Cannone da 75/32 modello 37

The Cannone da 75/32 modello 37 was an Italian 75 mm field gun of the Second World War. Its designation records the calibre, a barrel 32 calibres long, and the year 1937 in which it was accepted for service. It grew out of a request by the Italian Arms and Ammunition Technical Service for a longer-barrelled gun with better range than the 75/18 howitzers, mounted on the same carriage so that many parts would be shared; a prototype was built at the Naples Arsenal and Ansaldo took on production. The final gun had a one-piece barrel, a muzzle brake, a split-trail carriage with spoked wheels and torsion-bar suspension, and could be towed at up to 60 kilometres an hour. It fired on either one or two charges to give different ranges, and from 1943 it gained a 12 mm shield and a faster loading system for anti-tank work. Italian units used it on the Russian front, Germany took over captured guns after the Italian surrender, and some went to Peru.