Austria-Hungary

24cm Kanone M.16

The powerful Skoda 24cm Kanone M.16 was developed out of the 38cm M.16 howitzer, so it shared the same firing platform and carriage. (The 38cm M.16 started out as a project, initiated in April 1915 by Skoda, designed to give roughly the same firepower as the big 42cm Howitzer, while at the same time retaining the relative mobility of the famous 30.5cm Mörser M.11.) The largest difference were the length of the barrel, the lower extent of the elevation and the design of the cradle. The breech was the same as on the howitzers, and the construction of the barrel and some other details were also identical. The gun itself was a reinforced naval gun, 40 calibres long. After testing nine guns were ordered. Both this and the 38cm M.16 were among the first generation of heavy artillery designed to be towed by the special Daimler petrol­electric tractors in “trains”, consisting not only of the main gun loads but also of trailers for tools, ammunition, domestic arrangements and so on.  With a range of 26,3km (muzzle velocity: 750 m/sec) and the 161kg M.16 shell, the main task for these guns was to conduct a harassing and destructive fire on key targets way behind the front, such as road and railway crossings, depots and headquarters. The one-gun batteries consisted of 8 officers, 800 other ranks, 5 horses plus 20 light and heavy trucks with trailers. The complete gun, once in place, weighed 86 tons, so getting the gun in and out of action was slow and required a great deal of labour and time. My model is made from MGM's resin kit, and has been built pretty much straight out of the box. The crew comes mainly from HÄT's Austrian Heavy Weapons Set, but some are made by IT Miniatures. Click on the thumbnails to see more views of this model:

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