Last updated 08 June 2002

Despite the success of the 149mm K1, the Czech army decided that the weapon did not meet its exact requirements and funded further development to the stage where the K4 model met the specification. The K4 had much in common with the K1, but had a shorter barrel and the need for removing the barrel for separate horse traction was no longer required as the Czech army was making great strides to be fully mechanized. The K4 also had pneumatic wheels and some other modifications to suit it for the tractor-towing role. With these changes, the K4 was adopted by the Czech army as the 149mm hounfice vz37.

The Germans took the Skoda plant at Pilsen, finding on the production lines the first of the full production vz37 howitzers. By that time only a few models had been produced (some sources list as many a 1118!) and these were taken by the German army for testing in Germany. The Germans discovered that the vz37 was a sound and serviceable howitzer with a good range and firing a very useful 42kg shell. The Germans decided to keep the vz37 in production at the Pilsen plant for their own use and called it the 15-cm schwere Feldhaubitze 37(t) that became a standard weapon of many divisions, forming part of the divisional artillery equipment and even being used by some corps batteries. It was used during the French campaign of May-June 1940 and later during the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Some were still in service on the Eastern Front as late as 1944, but by then many had been passed to the various Balkan forces under German control and operating in what was Yugoslavia, the Slovak army being one such recipient.

German ammunition production, for this gun, in thousands.

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