Move afoot to repair WWI cannon in Swampscott

SWAMPSCOTT – The last American World War I veteran died this February at the age of 111. But firefighters are ensuring that Swampscott’s veterans of the so-called “The War to End All Wars” are remembered well into the future by starting a fundraising drive to repair a memorial cannon.”All the WWI veterans have passed away and the rest of us has to step forward and do something about it,” said Firefighter and Swampscott Firefighters Local 1459 union representative Kevin Thompson. “We’re hoping townspeople will donate to our fund in memory of a friend or relative who served in WWI ? It affected nearly everybody.”American Legion Post 57 Commander Bill Wollerscheid identified the cannon as a “French 75,” and described it as “the choicest weapon of the period.”Five soldiers would operate the cannon, Thompson said, with two sitting on seats on the cannon, and three leading a wagon of ammunition drawn by a team of horses around the battlefield. The gun measures approximately 15 feet long, and the wooden-spoked wheels are 53 inches in diameter.The Encyclopedia Britannica describes the cannon’s recoil system – the gun carriage itself remained in place while the barrel and breech recoiled on rollers – and distinguishing the weapon from the time of its debut in 1897 to the fall of France in World War II.The cannon was placed at the American Legion’s World War I Memorial plot in Swampscott Cemetery in 1923 to commemorate the 12 Swampscott residents who died in the war and the town’s many World War I veterans, Thompson said. There it has stood largely unnoticed in recent years, Thompson and Wollerscheid said, as the older section of the cemetery in which the cannon sits is mostly filled and sees few funerals.”Nobody ever comes over here,” said Wollerscheid. “They drive by, and it looks good from afar.”But on closer inspection, grass has grown up and buried the bottom of the disintigrating wooden-spoked wheels. Wasps nest in the cannon’s barrel, and the seats on which soldiers would sit to adjust the weapon’s aim and avoid enemy fire have rusted away.Nobody seems to have noticed this, however, until Thompson and other Swampscott Firefighters went to place flags on the graves of their deceased colleagues for Memorial Day.”We just happened to be walking over and noticed the condition of the thing,” Thompson said. “We started thinking about doing something about bringing it back, and approached the American Legion Post, who is in charge of cannon to partner to restore it.”In research, Thompson found that the town of Haverhill had a similar weapon that had been recently restored by a local farmer. They contacted the farmer and received an estimate of $3,000 for a full restoration. The wheels will be sent to an Amish workshop in Pennsylvania that will use as much of the existing wood as possible to repair the wheels, Thompson said. The artillery piece itself will probably be sandblasted and, possibly some of the missing parts can be reconstructed, Thompson added.If the result is anything like the Haverhill cannon, Thompson will be pleased.That cannon now “is in beautiful shape, it really looks great,” Thompson said.But the restoration might not, technically, be complete”When the gun was given to the town, they agreed they’d never fire it,” Thompson said.To donate to the cannon restoration, please send a check made out to:World War I Cannon Restoration, 76 Burrill Street, Swampscott, MA 01907.