The 10 cm houfnice vz. 28 (howitzer model 28) was a Czech
howitzer
A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...
used in limited numbers by the
Yugoslav Army during
World War II. The Yugoslavians ordered twenty houfnice vz. 28 guns which they referred to as the 100 mm M.28. Guns captured from Yugoslavia by the Germans were given the designation 10 cm leFH 317(j).
Design & history
The origins of the houfnice vz. 28 began in 1928 at the
Å koda Works in
Pilsen. The design attempted to combine the howitzer and
mountain gun
Mountain guns are artillery pieces designed for use in mountain warfare and areas where usual wheeled transport is not possible. They are generally capable of being taken apart to make smaller loads for transport by horses, humans, mules, tractor ...
roles into one weapon. The houfnice vz. 28 combined a two-wheeled
box trail carriage, horizontal
sliding-wedge breech,
Hydro-pneumatic recoil system and high angle elevation. For the mountain gun role it could be broken down into three pieces for transport, a feature also shared by the contemporary
8 cm kanon vz. 28 and the later
8 cm kanon vz. 30 and
10 cm houfnice vz. 30 guns. The
Czech Army declined to adopt the houfnice vz. 28, but ordered its successor the houfnice vz. 30 in larger numbers. The vz. 30 and vz. 28 shared a similar configuration, dimensions and their performance was largely the same.
Notes
References
* Peter Chamberlain and Terry Gander: Light and Medium field Artillery. New York. Arco Publishing. 1977.
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20071202052427/http://warandgame.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/skoda-765-mm-kanon-vz-30-and-100-mm-houfnice-vz-30/
World War II artillery of Germany
World War II field artillery
Artillery of Czechoslovakia
100 mm artillery
Military equipment introduced in the 1920s
{{artillery-stub