155 mm howitzer

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The M114 155 mm howitzer was a towed howitzer used by the United States Army. It was first produced in 1942 as a medium artillery piece under the designation of 155 mm Howitzer M1. It saw service with the US Army during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, before being replaced by the M198 howitzer.

Development

A new carriage was under development for much of the 1930s for the existing World War I-era M-1918 155 mm howitzer, which was a license-built French Canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider until 1939 when it was realized that it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to put a new carriage underneath an obsolete howitzer. So development began anew with a carriage designed to be used for either the 155 mm howitzer or the 4.7-inch (120 mm) gun. This was completed by 15 May 1941 when the Howitzer M1 on the Carriage M1 was standardized.
The howitzer itself differed from the older model by a lengthened barrel of 20 calibers and a new breech mechanism. Uniquely it was the sole ’slow-cone’ interrupted screw mechanism to enter service after 1920^[1]. This meant that two separate movements were necessary to open the breech, vice the single movement of the ’steep cone’ mechanism that simultaneously rotated and withdrew the breech.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M114_155_mm_howitzer