My first thought too. Cheap as Dirt?
Dunno, but we should order some new 16" ordinance for when we sail the Iowa and the New Jersey out of mothballs.
The reason this gun appears in Syria is because it was one of the best mountain howitzers ('Mountain Howitzer' meaning "lightweight, easily packed up, easily transportable") ever made. It weighed under two tons and could be broken down into four pieces and transported by small motorized vehicles or pack animals. It could be set up and ready to fire, or broken down and ready to transport in just a few moments with a well-trained crew.
It could fire a 32 pound 105mm shell about eight miles, which is fantastic performance for such a lightweight howitzer.
After WWII, the GebH 40 served in many European armies until they were sold off -- usually to Arab Peninsula nations.
I still have a war capture P38. Early war manufacture. It is a sweet little pistol.
Gotta be the Old Western Scrounger.
I saw one of the Syrian Pz Mark IV’s at the AAF tank museum. Looked like it still could go nose to nose with about anything else in there.
Truly a well designed machine.
Chickens. Look how far away they stand from it to pull the lanyard. It’s probably less than 80 years old. What could go wrong?
Buncha reloaders, probably survivalists. /s
The WWII-era German howitzers found around Grand Rapids were all (of course) rendered non-firing, but I don’t think there is one of these.