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WW1 made British 60 pounder field gun - Wabasha, Minnesota


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I came across this field gun the other day in Wabasha, Minnesota. It is well kept and nicely displayed in a city park there.

 

Odd thing about it is that it is a British made 60 pound gun. So why is it on display, and why there?

 

Best I can think of is that the Minnesota National Guard has the 151st Field Artillery, which fought with the 42nd Rainbow Division in WW1. And Wabasha is on the Mississippi River, and on the south end of a very wide spot in the river named Lake Pepin. On the northern end of Lake Pepin, about 12 or so miles north and also along the Mississippi, is Lake City, Minnesota, which was once the home of Camp Lakeview, which was the Minnesota National Guard's main training facility from I think the 1880's up through the post WW1 era. It was later closed down and moved to Camp Ripley. In looking at old pictures of Camp Lakeview, and in reading about it, artillery was used there. My understanding was that they would practice artillery firing by shooting at targets out on the lake / river.

 

That's the best I can think of. I believe that British made guns were commonly used by American artillery units in WW1. Odd that one would be brought back as a souvenir though. But who knows.

 

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Thats quite a piece of artillery and not something often seen.

 

Been a few years since we road motorcycle to Pikes Peak,then to Winona and North.Great area and very scenic.

 

Road the Wisconsin side as well.

 

THanks for posting

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Garandomatic

I recall reading that we used none of our own artillery to save time in mobilization and space in shipping, so your hunch has to be correct.

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pararaftanr2

It appears there is a place for a commemorative plaque at the front of the stone base. Did it have anything to say about the monument, or it's origins?

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I echo what Doyler said - a rare piece of artilery especially to be on display in the US. It would probably make a good research project to figure out how it got there. Thanks for posting it. Guess I'll be making a trip to Minnesota soon!

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It appears that only 14 or so of these guns have survived and 9 are in the US. We apparenly got some for evaluation after the war. I imagine these were eventually transfered to museums and towns for WW1 memorials.

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world war I nerd

Garandomatic is correct, not one U.S. made artillery piece was used by the AEF.

 

All of the light artillery (75mm field gun) was supplied by the French.

 

The larger caliber guns were supplied (err, I should say bought, because Uncle Sam had to pay for them one way or another) by both the British & French. The bigger guns were comprised of a number of large caliber field pieces … a list of which I don't have in front of me at this particular moment.

 

I suspect that the gun at the top of this post was one of the artillery pieces provided by the British.

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I believe 48 M1906 4.7 inch guns of US manufacture were used by the 302nd and 328th FA Regiments on detached service from their parent divisions (76th and 85th respectively). The 302nd served as corps artillery for the French II Colonial and French XVII Corps under command of 2nd Army (US) in the St. Mihiel sector beginning about Nov 1, 1918. The 328th FA served from Oct 31 in the 167th FA Brigade of the 92nd Division in Lorraine (VI Corps, 2nd Army. Small efforts certainly but used nonetheless. Can't forget the 4 US made 14 inch Naval Guns on rail mounts and manned by US Navy crews either -- not field artillery but provided valuable service regardless.

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Talk about a period monument, that thing was built before WWII - late 20s early 30s. I wonder if the local VFW/AL post has anything on it? I had no idea this was down there, will have to visit at some point...

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  • 2 years later...
On 7/16/2018 at 1:22 PM, bertmedals said:

I echo what Doyler said - a rare piece of artilery especially to be on display in the US. It would probably make a good research project to figure out how it got there. Thanks for posting it. Guess I'll be making a trip to Minnesota soon!

 

Dennis, did you ever make it to Minnesota? 

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29 minutes ago, MWalsh said:

 

Dennis, did you ever make it to Minnesota? 

Unfortunately, no.  COVID, etc. got in the way. But I'll put something related from my area in the next post.

 

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I would never have thought this...and missed it in my research thus far.

 

I'm a new transplant in Ohio.  Recently I was was heading to a store in Rittman, Ohio.  I missed my stop and had to find a place to turn around.  The only place I could see was the Rittman Cemetery.  Making my turn I ran into another of those 60 Pounder field guns!  It'a a mere 25 miles from my house in Strongsville, Ohio. Go figure. I'll try to figure out how it got here.

 

A couple of pictures follow.

 

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