[2] The M1877 was designed with the lessons of the Franco-Prussian and Russo-Turkish war in mind where field guns with smaller shells and limited elevation had difficulty overcoming fortifications.

[2] Like many of its contemporaries, the M1877 carriage was tall and narrow because the guns were designed to sit behind a parapet in a fortress with the barrel overhanging the front.

These consisted of twelve rectangular plates connected with elastic links and are visible in many photographs of World War I artillery from all of the combatants.

[2] In addition to its fortress and siege gun roles, there was also a coastal defense version on a garrison mount with limited traverse.

Since aircraft of the period were not yet capable of carrying large diameter bombs the burden of delivering heavy firepower fell on the artillery.

The majority of combatants scrambled to find anything that could fire a heavy shell and that meant emptying the fortresses and scouring the arms depots for guns held in reserve.

The Germans transferred a number of these guns to the Western Front where they were assigned to heavy artillery battalions of the army in order to replace losses suffered during the first two years of the war.

These guns closed a gap in the defenses of the Soviet 16th Army under the command of K. K. Rokossovsky during the Battle of Moscow in the Solnechnogorsk and Krasnaya Polyana area.