75 mm armata wz.36

The 75 mm armata przeciwlotnicza wz.36 was a Polish designed and built anti-aircraft gun that was used during the Second World War.

History
In 1933 the Starachowice Works received an official order to build prototypes for a 75 mm anti-aircraft gun. The design was completed in 1933 by the engineer Maj. Szymański from the Institute of Technology and Armaments. Who was assisted by Ing. Waclaw Stetkiewicz and M. Eng. Leszek Kistelski from the Starachowice Works. The first prototypes were completed and sent for testing in 1935. The report from the testing indicated minor deficiencies in the gun carriage, which it believed could be successfully resolved. However, it wasn't until 1937 that those defects were resolved and the wz.36 went into production.

Two variants were proposed, the wz.36 which was mobile anti-aircraft gun mounted on a four-wheeled dual-axle carriage with cruciform outriggers towed by a C4P half-track and the wz.37 a statically emplaced anti-aircraft gun. The Polish Army planned to acquire 60 mobile batteries of 3 guns (180) and 70 static batteries of 4 wz.37 guns (280) for the defense of high value targets. However, by the outbreak of war in 1939, only 52 of the 460 ordered had been built.

It is unknown how many wz.36/37 guns were captured by the Germans or what use they made of them during World War II. However, it is estimated that the Russians captured forty-nine 75 mm anti-aircraft guns of all types (75 mm armata przeciwlotnicza wz.1897/14/17, 75 mm armata przeciwlotnicza wz.1922/1924 and 75 mm armata przeciwlotnicza wz.36) during the Polish Campaign.