Skoda artillery in late 1930s

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

I am looking for information and/or images of Skoda artillery of late 1930s.

About the mountain artillery, I have the follow information:

75mm M1936 mountain gun : manufactured in Russia under license in 76.2mm caliber as 76.2mm M1938
75mm M1939 mountain gun: exported in small numbers to Romania and Iran.
105mm M1939 mountain howitzer: exported to Romania??

I found this image in http://www.ww2incolor.com/Romanian+Forces . I suppose a 75mm M1939 mountain gun or a 105mm M1939 mountain howitzer of Romanian Army. What do you think?

Any other image will be wellcome

Thanks in advance. Sturm78

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi all,

I am looking for information and/or images of Skoda artillery of late 1930s.

About the mountain artillery, I have the follow information:

75mm M1936 mountain gun : manufactured in Russia under license in 76.2mm caliber as 76.2mm M1938
75mm M1939 mountain gun: exported in small numbers to Romania and Iran.
105mm M1939 mountain howitzer: exported to Romania??

I found this image in http://www.ww2incolor.com/Romanian+Forces . I suppose a 75mm M1939 mountain gun or a 105mm M1939 mountain howitzer of Romanian Army. What do you think?

Any other image will be wellcome

Thanks in advance. Sturm78

Hi Strum

I think it is a 105mm Skoda M1934 http://www.flickr.com/photos/massimofot ... 4595717860
The same gun on a different site is called a 75mm Skoda M1928 http://www.worldwar2.ro/foto/?id=336&se ... rticle=305

[Sturm78]

Clive wrote,
I think it is a 105mm Skoda M1934
The same gun on a different site is called a 75mm Skoda M1928

Ummmhhh. It could be a 75mm M1928 gun, although the wheels are different. Same barrel, shield and split trail
I do not know any 105mm M1934.

Here, the only image that I have of a 75mm Skoda M1928 of Romanian Army
Image from http://www.worldwar2.ro

Does anyone have any image of the 75mm M1936, 75mm M1939 or 105mm M1939 mountain artillery pieces?

Regards Sturm78

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi Strum

Could the Romainian Skoda field gun and howitzer be like those suppiled to the Czech and Yougoslavian armies and be the same carriage with different barrels. The Czech 8cm Kanon Vz 30 and the 10 cm Houfnice Vz 30 looked the same, the only difference being the barrels. The same with the Yougslavian 80mm M28 field gun and the 100mm M28 field howizter.

Another photo of the 75mm gun from Gander and Chamberlin WW2 Fact Files, Light and Medium Field Artillery.


a 105mm Mountain gun http://www.worldwar2.ro/foto/?id=167&area=31
http://www.flickr.com/photos/massimofot ... 4595717860
http://www.flickr.com/photos/massimofot ... 4595717860
http://www.flickr.com/photos/massimofot ... 4595717860
Horse-drawn 75mm Skoda M1928 field gun. http://www.worldwar2.ro/foto/?id=340&area=31

Is this the 105mm Skoda M1930 or M1934 incorrectly labled, by 1940/43 Skoda would not have been making non standard German guns for export. http://www.flickr.com/photos/massimofot ... 4595717860
http://www.flickr.com/photos/massimofot ... 4595717860

And this gun labled as a 100mm is in fact the 75mm M1928http://www.flickr.com/photos/massimofot ... 4595717860
http://www.flickr.com/photos/massimofot ... 4595717860

They do look similar, even the mounatin gun has the same recoil system.

[Manuferey]

Hi Is this the 105mm Skoda M1930 or M1934 incorrectly labled, by 1940/43 Skoda would not have been making non standard German guns for export.[...].

This gun looks like the 105/H41 sold to Finland in 1941:
With modernized pneumatic tires:
http://www.jaegerplatoon.net/ARTILLERY5.htm
With its original wheels:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 0&t=151900

Emmanuel

[Clive Mortimore]

In the last few minutes I have downloaded http://www.worldwar2.ro/documents/004-a ... magini.pdf Found on Nuyt's Overvalwagen Forum http://www.network54.com/Forum/330333/t ... +artillery
I do not speak anything but English so being in Romainian I will need some time to work out what it is saying but it does have photos of the 100mm M1930 and M1934 howitzers and the M1940/43 (again I presumed wrongly). The M1930 looks like the Yougslavian and Czech howitzers. The M1934 looks like what we have been calling the 75mm M1928, as labled on the Flicker site of the Bucharest museum.










All from Artileria-Romana-in-date

[Manuferey]

I was intrigued by the pneumatic tires on various pictures above as they do not look like any other pneumatic tires originally installed by Skoda on their guns. However, they look very similar, if not identical, to the pneumatic tires used by the USSR. This is confirmed by the Romanian text in pdf (tire origin: 122 mm M-30).

Since the text of the pdf file has been supervised by a Lt-Col of the Romanian Army, I think he would have corrected the types of the guns if they had not been correct. Therefore, I believe that there was indeed a 105 mm M40/43 howitzer. We've seen indeed a picture of the 105/H41 (10,5 cm H4" bought by Latvia in 1938 but not delivered as confiscated by the Germans and then sold to Finland in 1941) that looks very similar. In addition, there had been a prototype of 10.5 cm leFH43 (different from the GebH43) developped for the Germans but never adopted.

Emmanuel

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

I'm more confused each time.

I will try to follow an order by country

Czechoslovakia:
76.5mm Skoda M1930
100mm Skoda M1930

box trail, rounded shield with front seat, not muzzle break, solid rubber tires
Sturm78

[Sturm78]

Part 2:

Yugoslavia:

75mm Skoda M1928 mountain gun (Skoda CD) 7.5cm Geb.K 285j

upgrade of 7.5cm Skoda M15

76.5mm Skoda M1928 field gun (Skoda EF) 7.65cm FK 304j
100mm Skoda M1928 field howitzer 10cm leFH 317j

box trail, rounded shield but witout front seat, muzzle break (al least in the field gun. I am not sure if the howitzer had or not muzzle break), wooden wheels.

Sturm78

[Sturm78]

Part 3:

Romania:

75mm Skoda M1928 field gun

100mm Skoda M1930 field howitzer I think probably ex-czech howitzers (obtained via Germany). They are identical to
czech Vz.30 howitzers

105mm Skoda M1934 field howitzer

split trail, different shield narrower, not muzzle break, wooden wheels

Sturm78

[The Edge]

Part 2:

Yugoslavia:

75mm Skoda M1928 mountain gun (Skoda CD) 7.5cm Geb.K 285j
upgrade of 7.5cm Skoda M15 - YES

76.5mm Skoda M1928 field gun (Skoda EF) 7.65cm FK 304j
100mm Skoda M1928 field howitzer 10cm leFH 317j

box trail, rounded shield but witout front seat, muzzle break (al least in the field gun. I am not sure if the howitzer had or not muzzle break - HAS ), wooden wheels. Field gun also has circular platform (as British 25-pnd) for high-elevation (AA) shooting.

Both your photos are "80mm M.1928" fiels guns (Skoda EF).

[The Edge]

I believe Romanian Skoda 75mm M.1928 looked like gun below. (i.e. very much alike Yugoslav 76,5mm gun)

All photos of "narrow shield" Skodas represents a 100mm M.1934 model. (Must visit Bucharest Museum to prove this once for all!) Photo below is from .pdf history of Romanian Artillery (link given in Clive Mortimore's post). Note that this history HAS NOT entry for 75mm Skoda M.1928. There is info about 24 batteries of such guns purchased (i.e. total of 96 guns), so I suspect that no Romanian Skoda M.1928 exists today.

[Sturm78]

Thank you, The Edge.

About your last image of a 75mm M1928 Romanian gun, I think that is exactly the same as yugoslavian 76.5mm Skoda M1928 gun.

Therefore, for Romania:

75mm Skoda M1928 field gun = yugoslavian 76.5mm Skoda M1928

box trail, rounded shield without front seat, muzzle break, wooden wheels

105mm Skoda M1934 field howitzer

split trail, different shield narrower, not muzzle break, wooden wheels ( It seems some pieces were modernized with pneumatic tires, according to my first image of this thread)

105mm Skoda M1940-43 field howitzer

split trail, diffrent shield, muzzle break, wooden wheels.
It looks almost identical to Skoda 105/H41 sold to Finland in 1941 = Skoda H2(H4)


Does anyone have any information about the Romanian mountain artillery?

105mm Skoda D9 ? http://www.worldwar2.ro/foto/?id=167&area=31
75mm Skoda M1939 ??
105mm Skoda M1939 ??

On the other hand, Does somebody have any image of yugoslavian 100mm Skoda M1928?

Sturm78

[The Edge]

About your last image of a 75mm M1928 Romanian gun, I think that is exactly the same as yugoslavian 76.5mm Skoda M1928 gun.

Therefore, for Romania:

75mm Skoda M1928 field gun = yugoslavian 76.5mm Skoda M1928
box trail, rounded shield without front seat, muzzle break, wooden wheels
Until we find some better info/photo. (For example, I don't think Romanaian guns had AA capacity.)

100mm Skoda M1934 field howitzer
Split trail, different shield narrower, not muzzle break, wooden wheels (Skoda Export model "FE1")(It seems some pieces were modernized with pneumatic tires, according to my first image of this thread) Agree

105mm Skoda M1940-43 field howitzer
split trail, diffrent shield, muzzle break, wooden wheels.
(From my experience, you can't rely on museum pieces regarding the wheels)
It looks almost identical to Skoda 105/H41 sold to Finland in 1941 = Skoda H2(H4)
According to book: Karlický, Vladimír. 1975. "Ceskoslovenské delostrelecké zbrane", Romanians had "H4" model.

Other Skoda howitzers in Romanian use during WW2:
- 100mm Skoda M.1914 (WW1 war booty)
- 100mm Skoda M.1916 (WW1 war booty)
- 100mm Skoda M.14/19 (ex-Polish or Czech guns; maybe even modernized Romanian M.14 howitzers from WW1)
- 100mm Skoda M.1930 (ex-Czech vz. 30 guns; source: Germany, after 1939)
- 100mm Skoda F2 ("vz. 38") - according to named book, Germans also delivered some of them to Romania.
- 105mm Skoda M.1939 (Skoda export model "D9") - Produced for Afghanistan, delivered to Romania by Germans.

[The Edge]

75mm Skoda M1939

This mountain gun had Skoda export designation "C6". (Sadly, I have no photo of it. )
It seems that Czechoslovak Army also adopted this gun, but they came to late to see service.
Germans sold them to Romanians.
You will find the reference to this guns and Iran, but I don't believe to this info.
(Mainly because there are so many photos of Bofors L22 in Iranian service; two similar guns made no sense.)
Other named customer state was Afghanistan (along 105mm D9 howitzers - same story).
Czech also produced a "cavalry gun" counterpart of this gun, 75mm vz. 1935 (Skoda model "E3")