Re: Battle for the Barrikady Gun Factory, Nov.'42
I received the 15cm s FH 18 this last week. What a fantastic piece. The detailing and overall quality is simply superb.
The 15cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18 (s FH 18) was the standard heavy field howitzer of the German armed forces in WWII. It shared a common carriage with its sister weapon, the schwere 10cm Kanone 18.
From a transport perspective both weapons were handled in the same way. The guns were designed to be transported by either vehicle or horses , however the procedure to prepare the weapon for transport differed between the two modes. For vehicle tow the barrel was disconnected from the recoil mechanism and hauled all the way to the back of the cradle. For horse transport this was taken one step further and the barrel was completely removed from the carriage and the gun was split into two loads. Even so, these weapons were generally considered too heavy for horse transport.
While the s FH 18 was provided with 8 standard propellant charges it was found that the two largest charges placed considerable strain on the weapon and firing was normally restricted to charges 1-6. Firing of charges 7-8 required authorization from a higher formation and the reasons had to be certified by the troop commander. The s FH 18 was the first weapon to be issued with a rocket assisted shell, however this was not entirely successful and was withdrawn after a short time. The gun had inferior range to equivalant Soviet weapons
Firing a standard high explosive shell weighing 43.50kg
- Charge 1: velocity 210 mps, max range 4000 m
- Charge 2: velocity 230 mps, max range 4700 m
- Charge 3: velocity 250 mps, max range 5525 m
- Charge 4: velocity 278 mps, max range 6625 m
- Charge 5: velocity 320 mps, max range 8200 m
- Charge 6: velocity 375 mps, max range 9725 m
- Charge 7: velocity 440 mps, max range 11400 m
- Charge 8: velocity 495 mps, max range 13250 m
The Panzer-Artillerie-Regiment in 1942 was generally organized as follows:
Abteilung I
3 batteries of 4 x10.5 cm leichte Feldhaubitze 18 (12 total)
Abteilung II
3 batteries of 4 x10.5 cm leichte Feldhaubitze 18 (12 total)
Abteilung III
1 battery of 4 x schwere 10cm Kanone 18 (4 total)
2 batteries of 4 x 15cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18 (8 total)
Abteilung IV
2 batteries of 4 x 8.8 cm FlaK 18/36/37 (8 total)
1 battery of 12 x 2 cm FlaK 30/38 (12 total)