Skoda Heavy Artillery -Plate 7

This plate shows the 38cm Skoda Siege Howitzer No.6 in firing position, as displayed by the Vienna Military Museum.

The base box would normally have been completely buried, but for the sake of clarity the ground was omitted in this drawing.
The howitzer is provided with a fixed position crane for lifting up shells, as well with a hand cranked loader for pushing the projectile in the chamber.
The gun , crane and loader rest on a turntable which allows the whole thing to swivel 360 degrees and the ammunition is bought to the gun from a special trailer (which has its own in-built gantry crane set on two rails above it) by a special trolley (which has place for both the shell and cartridge) travelling on a narrow gauge railway.

The gun lacks any distinctive markings, but the base box is marked "Kb 6" (probably from "Kanonnenbett 6" - "Gun base box 6") as visible on a period photograph of the piece being bought to the museum. Wherever that inscription survives is a mystery, since the gun is displayed in the normal firing position, with the base "buried" in the floor.

The actual shells used with this gun include a heavy one used for destroying fortifications (the one in the Military Museum of Bucharest is also fitted with a special aerodynamic nose-cone, which, according to period sources, increased the range by almost 20%!) a shrapnel shell for use against enemy infantry and an all purpose "light" explosive shell. Markings are the same as for the 30.5 mortar.