German 10.5cm LeFH18M Howitzer - AFV's No. AF 35S24

The German army command asked for improvement of light field howitzer 16, which had been in use in World War I. The answer which the Rheinmetall company came up with was the LeFH18. Overall an orthodox design, it had the same 10.5cm calibre as its predecessor, with a barrel length of 2941mm, and used a split trail with folding spades and a hydro-pneumatic recoil system. Its base can be fitted with either wooden or pressed-steel wheels, and was designed to be towed by horse-drawn wagon as well as wheeled or half-track vehicle.

The LeFH18 proved to be a sounding design with both reliability and accuracy, had served widely in many artillery regiments throughout WWII, forming the backbone of German divisional field artillery. The LeFH18 used separate-loading propelling charges, between one and six depending on the desired range. However, its maximum firing range of only 10675m made it no match for its Soviet counterpart. Its heavy weight also made it unable to be truly mobile, often resulting itself being abandoned in the muddy terrain of Russian Front. When first confronted with the Soviet T-34, KV-I and KV-II tanks in 1941, German anti-tank weaponry was quickly found to be inadequate. One of the only guns capable of destroying these Soviet tanks was the LeFh18. The LeFH18M was a modified version of the LeFH18. It features a new muzzle break, powder capacity was also increased, extending its mamimal firing range to 12,325m. Some improvement was also made on the recoiling system. The LeFH18M began to serve in frontline units from 1940. Other than the standard towed version, they were also adapted as main armament of several light-weight self-propelled guns, which remained on first-line service until the end of WWII.


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