The Book of Armaments:
Slovakia’s Artillery
by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
June 2021

Slovakia became an independent state on 15 March 1939, breaking away from Czechoslovakia as German troops marched into the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. Almost immediately the new state became embroiled in a border war with its neighbor to the south, Hungary, despite Slovakia having accepted German protection.

Slovaks had formed only about 14 percent of the old Czechoslovak Army’s manpower, at least before German-speaking areas were stripped away, and about 15 percent of the army’s strength was stationed in Slovakia: six infantry divisions and one mobile division, all at cadre strength but with all of their weapons and equipment including their artillery – nine light and six heavy regiments.

Proportionately far fewer Slovaks had a university or technical education than the Czechs or Germans in the old Czechoslovakia; only the ethnic Ukrainians inhabiting Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia in far eastern Czechoslovakia were less advanced. That meant that Slovaks were greatly under-represented in the officer corps and in technical branches like the artillery and the engineers. Slovakia could arm far more troops than it could field. That problem quickly solved itself, as the German confiscated roughly half of the weapons and vehicles for use by their own troops. The new Slovak government then sold them more of its share.

A Slovak crew poses with a 100mm Model 14/19 howitzer.

Within hours, the new Slovak Army had a war on its hands as the Hungarians seized a strip of territory along the new state’s southern border – this in addition to the large areas extorted from Czechoslovakia in 1938. The Slovaks fielded one light and one heavy regiment of artillery by combining the remaining Slovaks (and a few of their Czech comrades who they persuaded to help out) from several regiments. The Slovaks performed surprisingly well, limiting Hungarian gains.

Afterwards the new Slovak Army reorganized itself several times. Initially the Slovaks fielded six artillery regiments, but could not crew all of their guns and by 1940 the roster had been reduced to four regiments – one for each of the three small infantry divisions, and one army-level reserve artillery regiment with the heavier guns and long-range cannon. A re-shuffling later that year changed those to two divisional outfits, one motorized regiment and one horse-drawn heavy artillery regiment.

The two divisional regiments each fielded 55 howitzers – 42 of the 100mm Vzor (Model) 14/19 standard type and thirteen more 100mm Model 16/19 mountain howitzers. That gave a Slovak division greater artillery firepower than a division of any of the other Axis allies, though less than a German division (on paper, at least). The motorized regiment had 54 artillery pieces, half of them the modern 100mm Model 30 model howitzer and the other half the 105mm Model 35 long-range cannon. The heavy artillery regiment had 49 150mm Model 25 howitzers.

All of that weaponry made the artillery the backbone of the otherwise-weak Slovak Army. The Slovak Mobile Brigade initially took one battalion of the motorized artillery regiment with it into the Soviet Union in June 1941, later receiving the rest of the regiment plus part of the heavy artillery. When the Slovaks organized a Security Division in August 1941 for action against Soviet partisans, it included a newly-raised two-battalion artillery regiment with 24 100mm howitzers. In 1942, the division sent them to assist German units fighting at Kharkov, where all of them were overrun by Soviet tanks. To assure commonality of ammunition supplies, the Slovaks purchased 24 German 105mm leFH18 howitzers from Rheinmetall to re-equip the division; though the weapons had been lost while under German command, the Germans of course made the Slovaks pay for their replacements.

The Skoda-made 100mm Model 14/19 howitzer had been originally designed for the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Army just before the outbreak of the Great War, and rushed into production when that army’s artillery was shown to be fantastically inadequate for the modern battlefield. Hundreds of them fell into the hands of the Empire’s successor states, including Czechoslovakia.

After the war Skoda resumed production of a modernized version, with a longer barrel and new ammunition. Those changes provided excellent range, firepower and accuracy, and the Czech Army adopted the weapon as its standard light howitzer. Skoda also exported the howitzer to its friends and allies, and even to a sworn enemy, the new Kingdom of Hungary. The new Slovak state inherited 149 of them, far more than it could provide with crews.

In 1928, Skoda designed a new gun-howitzer for export, the Model 28. It attempted to combine multiple capabilities in one weapon: cannon, howitzer, mountain howitzer and anti-aircraft gun. Anti-tank capability was not yet considered essential. The cannon could elevate to 80 degrees, and be placed on a rotating roundtable to engage aircraft, but like other such universal guns it could not move rapidly enough and lacked the sights to serve effectively in the anti-aircraft role. But it was outstanding in the field gun and howitzer roles, and in 1930 the Czech Army chose it as the new standard light field howitzer and mountain howitzer.

A Slovak battery of 100mm Model 30 gun-howitzers.

The Model 30 produced for the Czech Army eschewed the roundtable for anti-aircraft fire, and had rubber tires instead of spoked wheels to speed its transport when pulled by trucks or prime movers. It fired a slightly heavier shell than the German leFH18 105mm howitzer, to a greater range. It was somewhat lighter than the German weapon, and could be broken into three loads for transport by mules.

The Slovaks ended up with 40 of them (some sources claim 30, but this appears to be a misprint); the Germans seized another 40 from the Czech arsenals in Slovakia. Most of the Slovak guns served with the motorized 11th Artillery Regiment and fought with the Mobile Division in Russia, where most of them were lost.

The Imperial and Royal Army had maintained a large park of mountain artillery, also supplied by Skoda, and in 1916 ordered a howitzer to have the same performance as the Model 1914 but a lightweight carriage and larger shield. It would also have to be broken into three loads, and be transportable by mule. The Model 1916 met its requirements, and soldiered on into the next war with the successor states and particularly with the Royal Italian Army.

The Model 1916 used the same barrel as the Model 1914, and so Skoda produced a Model 16/19 modernized version with the same barrel as the Model 14/19. This weapon had similar performance to the field howitzer, but fired a different shell with a smaller explosive charge. The Slovak Army found 38 of them in the arsenals, and though they were not officially on the tables of organization, as the Model 14/19 howitzers were lost in combat or worn out. Unlike the other 100mm weapons, the Slovak arsenals had large stockpiles of ammunition for this weapon.

A Skoda Model 35 cannon in the German Atlantic Wall.

For long-range fire, the Czech Army adopted the Model 35 105mm cannon. This was an outstanding weapon, though heavier than a howitzer of similar caliber and thus not really suitable for deployment as a divisional support weapon. It had great range, explosive power and rate of fire, and after the fall of Czechoslovakia the Germans quickly took it into their service and continued production at Skoda. The Slovaks managed to hang onto 36 of them, which they used to equip half of their motorized artillery regiment. Like the Model 30 gun-howitzers, most were lost in the Mobile Division’s retreat.

For heavy support, the Slovaks fielded another Skoda weapon, the Model 25 150mm howitzer. This was not as fine a weapon as later Skoda designs; the Czech Army would adopt a much better 149mm gun-howitzer but retained hundreds of the Model 25 in stock and the Slovaks took possession of 115 of them, plus another 67 older-model 150mm howitzers which remained in the arsenals throughout the war.

The Model 25 was out-ranged by the smaller howitzers, but did fire a much heavier shell. It could eb drawn by horses, and the Slovaks fielded them in their army reserve regiment and later added small battalions to their infantry divisions. None went to the Soviet Union, and all were seized by the Germans at the outset of the National Uprising, meaning that none of the Slovak heavy howitzers fired a shot in anger during the war.

And that’s the tale of Slovakia’s artillery.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published eleventy-million books, games and articles on historical subjects. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children and his dog Leopold.

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