Didn't the French deploy some kind of self-propelled gun in WWI? Or am I completely off the mark? Anyway, what was the first self-propelled gun to see service? And the very first tank destroyer?
The British did develop one in WW1, basically an artillery piece (posibly a howitzer?) mounted on a tracked chassis. I have no idea if it even got past prototype stage - I'll have a dig around.
Yes, I saw it, and I have seen the picture before too. I believe Liang posted some pics of it some time ago. But is it WWI? I remember something, although I might be wrong, about this particular SPG being post-WWI.
The French had a couple SPG's. The Schneider M16 and St Chamond M16. Schneider M16 Weight 13.5tons Speed 5mph Frontal armour 24mm Aramant 1X75mm and 2mg (donno what guns) St. Chamond M16 Weight 23tons Speed 5mph Armour 17mm Aramant 1X75mm, 4mg Supposedbly used from April of 1915 till the end of teh war.
I believe these were just their tanks, though. Tanks didn't have turrets in WW1 so by our standards they'd all be SPGs.
Interesting story with German Artillery here. SPG...well, I guess it was. What they did was make a huge, huge gun with could fire over many, many miles, which was actually on the back of a train. From their positions, the Germans managed to hit Paris a few times, but people had no idea what the heck was hitting them because it was so far away. Due to the hugeness of the gun and the operation crew which I believe was over one thousand people, it wasn't used much, heh. Cheers, Tomba
Here we go: I have only ever seen any referance to this in one book, 'Tanks and weapons of WW1', I think it's by Cassels. I bought it from my local library, who were selling it because some charming person had cut big chunks of it out! The caption for this picture says "The British Gun Carrier Mk1. More a self-propelled gun than a tank, the first Gun Carrier was in service by January 1917. The model pictured here carries a 60-pounder gun, though other Gun Carriers were fitted with a 6-inch howitzer. In the static war of the Western Front, the appearance of mobile guns caused considerable confusion to artillery spotters." If anybody can add any info about this SPG - or even confirm its existance, I'd be delighted!
With a bit of browsing on Google, I fuond the following links, with some more info, and some good pictures & models. http://home.hccnet.nl/h.van.oerle/landshp/landshp2.htm http://www.webmatters.net/france/ww1_pozieres_tank.htm http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selbstfahrlafette http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quart ... /gcm1.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_Carrier_Mark_I It does seem to have been the first SPG, although apparently most of them were simply used to transport cargo.