From the outset the weapon was a more effective piece than the original 37mm caliber designs then available. A 3.6lb armor-piercing shell was used which could penetrate all enemy armor from a range out to 700 yards - providing a considerable edge to Czech gunnery crews when most AT guns of the period managed, at best, several hundred yards and nothing more. The design carried a conventional arrangement with a two-wheeled tow carriage, gun shield and the recoil mechanism fitted over the barrel assembly. A traditional crew numbered four to six men. Borrowing a quality from World War 1 artillery, the weapon system utilized heavily spoked wheels as opposed to solid types.
With production undertaken at speed amidst the worsening situation across Europe, the guns were readily available to Czech fighting forces. Despite this, the weapon was not used in anger by the Czechs and instead saw its best fighting days at the hands of the invading Germans where it was designated as 4.7cm PaK 36(t). The German Army utilized both fixed and wheeled versions of the gun for their part and its numbers allowed the service to standardize the type into its inventory. Some of the stock were fitted to tracked vehicles for the tank destroyer role. The series was able to succeed on the battlefields well into the final days of the war in 1945 - such was its exceptional design.
The KPUV vz. 37 was an offshoot developed from the vz. 36 model in 37mm caliber following initial results of the 47mm form in service with Czech troopers. Rubber-tired roadwheels quickly differentiated this design from the larger caliber model. However the newer design, also taken into service by the Germans, was retired from frontline service as soon as 1941.
Some vz. 36 guns are known to have ended up in Yugoslavia by way of Czech export before the war began.
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