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15 cm Autokanone M. 15/16

Heavy field gun used by Austria-Hungary in World War I

Field	Value
name	15 cm Autokanone M. 15/16
image	15cm Feldkanone M15-16 in Vittorio. (BildID 15672863).jpg
image_size	300
caption	A 15 cm Autokanone M. 15/16 at Vittorio Veneto in 1918
origin	Austria-Hungary
type	Heavy field gun
is_artillery	yes
service	1916−1945
used_by	Austria-Hungary
First Austrian Republic
Czechoslovakia
Nazi Germany
Kingdom of Italy
wars	World War I
World War II
designer	Skoda
design_date	1913−16
manufacturer	Skoda
production_date	1916−18
number	44
variants	15 cm Autokanone M. 15
weight	11900 kg
part_length	6.0 m L/39.5
crew	13
cartridge	separate-loading, cased charge
caliber	152.4 mm (6 in)
rate	1 rpm
velocity	692 m/s (2,270 ft/s)
range	16000 m (M. 15)
max_range	21840 m (M. 15/16)
carriage	box trail
elevation	-6° to +45°
traverse	6°

First Austrian Republic Czechoslovakia Nazi Germany Kingdom of Italy World War II

The 15 cm Autokanone M. 15/16 was a heavy field gun used by Austria-Hungary in World War I. Guns turned over to Italy as reparations after World War I were taken into Italian service as the Cannone da 152/37. Austrian and Czech guns were taken into Wehrmacht service after the Anschluss and the occupation of Czechoslovakia as the 15.2 cm K 15/16(t). Italian guns captured after the surrender of Italy in 1943 were known by the Wehrmacht as the 15.2 cm K 410(i). Due to their unique ammunition, the Germans did not use them that much, and generally served on coast-defense duties during World War II.

Design

The M. 15 was a thoroughly conventional design for its day with a box trail, iron wheels and a curved gunshield. It was notable as being the first Austro-Hungarian gun to be designed for motor transport, towed behind the M 17 'Goliath' artillery tractor, hence the Autokanone designation. For transport the barrel was generally detached from the recoil system and moved on its own trailer. The original M. 15 weapons had a maximum elevation of only 30°, but an elevation of 45° was demanded early in the gun's production run, mainly to engage high-altitude targets in the mountains. 27 M. 15 guns were completed before production switched to the improved M. 15/16 with greater elevation in the first half of 1917. A total of 44 barrels and 43 carriages were completed by the end of the war.

It seems likely that surviving M. 15 guns were rebuilt after the war to M. 15/16 standards. During the Twenties, guns in Italian service were relined and given new wheels by Vickers-Terni. In June 1940 Italy had 29 Cannone da 152/37 in service. By the time of the Italian capitulation this number had declined to 17.

Photo Gallery

File:15cm autokanone m15-16 bw5.jpg File:152-37 batteria.JPG File:152-37 viberti.JPG

References

Bibliography

Chamberlain, Peter & Gander, Terry. Heavy Artillery. New York: Arco, 1975
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
Ortner, M. Christian. The Austro-Hungarian Artillery From 1867 to 1918: Technology, Organization, and Tactics. Vienna, Verlag Militaria, 2007

References

"15cm M15 - M15/16 AutoKanone".
Ortner, p. 518-519
Chamberlain, Peter. (1975). "Heavy Artillery". Arco.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

world-war-i-guns world-war-i-artillery-of-austria-hungary 152-mm-artillery

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