Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update.
Today we are looking at two of our existing artillery pieces that have had some modifications. Some cosmetic and some more invasive...
During the first World War US Army purchased French 75 mm field guns to equip its expeditionary force. In the spring of 1918 US industries started domestically producing them, designated 75 mm Gun M1897, but only a few of these reached Europe before the end of hostilities. It remained in production and was iteratively improved with A2, A3, and finally A4 models.
While the gun itself had seen some minor changes, the A4 carriage had new pneumatic tyres, steel wheels, a lower profile and internal expanding brakes. This allowed the gun to be issued to motorised artillery units instead of horse-drawn ones, but didn't solve the major issue of the gun: its low maximum elevation.
With the start of WW2, large numbers of the US made M1897A4 guns were sent back to France. Approximately 1000 guns and a million shells would cross the Atlantic, and with the Fall of France, some of these were diverted to the remaining Free French forces under General De Gaulle.
The campaign in France had shown the 75 mm gun could be a capable improvised anti-tank gun, and most of the artillery pieces in Free French service had their shields cut down and seats removed to lower their profile and weight. Many were also mounted on trucks to compensate for the minimal traverse of the gun and to increase their mobility. Our Free French modified M1897A4 has been cut down by Seth Soldier from his Mle 1897 M38 model.
The Finnish Army captured a total of 41 122mm M1938 howitzers during the course of the war, the majority of them in 1941. They were the most modern of the light howitzers available to them and were well regarded. Kraetzer has outfitted our 122mm H/38 with Finnish 3 tone camo, and Cpt Bocquier has modified the gunshield into the correct position.
That's all for this week, but be sure to come back next time for another update. Until then, feel free to visit our Discord, our public forums, our Twitter, our subreddit, and/or Facebook pages to discuss this update and other news.
