>> Těžká děla z plzeňské Škodovky

Taken from the book "Silenced Weapons" NV Prague 1966


One of the most famous pages in the history of the Škoda Armaments Factory was written by heavy guns for the ground artillery. The first of these were heavy mortars, a type that became widespread in Germany and Austria before the First World War. There were reasons for this, because both armies had to reckon with fighting against fortifications in the war. The first in a series of heavy guns developed at Skoda was the 24 cm mortar of the 1898 model, also the first heavy field gun of this calibre designed for mobile warfare. Naturally, Škoda had already applied a brake-return device and a steel barrel, this time with a screw breech. In order to obtain as many opinions as possible on this new weapon, the Austrian authorities allowed the Skoda factory to exhibit the mortar at the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. The English bought the mortar, increasing its performance somewhat. and used it as a 9.35-inch howitzer in the Boer War. Experience and actual tests showed the need to increase the gun's mobility.
In 1908 and 1909, therefore, the Austrian artillery introduced - for the first time in its history - motor traction to the mortar with 80hp wheeled tractors. Cannon power (133/258/5800) - (the figure indicates: weight of the projectile in kg, initial velocity in m/sec. and maximum range), however, remained too low, especially in view of the further modernization of Italian forts. The Skoda factory therefore designed a more powerful gun and stopped production of the 24 cm mortar. During World War I, the Austrian army used a total of 48 of each, not only on Austrian battlefields, but also in Turkey, in the fighting for the Dardanelles.


The new more powerful gun, the 30.5 cm vz. 11 mortar, which in its then form was a truly world-class piece of armament technology, contributed strongly to the international renown of the Škoda factory. It did not come into being naturally at once and without difficulty. Five years passed from the army's request to the final realization [1907-1911]. Škoda's plants had to overcome various initial defects in the gun and its ammunition in close cooperation with army experts. Particularly difficult was to ensure reliable transport in such difficult terrain as the Alpine and to ensure the fastest possible transfer from the marching position to the combat position. Here, for the first time, Skoda embarked on a path to which it remained faithful throughout the production of heavy guns. The mortar was transported in three parts (barrel, shell, bearing) in three transport units (barrel car, shell car, bearing car). On average, the preparation of the gun in firing position did not take more than 6 hours. Only simple hoists and jacks were used. Of course, only motor traction was considered. The gun achieved an average rate of fire of 15 rounds/hour.


The high ballistic power of the mortar (380/330/9600) ensured a powerful effect of each shot. At the beginning of the war, only the German 42 cm d/12 mortar (barrel length multiplied by calibre - in this case 12 x 42 = 504 cm) with a power of 810/333/9,300, known as the "Fat Bertha", could boast more than that. However, it existed in only two pieces at that time (there were 24 Austrian mortars) and its still immature construction was distinguished above all by its roughness, cumbersomeness and immobility. After all, its 4 units weighed 76.4 t when transported, whereas the Austrian mortar weighed 32.9 t.
It was therefore not surprising that the German command at the beginning of its offensive in the west in 1914 requested the help of Austrian mortars and deployed 4 batteries of 2 guns each with unexpected effect against Belgian and French forts. On the Russian front, the use of mortars directly in the field while the war was still in the moving phase was surprising.


However, war experience also showed that it was absolutely necessary to reinforce vehicles and bearings. This is what happened with the 11/16. It was finally possible, especially by lengthening the barrel by two calibers, to increase the range considerably (to 12,300 m) and to extend the range to a full 360°. Thus, the vz. 16 mortar was created, which had no rival in its class until the early 1930s. After 1918, it was introduced into the armament of the Italian and Yugoslav armies and naturally also the Czechoslovak army, which it served until 1939 as the largest calibre gun in a total of 17 pieces. The intended reconstruction and fitting of the wheels with tyres did not take place. It met its inglorious end in the Nazi Wehrmacht, which used all available mortars, including the museum's one from Vienna, on the Eastern Front.


The successes with the 30.5 cm mortar and the growth of positional warfare soon sparked the Austrian command's interest in a gun of even larger calibre, but constructed according to the same proven principles. In a short time of only 9 months, a prototype 38 cm howitzer vz. 16 with a very good performance 740/459/15 000 was built. It proved its worth at the front, and so Skoda produced 11 more units before the end of the war. Particularly interesting was the new method of transport, which was unprecedented in other armies. The wheeled tractor was no longer sufficient to tract the individual howitzer transport units (there were 4 of them, weighing 28 and 33 t in total), and therefore the Austrian Daimler Works in Vienna-New Town (which belonged to the sphere of influence of Škoda at that time), on the initiative of its director Ferd. Porsche's petrol-electric drive. It was not a completely new idea, but its application and implementation were new. The chassis of each gun unit had 8 wheels, each driven by one 15hp electric motor. The power was supplied by a vz. 16 generator car with a 150hp petrol engine.
The unit, which was later used by the Czechoslovak Army as a gunship. It could move not only on the road (max. speed 14km/h), but also on the railway after changing the wheels. The progressive transport concept allowed the gun to perform quite unusual feats. On narrow alpine roads, for example, it climbed up to altitudes of around 1,600 m.


The same design was also used by Skoda for the 24 cm gun vz. 16, which also had the same bearing and lafette as the 38 cm howitzer (only the barrel and cradle were replaced). Despite the power 215/750/26300, the cadence was the same. The excavation of the pit for the deposit took 8 to 20 hours depending on the nature of the soil, but also 2 to 15 days in rock - this was also the main disadvantage of placing the heavy Skoda guns in firing position. The actual transfer to the firing position did not take more than 6 to 8 hours and did not require a crane. By the end of the war, only two pieces appeared on the front, and one of them was also planted in France before Verdun.
In the Czechoslovak army, the 24 cm gun was the most powerful piece. In the 1920s, the introduction of a 38 cm howitzer was also considered, but it never entered the arsenal. In September 1939, however, the 24 cm gun was no longer among the most modern. Nevertheless, the Nazi army, weak at first in heavy guns, used all six pieces.


The heaviest cannon produced by Skoda during World War I and used by the Austrian army was the 35 cm d/45 cannon with a power of 700/770/31,500. It was originally intended for the sea, to arm the new Austro-Hungarian battleships, but no more were built. Due to its large size and weight, it could only be transported by rail and was placed in the firing position in a makeshift 100 t crane. This cumbersome makeshift crane existed only in 2 pieces.


The most powerful gun for firing the upper group of angles was the 42 cm howitzer vz. 16, later improved in vz. 17 with a power of 1000/415/12700. It was originally developed (between 1909 and 1913) as a stable coastal gun, designed to destroy a battleship with a single shot. Due to a shortage of large calibre guns, the only piece in existence at the time was removed from the coastal fortifications at the wartime port of Pula and went to the front in a makeshift laffette. By the time of the coup another 8 pieces were produced and used. They were already transported by petrol-electric train, but in six transport units. They weighed 113 t in firing position! In 1940, the Italians bought the license for the barrel production from Skoda.
The only example still in existence is on display at the Military Museum in Bucharest.


The last heavy gun, whose construction was completed by Skoda in the Austrian era, was the 21 cm mortar vz. 18. It was intended to replace the already completely outdated 24 cm mortar vz. 98 and at the same time to fill the noticeable gap between the 42 kg heavy projectile of the 15 cm howitzer and the 380 kg projectile of the 30.5 cm mortar. The final tests of this gun were carried out by the Czechoslovak Army. In the 1930s, the barrel and bearing carriage received wheels with tyres, so that the top transport speed increased from 25 to 45 km/h. The umbrellas were then in the number of 18 pieces in the armament of the Czechoslovak heavy artillery until 1939.


In the foreign, mainly French press, after the First World War, reports kept reappearing that the Škoda factories in Pilsen were supplying Germany with long-range guns intended for shelling Paris from a distance of 130 km. As this was a particularly unpleasant matter in view of the Allied alliance with France, it was also investigated by our MNO in 1921. It was found that the reports about the production in Plzeň were caused by the fact that Škodovka supplied some of the heavy barrels to the overloaded Krupp factories during the war.
In 1918, Austria ordered two long-range guns of a similar type to the "Paris" in Plzeň. The Škoda Works was to build them by adapting 12 finished 35 cm d/45 gun barrels and then fitting them with a new extended barrel of 21 cm calibre and d/100 length. The projectiles were to have pre-drawn grooves for the barrel guides, but otherwise the construction of the ammunition was not resolved. Only the barrel was finished by the coup.
The fate of most of the heavy guns we have mentioned was already closed by the coup of 1918; however, the progressive ideas applied in their construction, transport or preparation for firing became a guideline for Škoda's Plzeň works in the development of guns of the largest calibre in the following decades.
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Tezka-dela-z-plzenske-Skodovky-t11832#38435 Version : 0
I give a synoptic table of the artillery, of which we are the majority in r. 1918 taken over and rozmnožené in r. 1939 turn handed over the Ádovi:.
>> Těžká děla z plzeňské Škodovky -


URL : https://www.valka.cz/Tezka-dela-z-plzenske-Skodovky-t11832#40093 Version : 0
Too přispěji
This is ( at least I think ) the damage pattern of the 16 - caliber 240mm.
>> Těžká děla z plzeňské Škodovky -


URL : https://www.valka.cz/Tezka-dela-z-plzenske-Skodovky-t11832#84417 Version : 0
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