Museum collection objects have a story to tell. Either they tell its history or the story of the person who used the object. In some cases, the stories of the object and of the person who owned it complement each other. In 1959, the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising received, as one of the first objects ever, a 7.5 cm mountain gun model 15, No. 372. The cannon was acquired by transfer from the Czechoslovak army, the Brezno garrison, where it was stored for a long time. It ended up in the barracks in Brezno after the war, together with other equipment of the insurgent army. All this equipment was collected in the forests of central Slovakia, where it was abandoned or hidden by the insurgents in late October and early November 1944, in the final days of the resistance of the insurgent 1st Czechoslovak Army in Slovakia.
The Austro-Hungarian army had a relatively strong and technically advanced mountain artillery. It was mainly thanks to the Škoda factory in Pilsen (in present-day Czechia). Since 1913, the army had been testing a new 7.5 cm mountain gun, which promised performance comparable to the field guns of the time. In 1915, after its introduction into the army, under the name of 7.5 cm Gebirgsgeschütz M15, the new weapon reached the battlefields of the Great War, where it fully proved its worth. The design of the cannon allowed it to be moved on load-bearing saddles. In this case, the gun was broken down into seven parts, the heaviest weighing 115 kg. During the First World War, 1812 mountain guns mod. 15 were produced in Pilsen; others were produced by the branch in Raab, Hungary (nowadays Györ).
The mountain gun model 15 No. 372 was manufactured in Pilsen and taken over by the Austro-Hungarian Army on 28 January 1916. Thus, we can say with certainty that the cannon fought for two years on the fronts of the First World War. After the end of the conflict, it joined the Czechoslovak army, where it served another twenty years in the training of Czechoslovak mountain artillery. In 1938, nearing the dissolution of the Czechoslovak Republic, it belonged to the 3rd Battalion of the Artillery Regiment 11 in Košice. After the First Vienna Award, the regiment was evacuated to Prešov, where it stood put until the declaration of the Slovak State.
After the formation of the Slovak army in 1939, gun No. 372 was placed in the arsenal of Artillery Regiment 4 in Prešov. Later, as a result of the reorganisation of the artillery units, it was stored in the warehouses of the Central Armoury in Trenčín. The Slovak army used the mountain guns mod. 15 in the role of infantry guns, so they were assigned to infantry regiments and cavalry reconnaissance detachments. It is very likely that the gun No. 372 was also used in the battles of the Slovak army on the Eastern Front. In July 1944, the gun was moved from Trenčín to the warehouses of Armoury I in Zvolen. This transfer predestined the gun for its most famous combat engagement during the battles of the Slovak National Uprising. After the outbreak of the Uprising, a four-gun battery of 7.5 cm mountain guns model 15, under the command of Lt. Bednárik, was created. After transfer to Turiec, it was deployed in the village of Priekopa. After the German attack on 5 September 1944, one gun was destroyed, and Lt. of Arty. (Res.) JUDr. Fedor Duchoň took over the command. The battery was assigned to the units of the II Slovak Partisan Brigade of M. R. Štefánik (Viliam Žingor). It remained in Martinské Hole until 20 September 1944. Subsequently, it was assigned to the III. Tactical Group, within which it worked until the end of the Uprising. Initially, it supported the defence at Janova Lehota, later at Šášovské Podhradie. In October 1944, the battery was moved to the Kopanice and Kozelník area, where it supported units of the 2nd Czechoslovak Paratroopers Brigade in the defence of Banská Štiavnica. From 20 October 1944, it was stationed in the Detva-Iviny area, and at the end of October, it was in the village of Hrochoť. After retreating to the Poľana Massif, the battery was stationed in firing position until 8 November 1944. The battery was thus probably the last organised unit of the insurgent army. In the following days, the guns were dismantled and buried, and the operators dispersed to their homes and the partisan units. After the end of the war, the guns were dug up and moved to the barracks in Brezno, from where the cannon model 372 was transferred to the collections of the developing Museum of the SNU in Banská Bystrica.