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It was designed by [[Škoda Works|Škoda]] as a dual-purpose heavy field and coast defense gun in the late Thirties 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 deBange obdurator 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 scarce brass or steel cartridge case when those metals were in short supply. The other unusual feature of the gun was that it used a monobloc auto-frettaged barrel. This was a single piece of steel that was radially expanded under hydraulic pressure. This had the advantage of placing the steel of the barrel under compression, which helped it resist the stresses of firing and was simpler and faster to build since the barrel didn't require assembly as with more traditional construction techniques.<ref name=h>Hogg, p. 100</ref>
The 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>
The story of the gun's development by the Germans is contradictory in the available sources. Hogg claims that the ''K 39/40'' had only slight changes made, but that the ''K 39/41'' added a [[muzzle brake]] to control recoil.<ref name=h>Hogg, p. 100</ref> Gander and Chamberlain say that the ''K 39/40'' and ''K 39/41'' both had muzzle brakes with better performance than the original ''K 39'' and that the ''K 39/41'' was introduced to simplify production.<ref name="g"/>
===Ammunition===
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