Canon de 240 modèle 93/96 TAZ

The Canon de 240 modèle 93/96 TAZ was a French Coastal Defense and Railway gun used by the French Army during World War I and by the German Army during World War II. Although the majority of combatants had heavy field artillery prior to the outbreak of the First World War, none had adequate numbers of heavy guns in service, nor had they foreseen the growing importance of heavy artillery once the Western Front stagnated and trench warfare set in. Since aircraft of the period were not yet capable of carrying large diameter bombs the burden of delivering heavy firepower fell on the artillery. Two sources of heavy artillery suitable for conversion to field use were surplus coastal defense guns and naval guns. Big caliber land weapons were less prevalent than large caliber naval guns because of their weight, complexity, and immobility. This created a contradiction for artillery designers of the era. Large caliber field guns often required extensive site preparation because the guns had to be broken down into multiple loads light enough to be towed by a horse team or the few traction engines of the time and then reassembled before use. Building a new gun could address the problem of disassembling, transporting and reassembling a large gun, but it didn't necessarily address how to convert existing heavy weapons to make them more mobile. Rail transport proved to be the most practical solution because the problems of heavy weight, lack of mobility and reduced setup time were addressed. The Canon de 240 modèle 93/96 started life as eight Canon de 240 de côte modèle 1893 coastal defense guns that were removed from fortifications at Dakar in Senegal and Saigon in Vietnam. Because of this, the guns were often referred to as "colonies" mounts. The eight gun barrels were placed on the existing rail carriages for the Canon de 305 modèle 93/96 TAZ manufactured by the firm of St Chamond. The carriages were originally deployed in 1916 but it was too much gun for too little carriage so the barrels were replaced with barrels by St Chamond and entered service in 1918.