FNG Fortified Line - Plate VI

EDIT: In October, 2015, part of this drawing was STOLEN and published without permission or attribution by the Czech magazine "I. světová" belonging to the publishing house Extra Publishing s.r.o. from Brno, the Czech Republic. Shame on them, the assholes.

This is part of a series of nine drawings made for the non-fiction book "The Fortified Region Focsani-Namoloasa-Galati" published by the Romanian Military Museum about the eponymous Fortified Line (also known in English as the "Sereth Line" and by it's abbreviation "FNG") built by Romania for defence against a presumptive Russian invasion during 1888-90.

This is the seventh drawing, showing in detail the 5.3cm L/25 Gruson quick firing gun Md.1887/88 and it's ammunition.

These guns were manufactured by the Grusonwerk factory from Magdeburg-Buckau, and came in two versions - Md.1887 which were the guns used in the Fahrpanzer mobile gun turrets and the MD.1888 which were the guns used in the disappearing cupolas.
The only differences between them were the way the sighting mechanism were arranged - on the barrel and breech for the Fahrpanzer gun and on a separate sideplate for the cupola gun as well as a small difference in the shape of the breech lever.

The barrels were made out of so called "Witten steel" and had 24 right turning rifling grooves.

The breech was a falling block type operated by a lever on the right side which also served as a pistol grip for firing. Usual firing rate was 12-25 rounds/minute.

Maximum muzzle velocity was 447m/s which allowed the guns to fire a cast iron explosive shell packed with gunpowder to a range of 3,200m.
For close-in fighting, there was also a canister shot made out of bronze sheet which contained seventy-eight 15mm lead-antimony balls, effective up to a range of 400m. The case shot was painted bright red, as per French fashion.

The gun itself was painted a reddish chestnut brown, like the cupolas and all the other equipment of the Romanian Artillery at the time.

The other drawing in this series can be found here:

Cover, showing cutaway through 5.3cm mobile gun turret

Plate I, the 3.7cm mobile gun turret and transport carriage.

Plate II, the 3.7cm gun and ammunition.

Plate III, the 5.3cm mobile gun turret in its concrete emplacement.

Plate IV, the 5.3cm mobile gun turret in transport configuration.

Plate V, the 5.3cm disappearing cupola.

Plate VI, the 5.3cm gun and ammunition.

Plate VII, the 12cm gun and mortar armoured battery.

Plate VIII, the 12cm gun and mortar and their ammunition.