Krupp gun

Krupp gun
A 75mm Krupp gun used during the War of the Pacific
Type	artillery
Place of origin	Prussia,  German Empire
Service history
Used by	Prussia  German Empire  Austrian Empire  Austro-Hungarian Navy  Chile Qing China  Costa Rica  Honduras  Ottoman Empire Philippines Russian Empire Spain  Venezuela
Wars	War of the Pacific Philippine Revolution Spanish–American War Philippine–American War World War I

The Krupp gun is a family of artillery pieces that was used by several world armies from the nineteenth century onwards.

In 1811, Friedrich Krupp founded his cast-steel factory Gusstahlfabrik, but it was his son, Alfred Krupp, who attained notable success. In 1856, Fried. Krupp A.G., produced a 9cm muzzle-loading rifled gun of cast steel, which gave such good results that Prussia adopted steel for making army guns, which made Prussia the first country to do so.

Krupp guns were purchased by the Russian, Austrian, and the Ottoman Empire armies during the 1860s. By the 1870s, they were being purchased by countries all over the world. Naval guns were also rapidly developed; from 1863, guns were being manufactured for several navies, which included those of Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Prussia, among others.

By the 1880s, Krupp had developed an 88mm naval gun and adopted 75mm as the caliber for the army's field and mountain guns. In 1897, when the French 75mm quick-firing gun appeared, Krupp produced the similar 77mm, which was used in World War I.

Krupp mountain guns were also used during the Spanish Civil War.

Since 1948, according to military sources, the Honduran Navy has maintained one Krupp cannon, which is the first of its kind made by the company and which is still in working order, at the Amapala Naval Base on the Pacific coast.

The principal characteristic of Krupp guns is that they are made of steel. Alfred Krupp was introduced to the Bessemer process to mass-produce steel by his London agent and friend, Alfred Longsdon, in 1859-60. After a lengthy period of trial and error, this steel was developed to such quality that the royal factory of Woolwich in England acquired steel from Krupp to manufacture guns that conformed to British naval standards. Also, Krupp was one of the first manufacturers to design practical breechloading guns for army use.