21 cm Kanone 39

The 21 cm Kanone 39 (K 39) was a Czech-designed heavy gun used by the Germans in the Second World War. Two were built before the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939 and seized the rest of the guns and kept it in production for their own use, eventually building a total of 60 guns for themselves. They saw action in Operation Barbarossa, the siege of Odessa, siege of Leningrad and the siege of Sevastopol and were used on coast defence duties.

Development and design

It was designed by Škoda as a dual-purpose heavy field and coast defence gun in the late 1930s for Turkey with the designation of ''K52''. Only two had been delivered before the rest of the production run was appropriated by the Heer upon the occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939.Gander and Chamberlain, p. 206

Unlike the German practice of sliding block breeches that required a metallic cartridge case to seal the gun's chamber against combustion gases, Škoda preferred to use an interrupted screw breech with a de Bange obturator to seal the chamber. This lowered the rate of fire, but had the great economic advantage of allowing bagged propellant charges that didn't use heavy brass cartridge cases (copper might be in short supply in wartime). The other feature of the gun was that it used a monobloc autofrettaged barrel. This was a single piece of steel that was radially expanded under hydraulic pressure, a technology developed during WWI. This had the advantage of placing the steel of the barrel under compression, which helped it resist the stresses of firing and was simpler and faster to build since the barrel didn't require assembly as with more traditional construction techniques.Hogg, p. 100

The box trail carriage revolved on a turntable that sat on a ball race on the firing platform and was capable of 360° traverse. The end of the carriage rested on rollers which rested on a metal track or rail. For transport the ''K 39'' broke down into three loads, the barrel, the carriage and the firing platform with the turntable. Each of these was carried on a trailer with pneumatic tires. Emplacing the gun took six to eight hours, mainly to dig in and anchor the firing platform.Hogg, p. 100

The story of the gun's development by the Germans is contradictory in the available sources. Hogg claims that the ''K 39/40'' had only slight changes made, but that the ''K 39/41'' added a muzzle brake to control recoil.Hogg, p. 100 Gander and Chamberlain say that the ''K 39/40'' and ''K 39/41'' both had muzzle brakes with better performance than the original ''K 39'' and that the ''K 39/41'' was introduced to simplify production. Sixty were built for the Germans.

During the war, nine of these guns were sold to Sweden, where they were used to equip three heavy mobile coastal batteries. The guns were part of the Swedish war organization until 1982, although training on them ceased in 1972.

Ammunition

Every shell used by the ''K 39'' weighed . The original Czech ''21 cm Gr 39 (t)'' high-explosive shell had both nose and base fuzes and a filling of of TNT. The German equivalent, the 21 cm Gr 40, lacked the base fuze, had a copper driving band well forward on the shell and was fitted with a thin metal casing behind the driving band filled with a graphite mixture intended as a bore lubricant and to reduce wear. The ''21 cm Gr 39 Be'' was a Czech-designed anti-concrete shell fitted with a base fuze, a ballistic cap and the additive sleeve. It was filled with of TNT. There was also an armor-piercing, base-fuzed shell, the ''21 cm Pzgr 39'' of which little is known other than it had a filling of of a PETN/wax mixture.Hogg, p. 100

The ''K 39'' used a three-part bagged charge that weighed a total of . The ''K 39/41'' used a bagged charge with a total weight of The base charge (''Kleine Ladung'') weighed and had an igniter stitched to its base. The two increments (Vorkart) were lightly stitched together and enclosed in another bag tied at the top and with another igniter stitched to the base. The medium charge (''Mittlere Ladung'') consisted of the base charge and increment 2 while the full charge (''Grosse Ladung'') consisted of the base charge and both increments. The increments were loaded before the base charge.

Operational history

The ''K 39'' and its variants served as mobile artillery only with ''Artillery Battalions (Artillerie-Abteilungen) 767'' and ''768'', each battalion being organized with 3 batteries, each with two guns. Both battalions were raised in April—May 1940, but it is unknown if either participated in the Battle of France. For Operation Barbarossa ''767'' was assigned to the Sixth Army of Army Group SouthNiehorster, Leo W. G. ''German World War II Organizational Series, Vol. 3/II: Mechanized GHQ units and Waffen-SS Formations (22 June 1941)'', 1992, p. 22 where it participated in the sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol. ''768'' was initially assigned to 4th Army of Army Group Center, but it was quickly transferred to Army Group North to aid in the siege of Leningrad. By the start of Case Blue in late June 1942, ''Artillery Battalion 767'' had been converted to smaller guns, but ''768'' was assigned to the 18th Army of Army Group North.

Seven ''K 39'' guns were assigned to coast defence duties in Norway and nineteen ''K 39/40'' guns were stationed in France (13) and Norway (6).

Surviving examples

Three examples are preserved as museum pieces in Sweden, on Aspö, at Älvsborg, Gothenburg and at the ''Military Preparedness Museum'' ( sv, Beredskapsmuseet) outside Helsingborg.Preparedness Military Museum in Sweden
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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:21 Cm Kanone 39
World War II artillery of Germany
Artillery of Czechoslovakia
210 mm artillery
Coastal artillery
Military equipment introduced in the 1930s