I came across this in front of an American Legion post in Ossining the other day. I didn’t know what it was so I sent the picture to my friend Ken who’s a former artillery officer with the Australian Army. This is what he came back with:

It’s a US 75mm Pack Howitzer…the guns were issued to airborne and mountain units of the US Army and the Marines. Foreign users included UK airborne units and Australia apparently. I think I may have seen pictures of the Aussie ones being used in New Guinea. There may have even been one in the ‘Gun Room’ in Sydney.

Just speculation on my part but the only US Mountain Division during WWII and thereafter was 10th Mountain, which is still an active Division based at Fort Drum, NY; this side of the river across from Kingston. My guess is that the Ossining Gun belonged to 10th Mountain and was gifted to the town for use as a memorial. Once weapons like that go out of service, it’s common practice at least in the UK and Oz, to ‘render them innocuous’ and gift them for such purposes. Each gun should have a unique serial number, stamped on the tube/barrel probably. If you wanted to trace the service of the Ossining Gun, including any overseas war service, you should be able to do so relatively easily, through the town, US Artillery Associations and the like.

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