Talk:Canon de 194 GPF

This article is total piffle - I'd recommend getting rid of it.

Let's start with the heading "Canon de 194 mle GPF" - if the original author doesn't realise that Mle is the abbreviation for Modele and should be followed by a year we're not off to a good start. In fact the correct designation for the French SPG built by FAMH mounting a 194mm gun was "Canon 194mm GPF sur affût-chenilles Saint-Chamond" the "sur affût-chenilles" translates as "on tracked carriage".

Taking the content apart inaccuracy by inaccuracy...

"was the first French tracked self-propelled gun " - nope - the first French SPG was probably a cut down Saint-Chamond tank fitted with a Rimailho 120mm gun - one built in 1917. "The vehicle was designed in Schneider's Le Creusot works" - nope - it was designed in Saint-Chamond where the FAMH factory was which is quite a distance from the Loire valley where Scheider's Le Creusot works were located. "It was originally planned to arm it with a 155 mm gun" - nope - the 155mm version was originally proposed as one possible solution to the problem of improving the mobility of the 155mm GPF gun. One prototype was built but although there were extant orders for the 155mm at the end of WW1 these were cancelled. "A few examples of this SPG were armed with a modified 280 mm siege mortar" - I thought the article was on the 194mm armed vehicle? Few as in 25 examples - the howitzer (called a "mortier" in French terminology) was the Mortier de 280 Mle 1914 Schneider. "Both weapons used the same chassis" - oh no they didn't - the howitzer version had a charging trolley and a different stabilising foot to resist the turning couple when firing the howitzer. "were powered by a 120 horsepower (89 kW) Panhard SUK4 M2 engine" - nope - the Saint-Chamond gun vehicles were driven by a pair of electric motors - the electricity was supplied by a tractor vehicle which had the Panhard motor and generator. A cable connected the two vehicles. "it was driven by only one person" - nope - the tractor and gun vehicle required a driver each. "After the Great War all M 280 models were converted to take the 194 mm gun" - not even close - the 280mm howitzer vehicles were in service in June 1940 - there is a surviving 280mm howitzer vehicle at the Bundeswehr Museum at Dresden - so much for "all".

No comments on the surviving vehicles at Dresden and (now) Fort Sill ?

François Vauvillier "La Formidable Artillerie à Chenilles du Colonel Rimailho - I - Les Pièces Courtes" in "Histoire de Guerre Blindés & Materiel" No. 74, Nov-Dec 2006, pp.26-35. François Vauvillier "La Formidable Artillerie à Chenilles du Colonel Rimailho - II - Les Pièces Longes" in "Histoire de Guerre Blindés & Materiel" No. 75, Fév-Mars 2007, pp.68-75. J-Y Mary "1939-1940 Le Rendez-Vous Manque Des 280 sur Chenilles" Histoire de Guerre Blindés & Materiel Nov-Dec 2006, No. 74, pp.36-39. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9612676c

Don't read French? - try the Landships article - http://landships.info/landships/tank_articles.html?load=tank_articles/St_Chamond_SPGs.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by Charlie Landships (talk • contribs) 01:29, 3 January 2017 (UTC)