NAME (NATIVE) – Tannenbergbüchse [Tannenberg handgonne]
TYPE – Socketed hand-cannon
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN – Germany
DATE OF MANUFACTURE – 1399
CALIBER – 16mm (0.63 in)
OVERALL LENGTH – 32 cm (12.6 in)
LENGTH WITH STOCK – 150 cm (59 in) *
BARREL LENGTH – 15.6 cm (6.14 in) [26.3 cm (10.35 in) including 10.7 cm (4.21 in) long, 9mm (0.35 in) wide powder chamber]
STOCK LENGTH – 122 cm (48 in) *
RIFLING (TYPE & TWIST) – Smoothbore
BULLET DIAMETER – 9.1 mm (0.36 in) shot *
BULLET WEIGHT – 4.54 g (70 grains) per pellet – 6 pellets/27 g (416 grains) per load *
MUZZLE VELOCITY – 137 m/s (450 fps) *
MUZZLE ENERGY – 43 j (31 ft/lb) per pellet, 254 j (187 ft/lb) per load *
WEIGHT (EMPTY) – 1.24 kg (2 lb 11.74 oz)
WEIGHT (LOADED) – 1.27 kg (2 lb 12.8 oz) *
WEIGHT LOADED WITH STOCK – 1.87 kg (4 lb 2 oz) *
STOCK WEIGHT – 0.60 kg (1 lb 5.2 oz) *
SIGHTS – None
EFFECTIVE RANGE – 20 m *
OPERATION – Manual, external application of ignition source
TYPE OF FIRE – Single shot
RATE OF FIRE – 1 to 2 rpm *
FEED DEVICE – Single round of loose black powder (Serpentine), shot, wadding
FEED DEVICE WEIGHT (LOADED) – 8 g (123 grains) Black Powder, 27 g (417 grains) Shot – 6 pellets *
STATUS – Antique
SERVICE – Unknown
This is one of the earliest European hand-held firearms that can be given a reliable most recent possible date. The weapon was found in a cistern within the Tannenburg Castle in Hessian, Germany during an archaeological excavation in 1849. The castle was known to have been a robber-baron stronghold and as such was destroyed after a siege in 1399. That is how the Tannenburg Gun can be given a precise minimum date for its existence. The weapon is of the simple socketed hand cannon type and is made of cast bronze. There were no remnants of the tiller known to have been found with the weapon.
Presently, the weapon resides in the National Museum of Germany in Nürnberg. The octagonal body of the bronze gun is made from a sand casting later refined by a blacksmith. The bore hold is stepped with a 9mm by 107 mm powder chamber behind the 156mm long 17mm bore of the cannon. The powder chamber is necessary due to the use of serpentine powder in the era of the weapon. Serpentine powder is ground and properly mixed black powder, but remains a powdered mixture. Such powder does not allow the flame front from ignition to properly travel through the charge if the charge has been compressed. The use of a smaller bore powder chamber allows for the use of serpentine powder but prevents the charge from being compressed when the wadding and projectile is rammed down the bore.
The rear socket of the Tannenburg Gun is 40mm deep and tapers from a mouth if 21mm to approximately 18mm at the base. There is also a 4mm wide shoulder all around the mouth of the socket. This shoulder allows for the tiller (stock) to be tapered for insertion into the socket of the gun yet it can shoulder against the base of the weapon to even better absorb the recoil of firing. There is a small 3mm wide ignition vent on top of the weapon that enters into the base of the powder chamber. The very small depression on the top of the barrel that surrounds the ignition vent would hold only a small priming charge. The difficulty of holding and pointing the weapon, it has no sighs for proper aiming, would make it very hard for an individual operator to both direct and ignite the device. This helps reinforce the idea that such hand-cannons were crew-served with an individual gunner hold the weapon while a second man actually ignited the priming charge with either a very hot wire or smoldering slow match. Some medieval illustrations show the kind of hand-cannon exemplified by the Tannenburg Gun as being ignited by only the gunner using what could be a hot wire. The wire would be very difficult to properly hold and use during a combat situation. Other illustrations show a two-man crew using any number of ignition methods.
