10 cm M. 14 Feldhaubitze

10 cm M. 14 Feldhaubitze
M. 14 at the U.S. Army Field Artillery Museum, Ft. Sill, OK
Type	Howitzer
Place of origin	Austria-Hungary
Service history
In service	1914-1945
Used by	Austria-Hungary  Albania  Austria  Czechoslovakia  Nazi Germany  Greece  Italy  Hungary  Poland  Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Wars	World War I World War II
Production history
Designer	Skoda
Manufacturer	Skoda
Produced	1914-1918.
Specifications
Weight	1,350 kg (2,970 lbs)
Barrel length	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) L/19
Crew	6
Shell	separate loading, fixed case
Caliber	100 mm (3.93 in)
Breech	horizontal sliding block
Recoil	hydro-spring variable recoil
Carriage	box trail
Elevation	-8° to +50°
Traverse	6°
Rate of fire	6-8 rpm
Muzzle velocity	407 m/s (1,335 ft/s)
Maximum firing range	8,400 m (9,100 yards)

The 10 cm M. 14 Feldhaubitze was a dual-purpose field and mountain gun used by Austria-Hungary during World War I. Between the wars it was used by Austria, Italy, and Poland. Captured weapons were used by Nazi Germany under the designations 10 cm leFH 14(ö) and 10 cm leFH 315(i). It served as the standard Italian medium howitzer as the Obice da 100/17 modello 14.

Design

It was a conventional design, although the first versions used an obsolescent wrought bronze barrel liner and a cast bronze jacket. Later versions used a standard steel barrel. The spade was in two pieces, one designed for use in icy ground and the other in normal soil.

Two cannoneers sat in seats attached to the shield, as was normal for the period. It was pulled by three pairs of horses when attached to its limber. The carriage could be broken down into three loads carried on small carts for transport in rough terrain. Postwar some weapons were modernized for motor towing with new rubber-tired wheels and the seats on the shield removed. A more extensive postwar update by Czechoslovakia was designated as the 10 cm houfnice vz. 14/19 and was exported to Poland, Greece and Yugoslavia.

References

Note: The data for this howitzer differs between sources, also considering how often it was modified, and cannot be considered definitive. Data provided has generally been for a steel-tubed howitzer as given at the U.S. Army Field Artillery Museum, Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.

• Englemann, Joachim and Scheibert, Horst. Deutsche Artillerie 1934-1945: Eine Dokumentation in Text, Skizzen und Bildern: Ausrüstung, Gliderung, Ausbildung, Führung, Einsatz. Limburg/Lahn, Germany: C. A. Starke, 1974
• 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 ISBN 0-385-15090-3

External links

Media related to 10 cm M. 14 Feldhaubitze at Wikimedia Commons

• M. 14 FH information on Landships