13.5 cm K 09

13.5 cm Kanone 09
Surviving Krupp 13.5cm K09 Field Gun in the Wellington Botanic Garden
Type	Heavy field gun
Place of origin	German Empire
Service history
Used by	German Empire
Wars	World War I
Production history
Designer	Krupp
Manufacturer	Krupp
No. built	about 190
Specifications
Mass	6,730 kilograms (14,840 lb)
Length	8,200 millimetres (320 in)
Barrel length	189 inches (4.8 m) (L/35.6)
Width	1,920 millimetres (76 in)
Shell	42 kilograms (93 lb)
Caliber	135 millimetres (5.3 in)
Recoil	1,420 millimetres (56 in)
Carriage	box trail
Elevation	-5° to +26°
Traverse	4°
Muzzle velocity	635 m/s (2,085 ft/s)
Maximum firing range	16,500 yards (15,100 m)

The 13.5 cm Kanone 09 (13.5 cm K 09) was a heavy breech-loading field artillery gun used by Germany in World War I. Built by Friedrich Krupp AG, in Essen, Germany, this gun was intended to supplement the 10 cm K 04. Only four were in service at the outbreak of the war. It was withdrawn from service in 1915 as it was deemed to be too much gun for too little shell, but it was returned to service later in the war when the Allied blockade began to affect German ammunition production.

One of these guns was captured during the Battle of the Canal du Nord, on 29 September 1918, by the New Zealand Division. Two battalions of the Wellington Regiment were engaged in this action, which was part of an Allied attack on the Hindenburg Line. At the end of the war, the captured gun, Nr 4, and many other captured German weapons were sent to New Zealand as war trophies. In 1920, Nr 4 was gifted to the city of Wellington in honor of its soldiers. The gun, believed to be the only one remaining in existence, is currently on public display in the Wellington Botanic Garden.

References

• Hogg, Ian. Twentieth-Century Artillery. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2000 ISBN 0-7607-1994-2
• Jäger, Herbert. German Artillery of World War One. Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire: Crowood Press, 2001 ISBN 1-86126-403-8

External links

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