The Cannone da 149 G later known as the Cannone da 149/23 was an Italian fortress gun and siege gun which served with Italy during the Italo-Turkish War and World War I. Captured guns may have been used by Austria-Hungary. History The 149/23 was designed and built by Gio. Ansaldo & C. and entered service in 1882. It was fairly conventional for its time and most nations had similar guns such as the de Bange 155 mm cannon. However, by the time the First World War broke out, it was obsolescent and in need of replacement. Although the majority of combatants had heavy field artillery prior to the outbreak of the First World War, none had adequate numbers of heavy guns in service, nor had they foreseen the growing importance of heavy artillery once the Italian Front stagnated and trench warfare set in. Since aircraft of the period were not yet capable of carrying large diameter bombs the burden of delivering heavy firepower fell on the artillery. The majority of combatants scrambled to find anything that could fire a heavy shell and that meant emptying the fortresses and designing field carriages for converted coastal and naval artillery. Design The 149/23 was a short barreled breech-loading cannon on a rigid two-wheeled box trail carriage. The barrel was a typical built-up gun of the period with a mix of steel and iron construction. The gun had an interrupted screw breech and it fired separate-loading, bagged charges and projectiles. Like many of its contemporaries, the 149/23 carriage was tall and narrow with two wooden 12-spoke wheels of diameter. This was because the guns were designed to sit behind a parapet with the barrel overhanging the front. Since the guns weren't expected to go very far they weren't designed with mobility in mind. Like many of its contemporaries, its carriage did not have a recoil mechanism. However, when used in a fortress the guns could be connected to an external recoil mechanism which connected to a steel eye on the concrete firing platform and a hook on the carriage between the wheels. A set of wooden ramps were also placed behind the wheels and when the gun fired the wheels rolled up the ramp and was returned to position by gravity. There was also no traversing mechanism and the gun had to be levered into position to aim. A drawback of this system was