21 cm Skoda

[jopaerya]

Hello All

I am having some difficulties to regonise the different types of 21 cm Skoda guns ,
who can help me there are the K 39 , K 39/40 , K 39/41 and the K 52 ???
All the books and internetsites give conflicting information , there are photo's with
a squire base with four feet and other photo's with a central pivot .
Thanks for your help in advance .

Regards Jos

[ducatim901]

Hi Jos,
I will try to look for info, maybe tomorrow, i am going to the NA.......
Greetings Jack.

[ducatim901]

Hi Jos look here, http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Waf ... chutze.htm
17cm K18 had a round central pivot, it was carried in one piece (i think)
21cm K18 had a round pivot and was carried in two or three pieces
21cm K38 had a round pivot and had a longer barrel (than the 21cm K18) carried in two or three pieces
21cm K39 had a round or square pivot cannot make it out on the picture, shorter barrel than the K38 and was carried in 3 or four pieces (not sure about that).
24cm K3 had a square pivot and was carried in more pieces.
The lafettes and the different ruckholers-bremsen also seem to be a more reliable form of identification, but i think if you add everything up you could come to a good identification.
But i do not know if the different manufacturers had different pivot types or maybe they were modernised.
Greetings Jack.

[jopaerya]

Thanks Jack

For your information , the only one I am sure of
is the one M.K.B. St Marcouf 4 x 21 cm K 39/41
They have a central pivot in the bunker .
Does anyone know witch type 21 cm Skoda guns were
used in Norway , I saw some photo's of the 21 cm K 39/40
in the book Festung Stavanger .

Regards Jos

[ducatim901]

jos,
I think the pivot for the guns in the 600 high number types are modified.
I think about all the non mobile guns of the 600 series have modified lafettes (saying this without thinking if it is thru).
Greetings JK

[Jens Andersen]

Hello

I don't think the lafettes were modified for use in the bunker.

Try and compare with the pictures below:

http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Waf ... chutze.htm
- "Kanone 39/40"

Best regards
Jens

[jopaerya]

Hello

Here a photo of a 21 cm with what looks like
a squire block and four legs to stabilise the gun .

Regards Jos

[ducatim901]

Hi Jos,
Under gun on your photo you can see a round pivot, so the pivot may not have been changed.
However it looks like the shape on the bunkerdrawing is round too.
But i am not sure, it could be a square one.
Greetings Jack.

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

I found on Ebay these two photos of 21cm Skoda guns abandoned (badly damaged) by german troops in Western front in 1944-45. I am not sure if the model is K39, K39-40 or K39-41

Jopaerya, I do not know if you are still interested in the different types of 21 cm Skoda guns. This is the information that I have about these guns:

According to "Skoda Heavy Guns" book of Michal Prasil, Skoda developed various 21cm guns in 30 and 40s years:

21cm Skoda type V for Turkey (12). Not delivered. To german army as K39.
21cm Skoda type VX for a soviet order of 1937. manufactured under licensed in Russia as 210mm Br17. Different design with two cradle trunnions on the gun carriage, as compared to one trunnion for the other guns.
21cm Skoda type V1 K39/40. It had the axis of the tilting trunnions moved 40mm to the front and its asesembly took only one hour, as compared to 3 hours for the others types.
21cm Skoda type V2 K39/41. It had a new turntable with lenghtned carriers and a supporting shield.
21cm Skoda ype V3. I t had a longer barrel with a muzzle break, increased performace, spring ballancers and the turntable was modified. German designation???

Regards Sturm78

[jopaerya]

Hello Sturm78

Thanks for the information , but I have a lot of photo's of these guns and I can't see the difference
between these guns and I have a other the 21 cm K.52 used end 1944 in the Westwall .

Regards Jos

[Sturm78]

Hi Jopaerya,

Yes, It is very difficult to differentiate between this guns.
K52 is the company designation (Skoda) for this weapons.

Sturm78

[jopaerya]

Hello All

Here some picture's of the 21 cm Skoda gun , transported in 3 loads .
First the undercarriage is wheeled over the prefab box placed in the ground ,
then the jacks are fixed on the undercarriage . The wheels were removed and
the undercarriage was lowered with the jacks in the prefab box .

[jopaerya]

Then the secondpart ( the uppercarriage ) was placed and fixed on the undercarriage

[jopaerya]

At last the barrel wagon was placed in front of the complete carriage , then the
barrel was placed in postion with wiches in front of the gun with steel cables .
The barrel was fixed with 4 big bolts to the carriage . Then the gun was ready to fire .

All picture's from Ebay

Regards Jos

[Sturm78]

Hi Jopaerya, superb photos!! Thank you very much.

Is the first photo taken in Crimea?? There is very little information about the use of these guns in campaign:
units, sites where this gun was used,....

On the other hand, the gun of my last two photos have the rear part of the carriage longer than the gun of your photo entitled "axis 7 21 cm K 39 12".
Therefore, I believe the gun of your photo will be the K39 or K39/40 and the gun of my photos will be the K39/41. I guess but I'm not sure. Any help is welcome.

Finally two other photos (one of them in color!!) of this impressive gun (from Ebay.com and BPK archive):

Regards Sturm78