This is a photo of yet another SKODA M15 in Australia. It is located in Bundaberg Queensland and the photos were taken by my good friend Michael.
The brass plate reads:
SKODA 7.5cm M15 Mountain Gun GEBIRGSKANONEas used by the Austro-Hungarian and German Army in WW1 and Czechoslovakia and Italy in WW2. The gun was dis-assembled to 5 units for transportation.Ths required 27 men in total to transport it. In this state the gun could fire a number of different projectiles including grenades, gas grenades and shrapnel shells all weighing around 6.5kg. It had a maximum range of 8 km.
The wheels are unusual. There is the suggestion that they are actually tractor wheels. Any other suggestions?
-- Edited by sandy1000 on Saturday 26th of December 2009 09:48:19 AM
-- Edited by sandy1000 on Saturday 26th of December 2009 09:56:45 AM
The Skoda M15 guns in Australia are puzzling. There were only a few of these returned to Australia and only one allocated to Queensland according to Billett. The manufacturer's serial numbers from Skoda don't seem to fit with the AWM records. An image of the breech of the Bundaberg M15 would at least confirm what has been inferred from the AWM records.
Another possible confounding factor is that the M15s were used by the Italian army in WW2 - it's certainly possible a few of these were captured in North Africa in 1941. The captured WW2 guns don't seem to have been handled in the organised fashion as they were after WW1.
