Original Item. Only One Available. This is one of the scarcest WWI crates we have offered, an Austro-Hungarian K.u.K. marked Artillery fuze crate. K.u.K. means Kaiserlich und Koeniglich, or Imperial (Austrian) and Royal (Hungarian), the dual army of Austria & Hungary, heretofore referred to as Austria-Hungary.

The crate is well-marked, and is of a very unique and characteristic design. The crate measures 21⅝ x 11¼ x 4½” and has a very peculiar closure system. There are two small levers on the side of the crate which are meant to insert through two small holes in the metal of the lid, but due to its age, the levers no longer fit through the holes, although this doesn’t really matter for display purposes. There are two carrying handles on the sides which are still in good working order.

A very interesting part of the crate is the canvas strap attached to a small wooden end piece, which was meant to help the user get the first shell out of the crate as when it was full it was hard to do so by hand.

The lid of the crate has a gorgeous depiction of an artillery shell with 22 small painted shrapnel balls inside, perhaps to indicate that this crate either carried the shells or the shrapnel balls? The lid is also marked:

3 ST. S.
7.5cm GH.-Br.Gr.
K.u.K.
1918

We believe this indicates that it held materials or rounds for the Skoda 7.5 cm Gebirgskanone M. 15, a mountain gun used heavily by Austria-Hungary during the war.

We cannot find any similar examples of this crate, making it a true rarity. Interestingly, the wood of the bottom of the crate extends past the sides on the left and right. This is the first example we have had, and it will likely be the last. Don’t miss out on this extremely scarce piece. Comes ready for further research and display.

History of the Skoda 7.5 cm Gebirgskanone M. 15

Its development was quite prolonged, as the Austrians couldn't decide on the specifications that they wanted. Initially, they wanted a gun that could be broken down into no more than five pack-animal loads to replace the various 7 cm mountain guns in service, but prolonged trials proved that the 7.5 cm M. 12 prototype to be the best gun. However, the commander-in-chief of Bosnia-Hercegovina believed it to be too heavy and demanded a return to the 7 cm caliber to save weight. Skoda dutifully built enough guns for a test battery in the smaller caliber and tested them during the spring of 1914 where they were judged inferior to the 7.5 cm guns. This cost the Austrians heavily as the 7.5 cm guns began to be delivered in April 1915 instead of the planned date of April 1914.

For transport, the gun could be dismantled into six parts, generally carried in four loads. In addition, there was a folding Gun shield fitted on some (perhaps many) such guns. A revised version of this gun was released as the Skoda 75 mm Model 1928. The Germans bought some guns during World War I, but used them as infantry guns in direct support of the infantry, as their light weight would allow them to move with the infantry. They complained that the guns were too fragile and didn't have a high enough muzzle velocity to act as an anti-tank gun. Considering that the guns were designed to be disassembled, it is not too surprising that they couldn't stand the abuse moving through the shell-pocketed front lines on the Western Front.

A standard Austro-Hungarian Gebirgs-Artillerie-Regimenter, which was used to beef up Field Artillery Regiments in some Corps, would be equipped with 36 Skoda M15s on paper, though in reality the number of guns and batteries varied quite a bit. Part of this reason was due to the slow production and disbursement of the guns and parts. 76 artillery pieces were delivered in the first half of 1915, with 250-252 barreled assemblies & 248 carriages delivered in the second half of that same year. The German Army used the Skoda as a substitute for the 7.62 cm Infanteriegeschütz L/16.5 in the infantry support role with 14 Infanteriegeschütz-batallions equipped with these guns but using more powerful HE grenades than those used by the Austro-Hungarians. While the Austro-Hungarians were generally well pleased with the Skoda, the Germans tended to use the gun in situations it wasn't designed for such as a mobile close support weapon. The M15 was designed to be disassembled for transport but the Germans often towed them on long marches as-is, so that the main parts had a tendency to become lose or disconnected after traveling on bumpy terrain. This was mainly because there wasn't a large need for disassembly on the Western Front as there were in other areas such as the Italian Front.