County of display: McDonough County
Location of display: US-136 (W. North St.) & Charles St., Lions Park, Colchester
"M2A1 105mm Howitzer
"Using captured German 105-mm. howitzers as models, field artillery and ordnance officers built four 105-mm. howitzers in 1920. Since the howitzers and carriages were too heavy and clumsy to be easily maneuvered by hand with a normal gun crew, structurally weak, and generally unsuitable for standardization, the Ordnance Department tested various boxtrail and split-trail carriages with improved American 105-mm. howitzers mounted on them. At the same time the Field Artillery Board mounted captured German 105-mm. howitzers that had been rechambered for American ammunition on split-trail carriages and rigorously tested them. Pressured by field artillery officers, who endorsed the German pieces, the Field Artillery Board favored adopting them until a satisfactory American howitzer could be manufactured. The shortage of ammunition, the cost of putting the German howitzers into serviceable condition, and the lack of uniformity of those available from which to prepare drawings for production caused the Chief of Ordnance to protest.
"This led the War Department to abandon the superior German howitzers and place them in storage in 1925 and allowed the department to concentrate its limited funds on building an American howitzer and carriage. Pressed by the requirement for a companion piece for the 75-mm. gun and by General Snow, who insisted that developing a satisfactory 105-mm. howitzer was the most pressing ordnance problem, the Ordnance Department constructed a new American 105-mm. howitzer and mounted it on a split-trail carriage for testing. Supported by trials that demonstrated the howitzer and carriage were satisfactory, the War Department standardized them in 1928 as the horse-drawn M1 105-mm. howitzer.
"Even before the M1 105-mm. howitzer went into production, the War Department modified the field piece to load shrapnel as fixed ammunition to complement high-explosive shell and chemical shell of smoke or gas. In 1930 Chief of Field Artillery, Major General Harry G. Bishop (1930-1934), reported that ten altered M! howitzers, redesignated the M2 105-mm. howitzer, were being manufactured. The following year, the War Department sent four M2 howitzers to Battery F, 1st Field Artillery Regiment, The Field Artillery School, Fort Sill, for testing. At the conclusion of the trials, the school reported in 1931 that the M2 howitzer tube was satisfactory but that the carriage could not be towed at a high-speed by a motor vehicle and required a recoil pit for highangle fire missions. Even though the school found the M2 howitzer to be inadequate, it still expressed faith in motor-drawn field artillery. 37 Limited funds, however, forced the War Department to stop the manufacture of the M2 howitzer in 1934 and the development of a carriage, left the division without a light howitzer for general support, and compelled keeping the M1918 155-mm. howitzer in the division.
"Pushed by General Bishop, the Army War College, and the existence of obsolescent guns, howitzers, organization, and technique, the War Department stepped up the pace of modernizing its field artillery in the 1930s. Because of the decline in the horse population in the United States and a modernization program initiated in 1933 by Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacAtthur (1930-1935), the War Department decided to motorize fifty percent of its light field artillery. Although resistance from conservative field artillery officers hindered adopting towed light artillery, the War Department motorized fifty-six of its eighty-one 75-mm. gun batteries by 1940 and had even developed an experimental motor-drawn M2 105-mm. howitzer.
"In June 1938 Chief of Field Artillery, Major General Robert M. Danford (1938-1942), directed the Field Artillery School to determine the best combination of weapons for division artillery. Specifically, he wanted to know whether the 105-mm. howitzer should be used with the 75-mm. gun in the division or whether it should be the sole weapon. The school categorically rejected replacing the 155-mm. howitzer with the 105-mm. howitzer as a companion piece for the 75-mm. gun because it only offered mobility.
"At the same time, employing the 105-mm. howitzer as the sole weapon had merit. Such an arrangement would simplify supply, maintenance, training, in some instances organization, and increase firepower, but it would reduce mobility unless a larger truck was used to pull the piece. Assaulting the orthodox position of a 75-rmm. gun and 105-mm. howitzer combination for the division and realizing that motorization had improved mobility the Field Artillery School wanted 105-mm. and 155-mm. howitzers as division artillery.
"The triangular division consisted of combat infantry and supporting arms and services. The division had three infantry regim.nts, a reconnaissance troop, engineer battalion, medical battalion, quartermaster company, ordnance company, signal company, military police platoon, a band, and division artillery. Commanded by a brigadier general, division artillery had 144 officers and 2,439 enlisted personnel and was composed of three 75-mm. gun battalions (thirty-six guns) for direct support and one 155-mm. howitzer battalion (twelve howitzers) for general support because sufficient quantities of 105-mm. howitzers were unavailable.
"The War Department saw the 75-mm. gun as an all purpose weapon and noted in 1939-40 that the M2 105-mm. howitzer's range was shorter than the M2 75-mm. gun's, that it took longer for the howitzer to go into action, that the howitzer had still not been proven in battle, that there was a surplus of 75-mm. guns and al. munition, and that replacing the 75-mm. gun with the 105-mm. howitzer would be expensive.
"Events in 1940 finally forced the War Department to recast its division artillery. Reports prepared by field artillery officers during maneuvers in April and May reaffirmed the necessity of supplanting the 75-mm. gun with the 105-mm. howitzer. Moreover, the Germans' success with pieces heavier than the 75-mm. gun in its division artillery convinced the War Department to reevaluate keeping the 75-mm. gun. In. June 1940 after Germany had signed an armistice with France, the Organization and Training Division (G-3) of the General Staff sent General Danford a memorandum announcing its decision to arm division artillery with 105-mm. and 155-mm. howitzers. Nevertheless, many divisions continued equipping their field artillery with 75-mm. guns until 1943 when 105-mm. howitzers became available in large numbers.
"The M2 105mm howitzers was later to be known as the M101A1."
~ Global Security