15 cm field howitzer 18
| 15 cm field howitzer 18 | |
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| General Information | |
| Military designation: | 15 cm heavy field howitzer 18 |
| Manufacturer country: | German Empire |
| Developer / Manufacturer: | Krupp, Rheinmetall |
| Development year: | 1926 to 1933 |
| Production time: | 1933 to 1945 |
| Technical specifications | |
| Overall length: | 4.44 m (transport dimension) |
| Pipe length: | 3.98 m |
| Caliber : |
149 mm |
| Caliber length : | L / 29.5 |
| Cadence : | 4 rounds / min |
| Elevation range: | −3 ° to +45 degrees |
| Side straightening area: | 60 ° |
The 15 cm heavy field howitzer 18 ( sFH 18 for short ) was a standard gun of the German Wehrmacht in World War II .
Development and production
The sFH 18 was developed separately by the companies Rheinmetall in Düsseldorf and Krupp in Essen between 1926 and 1930; the best features of both designs were combined in one gun until 1933. The field howitzer was produced in the Rheinmetall plant in Düsseldorf from the end of 1933, and during the war by the replica companies Spreewerk in Berlin , MAN in Augsburg , Dörries-Füllner in Bad Warmbrunn and Škoda in Dubnica / Slovakia . It was produced until the end of the war, with a total of 7400 copies delivered to the troops. The production price of the gun in 1938 was 44,000 RM . The sFH 18 had a construction similar to that of the light field howitzer 18 with light metal disc wheels with solid rubber tires and steel rims.
ammunition
The fragmentation effect of the HE grenade was 15 meters forward, 40 to 50 meters to the sides and 3 meters to the rear. Direct hits with a time fuse could penetrate up to three meters of earth cover.
There was also armor-piercing ammunition with delayed ignition after impact by means of a steel ball that had to pass through a lead tube that was a little too narrow after impact and hit the primer at the front end.
All grenades had rings made of copper at the rear, into which the pipes nicked when fired in order to give the grenade a twist; it reached about 3000 revolutions per minute.
commitment
The sFH 18 was used in the heavy sections of the artillery regiments and was used there with four (later six) guns per battery .
The gun could be moved in a horse train or in a motorized train.
In the horse-drawn carriage was with six horses covered in two loads with Lafetten- and pipe racks behind each one Protze down. Before the march, the pipe was completely pulled out of the cradle and onto a two-wheeled transport wagon. The carriage was also lifted onto a trolley with the folded bars. Despite these two tensile loads, the gun was much too heavy in the later course of the eastern campaign in the bad weather and road conditions, and teams of up to ten horses were often required to move forward. When setting up, the pipe wagon had to be pulled in front of the dismantled mount and after the pipe wagon had been dismantled, the gun barrel had to be pulled over.
In the motorized train, the field howitzer was driven in a load behind a medium-sized tractor 8 t ( Sd.Kfz. 7 ) or a heavy tractor 12 t ( Sd.Kfz. 8 ). During the transport, the tube was pushed back (on the slide for the recoil) in order to direct the load onto the limber. To set up the fire, the gun carriage had to be spread and the barrel had to be brought forward again (by all seven to eight service soldiers together) (forearms and hands wrapped around the barrel overhead and walking backwards).
From 1943 the gun was also used as the Hummel self-propelled howitzer .
At the beginning of the war in 1939 there were twelve heavy field howitzers 18 in the infantry divisions in the 4th heavy division of an artillery regiment.
In the armored divisions there were eight heavy field howitzers 18 together with four 10 cm cannons in the III. heavy division of an armored artillery regiment.
The stock in the Wehrmacht increased continuously from 2049 howitzers (September 1, 1939) through 2867 (June 1, 1941) to up to 3000 howitzers (January 1, 1945).
A modified breech block of the sFH 18 was also used as the base of the V3 cannon .
sFH 18 behind towing vehicle
sFH 18 in firing position; the ramrod is leaning to the left behind the loading gunner
The crew: a gun leader; a gunner for height and side, a gunner for the barrel height adjustment, which the gunner specified. A loading gunner (responsible for loading the grenade and the cartridge and closing the barrel closure; he also pulled the lanyard after the order to fire and opened the closure again), a gunner for setting the grenade (impact fuse or setting key for time fuse), a gunner for that Loading of the propellant charge and three gunners for hauling in the ammunition (each grenade over 40 kg), which was carried in the limber and in the towing vehicle.
The fire command: It consisted of seven parts:
- Who shoots? (e.g. "whole battery" or Zwotes alone).
- How many shots (e.g. "6 times continuous fire" or "1 shot").
- Height (given in number of lines - 1/10 grads - of a vial whose horizontal line was defined as 300 lines in order to avoid negative values).
- Side (specified in 1/10 degree deviation from zero; a prominent point in the area was determined for this before the start of shooting.)
- "Xth charge": X was one of the digits from 1 to 7 for the number of powder sachets that came into the cartridge, with which the firing range was determined.
- Detonator instruction, e.g. B. "Impact fuse".
- "Report readiness to fire" (grenade and cartridge in the barrel; lock closed, height and side set).
The shooting order came separately: ("Fire").
Further developments
- 15 cm sFH 18M - 15 cm sFH 18 with muzzle brake, introduced in 1942.
- 15 cm sFH 36 - joint development by Krupp and Rheinmetall. Should be easier to transport by horse-drawn train. Limited production from 1939 to 1941.
- 15 cm sFH 40 - attempt to increase the range of the 15 cm sFH 18. No production.
- 15 cm sFH 18/40 - Also known as 15 cm sFH 42. The tube of the sFH 40 was inserted into the mount of the sFH 18. Only 46 pieces built.
- 15 cm sFH 18/43 - attempt to convert a sFH 18 to caseless ammunition in order to save raw materials. Still under development at the end of the war.
- 15 cm sFH 43 - projects by Skoda and Krupp for an enhanced 15 cm sFH. Both still under development at the end of the war.
See also
Web links
literature
- Joachim Engelmann: The book of the artillery 1939-1945. Dörfler Zeitgeschichte Verlag, ISBN 3-89555-179-1 .
- Wolfgang Fleischer, Richard Eiermann: The motorized artillery and tank artillery of the German army 1935-1945. Podzun-Pallas Verlag, ISBN 3-7909-0721-9 .
- Terry Gander, Peter Chamberlain: Encyclopedia of German Weapons 1939-1945. Motorbuchverlag, ISBN 3-613-02481-0 .
- Chris Bishop: The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II. Sterling Publishing Company, 2002, ISBN 978-1-58663-762-0 .
swell
- ^ Wolfgang Fleischer, Richard Eiermann: The motorized artillery and tank artillery of the German army 1935-1945. Podzun-Pallas Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-7909-0721-9 , p. 26.