Replica of a Mougin casemate gun at the Fort du Mont Bart Photo: Bresson Thomas
The Mougin turret is a land-based revolving gun turret that housed some of the heaviest armament in French fortifications of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While not reliably resistant to the explosive shells of opposing artillery, Mougin turrets remained active through 1940, when they engaged German and Italian forces during the Battle of France and the Italian invasion of France. The turrets were used at twenty-two forts of the Séré de Rivières system built in the 1870s.
The Mougin turret was named for its designer, Commandant Mougin, who developed the first turret in 1875. The turret consists of two 155mm guns under a bowl-shaped armor shield, sunk into the ground and surrounded by a thick concrete apron that protected the multi-level traverse and loading facilities below.[1] The turret is distinguished from naval turrets by the absence of protruding barrels. Two oval ports show just the muzzles of the guns. By contrast with naval practice, in which guns pivot in elevation on trunnions near their breeches, their muzzles and barrels protruding and moving in an arc, the Mougin turret's guns pivot at their muzzles, the barrel, gun carriage and breech ends rising and falling within the turret. This reduces the chances of enemy fire hitting the guns, a small risk on a moving ship, but significant for a fixed fortification. When the turret was under fire it moved the gun apertures away from the incoming fire, returning fire while rotating without pausing, when contact was made on the correct target azimuth.[1]
^ abVauborg, Cédric; Vauborg, Julie (2010). "La tourelle Mougin modèle 1876" (in French). Fortiff' Séré. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
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