What was the point of the Artillery Luger?

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by garyed50

I don't understand what any benefit was gained from the longer barrel?

When I first read of an "artillery Luger", I immediately thought of the platform vehicle that my class in Schools Battalion trained on [briefly] in 1970. It mounted a 106mm recoiless rifle, and had a co-axially mounted single-shot 50 cal spotter rifle. It was called an M274 'Mule'. The 50 cal spotter rifle was used to target the recoiless rifle. This was what popped into my head when I heard 'artillery Luger'.

I thought maybe the 'artillery Luger' was used to spot artillery fire.

Obviously a false assumption, but the Mule was a cool vehicle. The steering column unclamped and could be swiveled in a 360º arc.

We had an instructor demonstrate this by un-clamping the column, lying on the ground, and letting the vehicle drag him around in a figure-eight while he steered it from the prone position...