I still need to make a visit to the State Archives of Lower Saxony found in Hannover and Buckeburg (much of the former Brunswick-Luneburg territories). The latter does keep a lot of artillery drafts—not so much Hanoverian, I'm arfaid)—while the former has but few drafts listed with the libraries finder.
Its not all that much I have for the time being, but enough to give it a start. Now, lets close in on the issue.
A general overview on SYW Hanoverian ordnance can be found at Kronoskaf SYW Online Source Project http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Hanoverian_Artillery_Equipment . Most of this articles content was edited by myself, so there is no need to repeat it all here. This article's focus is the ‘looks’ of Hanoverian guns of this period. Lets first have a look at the result.
The barrels looks are my take based on an illustration found in Scharnorst, Handbuch für die Officiere, …etc. Erster Theil von der Artillerie, …etc., publ. Hannover 1787. It shows a Hanoverian howitzer barrel of the 1780's fielded new ordnance. Its most distinctive feature is the odd rounded breech at the base of the barrel instead of a button. I believe models cast earlier has a much similar construction. The carriage bracket cheeks are based on a Danish construction. Its most distinctive feature is its cornice shaped part in front of the trunnions. A feature, often found with mortar stools.
Above see some W-I-P images of the piece placed next to the French 8 inch howitzer.
The manner of the iron straps I have done based on a draft of a Hanoverian 24-pounder carriage. The songle draft I could find so far.
Source: copyright restricted Digital Collection Württembergische Landesbibliothek. It is published here for purely academic use without any commercial intention. |