 for everything " had become its universal mantra for field artillery . On 2 August 1914 , the French army had 1 , 392 pieces of 155 L de Bange , either in depots or in fixed positions ; not a single one was part of the equipment of a mobile unit . On the eve of the war , a typical French army corps had 120 75 - mm cannons , while its German counterpart had 108 77 - mm , 36 105 - mm , and 16 150 - mm . The first engagement of the 155 L was probably by the 8th Foot Artillery Regiment firing from during the Battle of the Mortagne on August 27 . The first artillery duels of the war quickly convinced the French of their inferiority in heavy artillery relative to the Germans . Thus it was seen necessary to enhance the mobility of their 155 mm guns . In October 1914 , a program was started to fit the 155 L wheels with a system of metallic soles and gutters articulated together ( system known as cingoli or Bonagente wheel belts ) , thus dispensing with the laborious construction of wooden platforms . The tracks added 800 kilograms to the gun ' s weight , but saved 5 tons of bedding material for the wooden platforms that otherwise had to be transported . They also lowered the time required to deploy from 5 – 6 hours to just one . On November 27 , each French army corps was endowed with a heavy artillery group . By November 30 , 112 pieces of 155 L had already been mobilized for this purpose . In October – November 1915 , a more formal organization was introduced , grouping the 155 L in mobile service in 30 heavy artillery regiments : twenty of these regiments were horse drawn ( totaling 320 pieces of 155 L ) , while ten regiments used motorized tractors for transportation and had a mixture of 155 L and 120 L de Bange guns . By 1 August 1916 , the number of 155 L guns in mobile service reached 738 pieces . The number of motorized 155 L guns increased from 40 in the end of 1915 to 128 in July 1917 . A significant improvement in combat capabilities was achieved by boosting the powder charge , made possible by the strong construction of the 155 L . The shells used before 1914 had a speed of 470 m / s and a range not exceeding 9800 meters . This increased to 561 m / s and gained 2 , 900 meters in range in 1915 . Starting in May 1916 the 155 L were progressively replaced by newer models of the same or similar caliber . The 155 L tubes were generally retired after they had 10 , 000 rounds through them . A number of replacement barrels were however manufactured starting in 1916 . These were of somewhat simplified construction , with a constant - step rifling . Visually , the most distinctive difference between the old and new barrels is their lifting handle , which is longitudinally aligned with the barrel in the old ones but transversal in the new barrels . The introduction of quick - firing , replacement materiel for the 155 L , which was initiated by the First Stage of the Realization of the Heavy Field Artillery Program of May 30 , 1916 was still not finished in November 1918 . The field artillery of each French army corps still had a battalion of 155 L , model 1877 guns at this date . Three 155 L were in the possession of the Romanian Army in 1915 ; this number increased to four by 1918 . The battery served with the 1st Siege Regiment ( " Regimentul 1 Asediu " ) of Bucharest throughout the war . Eighty 155 L were given by France to the Russian Empire , fifty in 1916 and thirty in 1917 . The gun was also used by the Red Army during the Russian Civil War . For example , six 155 L were used by the 51st Rifle Division in their defense of Kakhovka in 1920 . At the end of June 1937 , 32 155 L guns were sent by the Soviets to the Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War , aboard the ship " Santo Tome " , which arrived at Cartagena . The Spanish formed 15 two - gun batteries with these , and kept two in reserve for training . World War II . Some 305 pieces of 155 L were still equipping the French forts on 10 May 1940 ; of these , 168 were deployed in the Maginot Line and 137 in the smaller works in the South - East . In 1940 , during the Winter War , France donated 48 155 L cannons to Finland , as part of a larger artillery equipment help , but these arrived too late to take part in that conflict . The 155 L served however as the 155 K / 77 during the Continuation War . All 48 guns were still in Finnish service in September 1941 ; the number of operational 155 K / 77 pieces decreased to 42 by January 1944 and to just 19 by September of that year . The Finns used them with a 43 . 6 kg shell with a 5 . 7 kg explosive charge , attaining a range of 12 . 3 km . Four of the 155 L guns donated were converted to coastal guns under the designation 155 / 27 BaMk ( De Bange Mk - lavetilla ) .