Canon de 120 mm modèle 1878
The Canon de 120 mm L modèle 1878 was a French piece of siege and field artillery which was widely used during the First World War and despite its obsolescence, it was still in use by some nations during the Second World War.
A Finnish mle 1878 at the Hameenlinna artillery museum.
Canon de 120 mm L modèle 1878 sur_affût-truck Peigné-Canet mle 1897
Italian guns captured in North Africa by the British.
Mle 1878s with gun shields.
Charles Ragon de Bange was a French artillery officer and Polytechnician. He invented the first effective obturator system for breech-loading artillery, which remains in use. He also designed a system of field guns of various calibers which served the French Army well into World War I: the Système de Bange.
Cannon breech with de Bange system.
DeBange breech, function of the obturating ring
Detail of the de Bange mechanism on a 155 mm de Bange siege cannon.
De Bange obturator mechanism on the de Bange 90 mm field cannon.