The Devil Gun

The Devil Gun was the German name for the French 75-millimeter field gun, a weapon whose speed and accuracy made it central to American artillery training and a defining presence on the battlefield. Its reputation rested not on size but on an ingenious recoil system: the gun could remain aimed after each shot and fire again without delay.

Design and Operation

Developed twenty years before the war, the gun’s technology was guarded by the French as a military secret. Its slim, six-foot barrel was made of nickel steel and other classified alloys; its breechblock, carriage, and hydropneumatic recoil system were also specially designed. When fired, the gun recoiled on its carriage but stayed in place, eliminating the need to correct its aim between shots. That mechanism gave it a rate of twenty to thirty rounds per minute and an effective range of five miles.

At a little over a ton and a half, the weapon was light compared with most cannon. Its high-spoked wooden wheels made it maneuverable, qualities that suited it to trench warfare. A single gun’s performance was formidable; a battery of four could deliver devastating fire.

Use and Reputation

Classroom instruction and firing-range training centered on the French 75-millimeter field gun. American units relied on it almost exclusively, since no American- or British-made fieldpiece could match it. The account notes that, despite the scale of American troop supply, virtually no American fieldpieces, airplanes, or tanks were used in the war.

The gun was known as a marvel weapon, and the French would later say that it had won the war for them. Its German name, “Devil Gun,” condensed the opposing experience of its rapid, accurate fire into a stark epithet. The expression thus points to both the weapon’s technical distinction and the destructive force of a four-gun battery.