Description
The 42 cm Küstenhaubitze M.14 was a 420 mm super-heavy Austro-Hungarian coastal howitzer from the First World War. The first prototypes of this weapon were created in 1909, but production only started in 1914 and lasted until 1918. In her it was created - by different sources - from 4 to 8 pieces of this weapon. The weight of the weapon was 117 tons. The initial velocity of the shell fired from this gun was up to 415 m / s, and the range was 14.6 kilometers. The rate of fire was up to 1 shot for 6-8 minutes. The 42 cm Küstenhaubitze M.14 was developed and produced by the Skoda concern (actually: Skodawerke Actien-Gesellschaft) for the needs of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces, which aimed at acquiring new coastal howitzers just before the outbreak of the Great War. The first produced howitzer was placed in a fortress in the city of Pula on the Adriatic Sea. Interestingly, subsequent guns of this type were used mainly as the heaviest caliber artillery in battles with the Russian army to fire on strongly fortified positions and fortresses, for example in Tarnów or Modlin.