The guns of H.I.H. and H.I.H. Siderius:
Land based guns
As noted before, H.I.H. started out by acquiring
large stocks of German WW1 guns, that had been
moved to Holland before the Treaty of Versailles
came into being. Martens mentions a report by the
Dutch Army Inspector of Artillery in 1924, stating
that H.I.H. possessed:
- 22 guns 15cm L42,
- 110 guns 15cm L17,
- 60 howitzers 10cm L10 (possibly a misprint),
- 60 guns 10,5cm L35,
- 50 guns 7,7cm L17.
- 8 AA guns 8,8cm and
- 53 Ehrhardt 2cm AA guns.
H.I.H. however also started developing new guns,
some of which were clearly based on these WW1
leftovers, others were experimental or new guns.
In the 1920s H.I.H. fielded a 20mm machine cannon,
clearly of Ehrhardt extraction. It has sometimes been
referred to as the HAIHA 2cm (HAIHA being
phonetic Dutch for H.I.H. – it was also the H.I.H.
telegram call sign). This gun however, would be
brought to perfection by another offshoot of
Rheinmetall: Solothurn of Switzerland that produced
and successfully sold a large number of 20mm anti-
tank rifles and AA guns. Eventually, it would come
home as the German Flak 30 AA gun.
One of the first local orders to H.I.H. must have
been the production of a test battery of 4 pieces of
105mm L22 howitzers for the Dutch army. On May
6th 1925 one of these pieces fired its first round. The
Dutch Army was not extremely satisfied with these
guns. Officials did not find them “the most modern”
types, while their effective range of 9000 metres was
considered meagre. Nevertheless, the guns passed
the tests by fulfilling all requirements and were
considered “useful”. But no orders were ever placed.
It is unclear what happened to the 4 howitzers. The
Dutch never used them, not even as an emergency
battery in 1940 (and they would have used them if
they had them), which means the howitzers were
probably returned to H.I.H. at some point. We have
no concrete information of
H.I.H. ever selling these guns, though their
specifications turn up in Chinese sources!
Continue to the next page (4 of 8): land based
guns continued
Land based guns
As noted before, H.I.H. started out by acquiring
large stocks of German WW1 guns, that had been
moved to Holland before the Treaty of Versailles
came into being. Martens mentions a report by the
Dutch Army Inspector of Artillery in 1924, stating
that H.I.H. possessed:
- 22 guns 15cm L42,
- 110 guns 15cm L17,
- 60 howitzers 10cm L10 (possibly a misprint),
- 60 guns 10,5cm L35,
- 50 guns 7,7cm L17.
- 8 AA guns 8,8cm and
- 53 Ehrhardt 2cm AA guns.
H.I.H. however also started developing new guns,
some of which were clearly based on these WW1
leftovers, others were experimental or new guns.
In the 1920s H.I.H. fielded a 20mm machine cannon,
clearly of Ehrhardt extraction. It has sometimes been
referred to as the HAIHA 2cm (HAIHA being
phonetic Dutch for H.I.H. – it was also the H.I.H.
telegram call sign). This gun however, would be
brought to perfection by another offshoot of
Rheinmetall: Solothurn of Switzerland that produced
and successfully sold a large number of 20mm anti-
tank rifles and AA guns. Eventually, it would come
home as the German Flak 30 AA gun.
One of the first local orders to H.I.H. must have
been the production of a test battery of 4 pieces of
105mm L22 howitzers for the Dutch army. On May
6th 1925 one of these pieces fired its first round. The
Dutch Army was not extremely satisfied with these
guns. Officials did not find them “the most modern”
types, while their effective range of 9000 metres was
considered meagre. Nevertheless, the guns passed
the tests by fulfilling all requirements and were
considered “useful”. But no orders were ever placed.
It is unclear what happened to the 4 howitzers. The
Dutch never used them, not even as an emergency
battery in 1940 (and they would have used them if
they had them), which means the howitzers were
probably returned to H.I.H. at some point. We have
no concrete information of
H.I.H. ever selling these guns, though their
specifications turn up in Chinese sources!
Continue to the next page (4 of 8): land based
guns continued
Battery of 4 H.I.H. 105mm L22 howitzers
An improved H.I.H 105mm L22 howitzer
with sprung axle carriage and hard rubber
tyres
with sprung axle carriage and hard rubber
tyres