The French 75 mm field gun is a quick-firing field artillery piece adopted in March 1898. Its official French designation was: Matériel de 75 mm Mle 1897. It was commonly known as the French 75, simply the 75 and Soixante-Quinze. The French 75 was designed as an anti-personnel weapon system for delivering large volumes of time-fused shrapnel shells on enemy troops advancing in the open. After 1915 and the onset of trench warfare, impact-detonated high-explosive shells prevailed. By 1918 the 75s became the main agents of delivery for toxic gas shells. The 75s also became widely used as truck mounted anti-aircraft artillery. They were the main armament of the Saint-Chamond tank in 1918.
Canon de 75 Modèle 1897 on display in Les Invalides
Lieutenant-colonel Joseph Albert Deport, the developer of the 75 mm field gun
Rifling of a 75 modèle 1897
Range setting device
A quick-firing or rapid-firing gun is an artillery piece, typically a gun or howitzer, that has several characteristics which taken together mean the weapon can fire at a fast rate. Quick-firing was introduced worldwide in the 1880s and 1890s and had a marked impact on war both on land and at sea.
Woodcut depicting Royal Navy gunners in action with the 1-inch Nordenfelt gun, the first practical QF gun
Royal Navy deck mounting of the QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss, the first modern QF gun, 1915
Quick-firing 4.7-inch gun on "Percy Scott" carriage at the Battle of Colenso