M 16 38 cm siege howitzer
I don’t really know for what reason, but although the Monarchy was not able to produce the necessary quantities of even basic types of guns, it permanently developed large-caliber guns. I can understand this for the main artillery of the battleships, since it wanted to compete successfully with the Italians in control of the Adriatic. Despite this, it is a fact that both sides installed several naval guns on land to strengthen the heavy artillery. The Monarchy developed the brutally destructive 42 cm howitzer, which I have written about here before. Still, they felt the need to build a gun only slightly smaller than this behemoth a 38 cm siege howitzer.
The first two pieces were delivered by Skoda Works just before the Tyrolean offensive in 1916. These weapons, named Barbara and Gudrun, participated in the defeat of the Italian fortresses. Encouraged by the results, the Monarchy’s military leadership ordered fourteen more pieces, and two spare barrels. Eight of these were completed by the end of the war.
The gun was an enlarged version of the M 16 30.5 cm mortar and weighed a total of 87 tons. It was transported disassembled in four parts. The four trailers were driven by electric motors and could move at a speed of 14 km/h. The first thing to do in the firing position was to dig a 52 cubic meter pit, in which the gun base was placed. The remaining parts of the gun were mounted on this. These preparations took a full day. The ready-to-fire weapon was loaded manually, the projectile was towed by a hand cart and then manually inserted in the gun breech. The gun’s fire rate was one shot every 5 minutes. The projectile weighed 750 kg. The gun barrel could be set at an angle of 40-75 degrees. This weapon could fire the projectile at a maximum distance of 15 km.
Of the eight pieces produced, two have survived up till today. Number six is kept in the Military History Museum in Vienna. The second “Gudrun” gun can be viewed in Bucharest.
