The 24 cm houfnice vz.39 (German designation: 24 cm Haubitze 39) (Howitzer model 39) was a Czechoslovak-designed siege

howitzer The howitzer () is an artillery weapon that falls between a cannon (or field gun) and a mortar. It is capable of both low angle fire like a field gun and high angle fire like a mortar, given the distinction between low and high angle fire break ...

used in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was kept in production after the

German occupation of Czechoslovakia German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

in March 1939 and eighteen were delivered to the Germans. It was only used by the Army's ''Artillery Regiment 814'' and entered service shortly before the

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

in 1940. The regiment participated in

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

and in the Sieges of

Sevastopol Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...

and

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Description and development

Škoda designed it for export and Turkey ordered a batch, but only received two before the Germans occupied

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

in March 1939. It was a stablemate of the Škoda 21 cm Kanone 39 and used virtually the same mounting and transport arrangements. It used an

interrupted screw file:Breech 122m10 hameenlinna 2.jpg, Breech from Russian 122 mm M1910 howitzer, modified and combined with 105 mm H37 howitzer barrel An interrupted screw or interrupted thread is a mechanical device typically used in the Breech-loadi ...

breech with a de Bange obturator to provide the gas seal with bagged propellant. The carriage revolved on a ball-race firing platform that had to be dug-in before firing, a task that took six to eight hours to accomplish. It broke down into three loads for transport, the barrel, carriage and the ground platform. A modified version entered service in 1942 as the ''H 39/40'' although the changes merely simplified production. A total of eighteen were delivered to Germany.

Ammunition

It used both Czechoslovak and German-designed ammunition. The Czechoslovak-designed ''24 cm Gr 39(t)'' HE shell had a weight of . It used both nose and base fuses, two

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

driving bands and contained a bursting charge of

TNT Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...

. The German copy, the ''24 cm Gr 39 umg'' had only a German nose fuze, soft-iron driving bands and a smaller charge of . It also used a Czechoslovak-designed anti-concrete shell, the ''24 cm Gr 39 Be'', that had copper driving bands. It used 5 bagged charges that were enclosed in a single larger bag. Increments were simply removed to adjust range as necessary.

Combat history

The ''1st Battalion'' of ''Artillery Regiment 814'' was formed on 15 March 1940 with four batteries of ''H39s''. A month later, the ''Third'' and ''Fourth Batteries'' were used to form the 2nd battalion of the regiment. The ''2nd Battalion'' was still forming when the

began on 10 May 1940, but the ''1st Battalion'' was assigned to ''

Army Group B Army Group B () was the name of four distinct German Army Group, army group commands that saw action during World War II. The first Army Group B was created on 12 October 1939 (from the former Army Group North) and fought in the Battle of France ...

s reserve – it is uncertain if it saw any combat during the campaign. The regiment was assigned to 1st Panzer Group in ''

Army Group South Army Group South () was the name of one of three German Army Groups during World War II. It was first used in the 1939 September Campaign, along with Army Group North to invade Poland. In the invasion of Poland, Army Group South was led by Ge ...

'' for

. It was transferred to '' 11th Army'' for the Siege of Sevastopol in late 1941—42. It accompanied that army as part of its siege train when it was transferred north to attack

in the late summer of 1942. It remained under the command of ''

Army Group North Army Group North () was the name of three separate army groups of the Wehrmacht during World War II. Its rear area operations were organized by the Army Group North Rear Area. The first Army Group North was deployed during the invasion of Pol ...

'' until it re-equipped with smaller guns in July 1944. Nothing is known of any units that might have been equipped with the howitzers after July 1944. ''Artillery Regiment 814'' is the only unit known to have been equipped with the ''H39'' howitzer.

Notes

References

* Engelmann, Joachim and Scheibert, Horst. ''Deutsche Artillerie 1934-1945: Eine Dokumentation in Text, Skizzen und Bildern: Ausrüstung, Gliederung, Ausbildung, Führung, Einsatz''. Limburg/Lahn, Germany: C. A. Starke, 1974 * Gander, Terry and Chamberlain, Peter. ''Weapons of the Third Reich: An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms, Artillery and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939-1945''. New York: Doubleday, 1979 * Hogg, Ian V. ''German Artillery of World War Two''. 2nd corrected edition. Mechanicsville, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997 {{DEFAULTSORT:24 Cm Haubitze 39 World War II artillery of Germany Artillery of Czechoslovakia Siege artillery 240 mm artillery World War II howitzers Military equipment introduced in the 1930s