The Škoda 15 cm K10 was a naval gun of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

that was used by the

Austro-Hungarian Navy The Austro-Hungarian Navy or Imperial and Royal War Navy (, in short ''k.u.k. Kriegsmarine'', ) was the navy, naval force of Austria-Hungary. Ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy were designated ''SMS'', for ''Seiner Majestät Schiff'' (His Majes ...

during World War I. The gun was actually 149.1 mm, but the classification system for artillery rounded up to the next highest centimeter. The 15 cm K10 was called cannon 149/47 by the Italians and was used by the

Italian Navy The Italian Navy (; abbreviated as MM) is one of the four branches of Italian Armed Forces and was formed in 1946 from what remained of the ''Regia Marina'' (Royal Navy) after World War II. , the Italian Navy had a strength of 30,923 active per ...

coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of ...

during World War II.

Construction

The Škoda 15 cm K10 was developed and built by

Škoda Works The Škoda Works (, ) was one of the largest European industrial conglomerates of the 20th century. In 1859, Czech engineer Emil Škoda bought a foundry and machine factory in Plzeň, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary that had been established ten ye ...

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

. The barrel was made of steel with a horizontal sliding breech block and the gun used separate loading ammunition with a cartridge case and bagged charge.

History

They were used as secondary armament on the four battleships of the ''Tegetthoff''-class. Each ship had six guns per side mounted on pedestal mounts in

casemates A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armoured structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" mea ...

amidships. After World War I was delivered to Italy as a war reparation. ''Tegetthoff'' was decommissioned and remained in Venice until 1923 when it was moved to La Spezia to be scrapped in 1925 . The guns recovered from ''Tegetthof'' were assigned to coastal batteries in Libya and Croatia where they were used in World War II. The barrel, pedestal and semi-circular armored shield from the casemates were reused, but the mounts were modified to increase elevation to +35 ° and traverse to 360°. The only remaining complete 15 cm/50 gun of the four-gun battery ''Batterie Madonna'' is located on the island of Veli Brioni near

Pula Pula, also known as Pola, is the largest city in Istria County, west Croatia, and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, seventh-largest city in the country, situated at the southern tip of the Istria, Istrian peninsula in western Croatia, wi ...

, Croatia. The engravings on this gun have been obscured by rust, but it appears that this gun is serial number 15 and was manufactured in 1912.

Ammunition

Ammunition was of separate loading type with a cartridge case and a bagged charge which weighed . The gun was able to fire: *

Armor Piercing Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate armour protection, most often including naval armour, body armour, and vehicle armour. The first, major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the t ...

- *

High Explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...

Notes

References

External links