The photograph grouping here shows a 24 cm Haubitze M.39 that is in use with a Schwere-Artillerie Batterie. The location is somewhere on the eastern front. The 24 cm Haubitze M.39 is a heavy artillery piece that was used for sieges or in a fortress, seen here is seen to be in a siege. Seen alongside the gun are Artillerymen known as Kanoniers, in last photograph seen are some in White Drillich fatigue tunics. Kanoniers can be seen wearing M36 side caps, showing that it is an early war photograph. Also seen in the background is some buildings and some vehicles.
The 24 cm Haubitze 39 was a Czechoslovakian designed artillery gun that was produced Škoda. The gun weighed at 27,000 kg and a length if 22ft and 2 inches. The Gun has a firing range of 11 miles with a firing rate of 1 round every 2 minuets. It is highly likely that the Kanoniers seen here are apart of the Heer Artillery Regiment 814. This regiment saw the participation in Operation Barbarossa, with the sieges of Leningrad and Sevastopol. You can only imagine the noise of one of these guns and the devastation it could have caused.
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