2nd.US Armored Division and the 30th. Infantry Division in April 1945

It would not have come from the factory, since the last 8 of the 18 was manufactured by Skoda in Pilsen in 1942. I suspect that what happened is this. Both battalions were originally part of the "siege train" attached to 11. Armee for operations at Sevastapol and then Leningrad. Originally, each battalion consisted of two batteries of two howitzers each, for a total of 8 howitzers (10, including the prototype, were completed by the end of 1940). In 1942, 8 more howitzers (designated H39/40) were built and in 1943 each battery added a third battery. However, 27 June 1944, both battalions were reorganized as regular heavy artillery, each with two batteries of 15cm howitzers and one battery of 10cm guns. I suspect, given that only the two battalions were ever equipped with the 24cm H39 and H39/40 that by early 1944 the pieces were probably well worn out. The few serviceable pieces likely left were placed in storage and may have then been issued to some of the hodge-podge of artillery units organized for Wacht am Rhein, eventually ending in the Weserwald.