38 cm Siege Howitzer M.16
| 38 cm Siege Howitzer M.16 | |
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| General Information | |
| Military designation: | 38 cm siege howitzer M 16 |
| Manufacturer country: | Austria-Hungary |
| Developer / Manufacturer: | Škoda , Pilsen |
| Development year: | 1915 to 1916 |
| Production time: | 1916 to 1918 |
| Number of pieces: | 10 |
| Technical specifications | |
| Pipe length: | 6.46 m |
| Caliber : |
38 cm |
| Caliber length : | L / 15 |
| Cadence : | 0.2 rounds / min |
| Elevation range: | + 40 ° to +75 degrees |
| Side straightening area: | 360 ° |
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The 38 cm M 16 siege howitzer was a super-heavy artillery piece from the First World War .
history
Although the 30.5 cm mortars of the Austro-Hungarian fortress artillery had proven themselves in the siege of Liège , the Škoda Works in Pilsen began to think about an even more effective gun. The reason for this was that when the fortress belt of Antwerp was bombarded, a tank dome was hit directly by a 30.5 cm shell, but the projectile could not penetrate the tank. The grenade got stuck in the armored dome (the armored dome is in the Vienna Army History Museum ), this was then shown to the Skoda technicians, whereupon they planned the development of larger calibers. Although the 42 cm M 14 howitzer was already in use by the troops, these guns were originally only intended for fixed installation and the unwieldy equipment was only transported with considerable difficulty.
The chief engineer from Škoda, Richard Dirmoser, received the order to develop a howitzer with a firing range of at least 15 kilometers with a mobility that should correspond to that of the 30.5 centimeter mortar .
Ferdinand Porsche received the order to build the transport vehicles . For the four partial loads, an M 16 or M 17 towing vehicle was equipped with a petrol-electric drive. Each wheel on both the tractor unit and the trailer had a wheel hub electric motor that was supplied with electricity via the unit. In the case of hairpin bends, it was possible to disconnect the train and supply the trailer with power via power cables. This could then be moved separately. The technical nature of the device made it possible to put the gun train on railroad tracks by removing the road tires and to move it over not too great distances with its own power. Normal rail loading was also possible.
As early as May 1915, the howitzer had been offered as a project to the then Minister of War Alexander von Krobatin . The latter agreed to the production of two specimens initially, if Škoda would assume the cost risk if the guns did not meet the requirements and were rejected by the examination committee. If, on the other hand, the examination board were to decide positively, the War Ministry had to remove the two howitzers, although this procedure was not approved and initially no funds were available for it.
The construction of the two howitzers with the camouflage designation BH L / 17 (Siege Howitzer L / 17) began in June 1915, whereby Škoda managed to keep the project so secret that something about it only became known shortly before completion. The first shot attempts were carried out on January 21, 1916 in Bolowetz near Plzeň. The largest powder load (7th load) was set at 47.5 kg of powder. In driving tests, a maximum speed of 16 km / h was achieved on the road and 27 km / h in rail transport. Gradients of up to 35 percent were mastered on the road and up to 9 percent on the rails. The subsequent shooting attempts at the artillery school in Hajmasker in Hungary produced a maximum firing range of 15 kilometers, which exactly met the requirements.
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The successor models (still designated as M 16 ) differed from the first two guns by the modified mount. The new mount was also adapted for the 24 cm M.16 cannon , which meant that the mount had two additional trunnion bearings in front of the original one, as this cannon had to be inserted further forward due to the longer barrel return.
commitment
As early as May 1916, both guns named “Barbara” and “Gudrun” were used in the course of the Austro-Hungarian South Tyrol offensive, after they had only left the Škoda works in March 1916. The “Barbara” gun was located near the Lusern plant on the Costalta ridge. The observation point was the Vorwerk Viaz, which belongs to Lusern. The transport of this gun from Trento via Calliano and Folgaria to its position took only six days (from April 2nd to April 8th, 1916), which was unusually short given the road conditions at the time.
The “Gudrun” gun was in the Adige Valley north of Rovereto near Volano with an observer advanced in Mojeto.
In May, the shooting began on predetermined targets according to the shooting board , because for reasons of secrecy, shooting had not been carried out. "Barbara" fired as the main target at the Italian tank forts Punta Corbin and Casa Ratti , the "Gudrun" gun at the Valmorbia factory fragment occupied by the Italians (it was still under construction and abandoned at the beginning of the war) and at Coni Zugna and Col Santo .
During the twelfth Isonzo battle in October 1917, the 38 cm howitzer battery No. 4 / Battalion No. 5 was used in the upper Isonzo Valley near Lepena .
For the June offensive of 1918 , two batteries of the 38 cm howitzer were set up near Casera Grupach, northeast of Monte Erio near Asiago . To do this, the guns had to be brought to a height of 1,600 meters and inclines of up to 20 percent had to be overcome. In 1918 a howitzer was installed instead of the front turret on the SMS Budapest , but this turned out to be impractical. So the gun was removed again and brought to Raab .
Further technical information
| Howitzer M 16 | |
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| Type | heavy thrown barrel recoil gun |
| Transport: | |
| 1. Road transport: | four-part (tube, carriage and 2 bed wagons)
with 1 M.16 item generator trolley each |
| 2. Rail transport with own power: | On short stretches (around 50 km), for example when changing positions , the gun units can be placed directly on the standard gauge track after removing the road tires without being loaded onto special railway wagons, and they can also be transported with their own M.16 type generator car . |
| 3. Rail transport: | For longer rail journeys (deployment, major front shifts, etc.), the gun units are lined up on their own wheels (as in 2.) in the normal railroad train (transport train) of the battery. |
| Transport weights | |
| Pipe trolley: | 38 t |
| Carriage wagon: | 33 t |
| 1. Bed trolley: | 36.6 t |
| 2. Bedding trolley: | 37.6 t |
| Construction: | Pivot mount |
| Bedding: | iron box bedding (6.50 / 5.20 / 1.40 m) with turntable |
| Installation times box bedding: | Field or gravel: 8–20 hours, rocky soil: 2–15 days |
| Gun assembly time: | 6–8 hours |
| Caliber: | 380 mm above the fields, 384 mm in the trains |
| Muzzle velocity V0: | up to 459 m / s |
| Impact speed: | (at large firing range) up to 385 m / s |
| Muzzle balance: | up to 8450 mt |
| Explosive charge: | up to 68 kg |
| M16 shell | Hard targets with and without delay (740 kg) |
| Grenade M 17 | Soft target garnet shrapnel (600 kg) |
| largest firing range: | 15.0 km |
| Bullet weight: | up to 740 kg |
| Weight of the ready-to-fire gun: | 81,000 kg |
| Side straightening area: | 360 ° |
| Elevation: | + 40 ° to + 75 ° |
| Rate of fire: | 1 shot in 5 minutes |
At the end of the war ten howitzers were in use, and another was still under construction. A total of 14 guns and two replacement tubes had been ordered.
Preserved copies
The gun No. 6 is in the Army History Museum in Vienna, the Howitzer No. 2 ("Gudrun") is in the Army Museum in Bucharest.
Sources and literature
- Teaching material and service regulations of the Austro-Hungarian Army in the war archive in Vienna
- Moritz Ritter von Brunner (ed.): The constant fortification. For the kuk military training institutions and for self-teaching for officers of all weapons . 7th completely revised edition. Seidel, Vienna 1909.
- Herbert Gantschacher : Viktor Ullmann - the Škoda 38 cm howitzer in VIKTOR ULLMANN WATCHES AND VICTIMS OF THE APOCALYPSE - WITNESS AND VICTIM OF THE APOCALYPSE - Testimone e vittima dell'Apocalisse - Prič in žrtev apocalypse - Svědek a obsyte in the original German and English edition Language with summaries in Italian, Slovenian and Czech, ARBOS edition, ISBN 978-3-9503173-3-6 , Arnoldstein-Klagenfurt-Salzburg-Wien-Prora-Prag 2015.
- Herbert Gantschacher Viktor Ullmann - Svědek a oběť apokalypsy 1914–1944. Archive hlavního města, Prahy 2015, ISBN 978-80-86852-62-1 .
- Erwin Anton Grestenberger: Imperial and Royal fortifications in Tyrol and Carinthia 1860–1918 . Verlag Österreich ua, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-7046-1558-7 .
- Christian Ortner : The Austro-Hungarian artillery from 1867 to 1918. Technology, organization and combat methods . Verlag Militaria, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902526-12-0 .
- Austrian Federal Ministry and War Archives (Ed.): Austria-Hungary's Last War 1914–1918. Fourth volume. The war year 1916. First part . Publishing house of the military science reports, Vienna 1933.
- Christian Ortner: The 38 cm howitzer M.16 of the Army History Museum , in: Viribus Unitis. Annual report 2007 of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum , Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-902551-06-1 , pp. 65–76.
- Artur Reutter Edler von Vallone: Barbara and Gudrun. The first two Austro-Hungarian 38 cm howitzers model 1916. Their creation and first use in the field. An artillery commemorative sheet for the 20th anniversary of the beginning spring offensive on the Tyrolean front from 1916 . Bernina, Vienna 1937.
Web links
- Documentation HGM director Christian Ortner about the siege howitzer M16 (2018).
- DATABASE OF THE WW1 SURVIVING ARTILLERY