ZB-60

The ZB-60 was a heavy machine gun designed by Zbrojovka Brno in Czechoslovakia during the 1930s. Design began in the early 1930s as a 20 mm automatic anti-tank gun, and in 1933 the requirement was changed to a large-calibre heavy machine gun firing the 15 by 104 mm Skoda round. The Czechoslovak army tested it as early as 1934 but did not adopt it because of accuracy problems and heavy recoil, and for some years it was planned as a fortification gun until that role was dropped. Yugoslavia adopted it in 1937 as the 15 mm M.38. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939 Germany took guns into service as the 15 mm Fla. MG 39(t), built more for the Wehrmacht and Kriegsmarine, and used them as anti-aircraft guns in the Second World War. Britain bought a licence and developed the 15 mm Besa machine gun for armoured fighting vehicles from it. A batch was also sold to Iran, and Slovakia used it.