Skoda Heavy Artillery -Plate 6

Plate 6 in the series.
This is one of the standard loads carried by the "C-Zug" described in the previous plate, the 38cm Belagerungshaubitze M16 (Siege Howitzer) shown in transport configuration, as it appears now in the Military Museum of Bucharest.

The gun is split into four sections (barrel, carriage and the two parts of the base box), each supported by its own trailer system of two interconnected electrical four wheel four motor units. Since the cables linking the various units are missing, we must assume this to be the configuration used for long distance travel, towed by a conventional steam locomotive.

This particular piece of artillery was captured by the Romanian Army during the 1919 campaign against the Communist Hungarian Republic of Bela Kun in it's current configuration, and is one of only two pieces of this type that still survive.

The drawings show the gun in the original colours - the piece itself was painted OD green, while the trailers were most likely painted a leathery brown. While no colour pictures of this piece exist there is ample anecdotal evidence to support this, including several BW photographs of similar guns on the Italian Front as well as pictures taken at the Bucharest Military Museum in the interbellum period, which show clear differences in hue between the field piece and the trailers.

The white square markings represent the loading weight per axle for each of the trailers and are drawn in the right position for the Bucharest piece (Howitzer No.2 "Gudrun"), as apparent from the above mentioned period photographs.

Other plates in the series:

The cover

Plate I

Plate II


Plate IV

Plate V

Plate VI

Plate VII

Plate VIII