24 cm Haubitze 39

24cm houfnice vz.39 (24 cm Haubitze 39)
Type	siege howitzer
Place of origin	Czechoslovakia
Service history
In service	1939-45
Used by	Turkey  Nazi Germany
Wars	World War II
Production history
Designer	Škoda
Manufacturer	Škoda
Produced	1939-42
Number built	18
Variants	H 39/40
Specifications
Weight	27,000 kilograms (60,000 lb)
Barrel length	6.765 metres (22.19 ft)
Shell	separate-loading, bagged charge
Caliber	240 mm (9.44 in)
Breech	interrupted screw, de Bange obduration
Carriage	box trail
Elevation	-4° to +70°
Traverse	360°
Rate of fire	1 rd per 2 minutes
Muzzle velocity	600 m/s (1,968 ft/s)
Maximum range	18,000 metres (20,000 yd)

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The 24cm houfnice vz.39 (German designation: 24 cm Haubitze 39) (Howitzer model 39) was a Czechoslovak-designed siege howitzer used in the Second World War. It was kept in production after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. It was only used by Wehrmacht's Artillerie-Regiment 814 once it entered service after the Battle of France^[1].

[edit] Design & History

Škoda designed it for export. Turkey ordered it, but only received two before the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939. It was a stablemate of the Škoda 21 cm Kanone 39 and used virtually the same mounting and transport arrangements. The carriage revolved on a ball-race firing platform that had to be dug-in before firing, a task that took six to eight hours to accomplish. It required three wagons for transport, the barrel, carriage and ground platform. A modified version entered service in 1942 as the H 39/40 although it's unclear what the modifications involved.

[edit] Ammunition

It used both Czechoslovak and German designed ammunition:

The Czechoslovak-designed 24 cm Gr 39(t) HE shell with a weight of 166 kilograms (370 lb). It had both nose and base fuses, two copper driving bands and contained a 23.66 kilograms (52.2 lb) bursting charge of TNT. The German copy, the 24 cm Gr 39 umg had only a German nose fuze, soft-iron driving bands and a smaller charge of 22.9 kilograms (50 lb). It also used a Czechoslovak-designed anti-concrete shell, the 24 cm Gr 39 Be, that had copper driving bands.

It used 5 bagged charges that were enclosed in a single larger bag. Increments were simply removed to adjust range as necessary.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Englemann, Joachim and Scheibert, Horst. Deutsche Artillerie 1934-1945: Eine Dokumentation in Text, Skizzen und Bildern: Ausrüstung, Gliderung, Ausbildung, Führung, Einsatz. Limburg/Lahn, Germany: C. A. Starke, 1974
• Gander, Terry and Chamberlain, Peter. Weapons of the Third Reich: An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms, Artillery and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939-1945. New York: Doubleday, 1979 ISBN 0-385-15090-3
• Hogg, Ian V. German Artillery of World War Two. 2nd corrected edition. Mechanicsville, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997 ISBN 1-85367-480-X
• Niehorster, Leo W. G. German World War II Organizational Series, Vol. 2/II: Mechanized GHQ units and Waffen-SS Formations (10 May 1940), 1990
• Niehorster, Leo W. G. German World War II Organizational Series, Vol. 3/II: Mechanized GHQ units and Waffen-SS Formations (22nd June 1941), 1992
• Niehorster, Leo W. G. German World War II Organizational Series, Vol. 4/II: Mechanized GHQ units and Waffen-SS Formations (28th June 1942), 2004
• Niehorster, Leo W. G. German World War II Organizational Series, Vol. 5/II: Mechanized GHQ units and Waffen-SS Formations (10 May 1940), 2005
• German Weapons Production on Sinews of War