Type Field gun In service 1930-1945 Designer Skoda | Place of origin Czechoslovakia Wars World War II | |
 | ||
Used by Czechoslovakia
Nazi Germany | ||
The 8 cm kanon vz. 30 (Cannon model 30) was a Czech field gun used in the Second World War. Guns captured after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 were taken into Wehrmacht service as the 8 cm FK 30(t). It was used by a variety of German units during World War II, including I./SS-Artillerie-Abteilung 3 between 1939 and 1940.
Design & history
It was modified from an earlier Skoda design, the 7.5 cm kanon vz. 28, that attempted to combine the field, mountain and anti-aircraft roles into one weapon. It proved to be fairly successful at the first two, but was a failure at the third. It was ordered by the Romanian and Yugoslav armies, but hardly used for anti-aircraft duties. The Czechs decided to adopt it to replace their plethora of aged Austro-Hungarian field guns. They deleted the firing platform of the original design and modified it to use standard Czech 76.5 mm ammunition. It shared the same carriage that could break down into three pieces for transport as the 10 cm houfnice vz. 30.