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It was designed by [[Škoda Works|Škoda]] as a dual-purpose heavy field and coast defence gun in the late 1930s for Turkey with the designation of ''K52''. Only two had been delivered before the rest of the production run was appropriated by the [[German Army (Wehrmacht)|Heer]] upon the occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939.<ref name=g>Gander and Chamberlain, p. 206</ref>
Unlike the German practice of sliding block [[breech-loading weapon|breech]]es that required a metallic cartridge case to seal the gun's chamber against combustion gases, [[Škoda Works|Škoda]] preferred to use an [[interrupted screw]] breech with a [[de Bange]] obturator to seal the chamber. This lowered the rate of fire, but had the great economic advantage of allowing bagged propellant charges that didn't use heavy brass cartridge cases (copper might be in short supply in wartime). The other feature of the gun was that it used a monobloc
The [[Gun carriage#Modern gun carriages|box trail]] carriage revolved on a turntable that sat on a [[Ball bearing|ball race]] on the firing platform and was capable of 360° traverse. The end of the carriage rested on rollers which rested on a metal track or rail. For transport the ''K 39'' broke down into three loads, the barrel, the carriage and the firing platform with the turntable. Each of these was carried on a trailer with pneumatic tires. Emplacing the gun took six to eight hours, mainly to dig in and anchor the firing platform.<ref name=h>Hogg, p. 100</ref>
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