Tinnitus with a universal adapter
Some 85 years ago, during the epic eight-month siege of Sevastopol.
Wehrmacht soldiers of II/Artillerie-Regiment 814, 11th Army, Army Group Sud, cover their ears as a Czech-made Skoda 9.45-inch Howitzer Model 39 (24 cm Haubitze vz.39) fires at Red Army positions, probably during the siege of Perekop, on or about 24 September 1941.
The two-battalion/four-battery AR 814 was the only German unit to use the rare gun, of which only 16 were made for the Wehrmacht after two early tubes had been sent to the gun’s original customer, the Turkish Army, in early 1939.
Firing a 366-pound anti-concrete shell to 11 miles when all five bags were loaded behind them, these 35-ton beasts were only ever meant to be siege howitzers– making it likely the Turks planned to use them if needed against the Soviets in the Caucasus, as their other traditional enemy, the Greeks, had few such fortified positions worthy of such heavy ordnance.
The Germans used them at Sevastopol and at Leningrad.
A 24 cm Haubitze 39 of AR 814 in 1942 during the Siege of Leningrad.
They were withdrawn in 1944, and the guns were lost to history, although part of one may have been captured by the U.S. 79th Infantry Division in the Rhine in March 1945.
I/814 melted away near Königsberg in Wehrkreis I in early 1945, while II/814 was bagged by the Soviets as part of the 18th Army in Courland.
If anyone knows about the history of the two guns delivered to Turkey in 1939, please pass it on.