Škoda 7 cm K10

The Škoda 7 cm K10 was a dual-purpose gun of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that was used by the Austro-Hungarian Navy during World War I. The gun was actually 66 mm, but the classification system for artillery rounded up to the next highest centimeter. The 7 cm K10 was also used by the Italian Navy on ships ceded as war reparations and as coastal artillery during World War II. The Italians referred to it as the 66/47. The Škoda 7 cm K10 was developed and built by Škoda at the Pilsen works. The barrel was made of steel with a horizontal sliding breech block and used fixed quick fire ammunition. The Škoda 7 cm K10 was mainly used for anti-torpedo boat defense and the guns had an elevation of -10° to +20°. In 1915 Skoda engineers developed an anti-aircraft mounting for the K10 which was called the Škoda 7 cm K16 BAG (BAG = Ballon-Abwehr Geschutze or anti-balloon gun) which could elevate from -6° to +90° and had the same ballistic performance as the K10. The Škoda 7 cm K10 and K16 were mounted aboard battleships, coastal defence ships and cruisers of the Austro-Hungarian Navy as secondary or tertiary armament. The Italians came into possession of a number of these guns through ships ceded to them as war reparations. The French Navy also came into possession of a number of these guns through ships ceded to them as war reparations, but there is not much evidence that they used them afterwards. Tegetthoff class – The 7 cm K10 and K16 were mounted as tertiary armament on these four Dreadnoughts. Each ship had twelve K10 guns on open pivot mounts on the upper deck, above the casemates mainly for anti-torpedo boat defense. There were another three or four (depending on ship) K16 anti-aircraft mounts on top of the 'B' and 'X' turrets after a 1915–16 refit. After World War I the three surviving ships of the Teggethoff class were ceded as war reparations to the allies. SMS Viribus Unitis went to Yugoslavia, SMS Prinz Eugen went to France and SMS Tegetthoff went to Italy. The Tegetthoff was decommissioned in 1923 and scrapped in 1925.