The 305 mm howitzer M1939 (Br-18) (russian: 305-мм гаубица образца 1939 года (Бр-18)) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

superheavy siege howitzer used by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. After the Germans

occupied ' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October ...

Czechoslovakia in March 1939 they took over the

Škoda Works The Škoda Works ( cs, Škodovy závody, ) was one of the largest European industrial conglomerates of the 20th century, founded by Czech engineer Emil Škoda in 1859 in Plzeň, then in the Kingdom of Bohemia, Austrian Empire. It is the predece ...

, which had been working on this (Skoda XV) design and a companion 210 mm gun (Skoda VX). After a successful test firing 5 July 1939,Francev Vladimír, "Československé zbraně ve světě: V míru i za války", p. 91
/ref> as a result of the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those powers to partition Poland between them. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ri ...

the Germans sold both designs to the Soviet Union. It is not entirely clear that Skoda actually built the weapons itself or merely supplied the blueprints. At any rate, very few weapons seem to have been built; so few, in fact, that there is no record of the Germans capturing any during

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

. It used the same carriage as

210 mm gun M1939 (Br-17) The 210 mm gun M1939 (Br-17) (russian: 210-мм пушка образца 1939 года (Бр-17)) was a Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak heavy siege gun used by the Soviet Union during World War II. After the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia in M ...

as well as the same firing platform and control mechanism. It was transported in three loads. It was most famously used to defend Leningrad during the siege of Leningrad. The Soviet troops learned that if they fired all of them at the same time and used high-explosive shells, when the rounds exploded at the same time, they would flip over advancing German tanks. The 305mm would also later appear in the siege of Königsberg (present day Kaliningrad).

References

World War II artillery of the Soviet Union 305 mm artillery Artillery of Czechoslovakia Siege artillery Howitzers of the Soviet Union Czechoslovakia–Soviet Union relations World War II howitzers Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1940 {{artillery-stub