... ie. artillery pieces that have the barrel length of some 30-35 calibers. Granted, this is a bit longer barrel than on the pieces that can be called like that. like the Soviet ML20, or the British 25 pdr, but bear with me for the duration of this thread. Artillery 'niches' are of 88 mm, 105 mm, 127/128mm, 150mm, and 170mm, with MV of some 650-700 m/s maximum. Max elevation is still above 45 degrees.
The 'no free lunch' rule will be evident - for the same weight vs. the howitzers, shell weight is going to be lighter, but the range will be longer, and so will be the ability to hit the moving targets that come in close, talk to about 1000m. Lets stipulate that Heer has no problems in specifying the 88 gun-howitzer as the backbone of their artillery park instead of the 105 mm howitzer (this is the hardest part probably, since the 105m shell was at least 50% heavier, even if that howitzer was short - if not very short - ranged). Or, go with 105mm gun-how for the motorized or mechanized divisions, and 88mm for the non-motorized units?
The dedicated guns are still being made, like the AT guns, or the long-range guns. They look at piggy-backing on the KM and LW guns for the long-barreled pieces, in order to save time and coin.
Will the Heer artillery park will be better off, or worse off?
The 'no free lunch' rule will be evident - for the same weight vs. the howitzers, shell weight is going to be lighter, but the range will be longer, and so will be the ability to hit the moving targets that come in close, talk to about 1000m. Lets stipulate that Heer has no problems in specifying the 88 gun-howitzer as the backbone of their artillery park instead of the 105 mm howitzer (this is the hardest part probably, since the 105m shell was at least 50% heavier, even if that howitzer was short - if not very short - ranged). Or, go with 105mm gun-how for the motorized or mechanized divisions, and 88mm for the non-motorized units?
The dedicated guns are still being made, like the AT guns, or the long-range guns. They look at piggy-backing on the KM and LW guns for the long-barreled pieces, in order to save time and coin.
Will the Heer artillery park will be better off, or worse off?