Railway guns.

A great collection of articles about the theme: Dora, the world's largest railway gun



Seem a faraonic matter with a big compilation of resources, technics and humans in a extensive and intrincated development means the railway......



Jan.

 

As far as I know, all that remains today are a few 80cm rounds. There is one at the US Army Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground and another at Militärhistorisches Dresden. There may be other rounds somewhere else for all I know.

In fact, only a handful of WWI and WWII railway guns remain today. Three are located in the United States, one in France, and three in Russia. There are also various pieces (i.e., barrels and mounts) of railway guns in Europe. For some time, I have been trying to identify all that remain.

 

Here is a link to Batterie Todt in France which has an example of a railway gun in its collection with some photos,
cheers,
John.

BATTERIE TODT...The Best collection of Military weapons and Vehicles in Northern France !..........Virtual Tour......Extensive photos !

 

Dear Adam:

Possibly a special manufacture.....

I'm a fan of railways/trains and the Railroad Gauge Width is diferent. As you could seen in this page http://parovoz.com/spravka/gauges-en.php


1 435 mm 4' 8 1/2" Known as "Standard (Stephenson) gauge"


1 668 mm/1 674 mm 5' 5 2/3" Known as "Iberian gauge". Equal to one "braza" - and old Spanish measure.




Jan.

 

If you wish to buy a photo.....go to this link:
EBay: Foto of schweres Deutsches Eisenbahn-Geschütz im 1.WK




Miniature, clic for enlarge.......






Jan.

 

from 'Life'
22 men of US Seventh Army easily standing lined up on barrel of mammoth 274-mm railroad gun captured in advance, during WWII. Rentwertshausen, Germany. April 1945.

 

12" Howitzers mounted on railway mountings.


From a 1941 publication, 'Engines of War, the mechanised Army in action'

 

The French Army traveling on an armed piece of equipment.

 

What about a caption or two, Gov?

 

Some interesting info here.



Source : RA 1939-45 12 in Railway How

 

It that one a life size scale Phil

 

So is 'Boche-buster' the one as it seems to be in Kent?
Brief coverage here:
World War II

Appears that the name was also carried by a WW1 piece (might be the same gun? but the calibres listed are different.)
The King's Shot af Jeff Dorman

Anyone know what this German piece around Vire that Sapper refers to might have been? Presumably a K5?

Cheers,
Adam.
Hi, I have just received a magazine from afterthebattle.com that I sent for about the cross channel guns around Kent and the Pas de Calais,includinding railway guns.It has a report in it about Major Cleeve, who fired the Kings shot, Bochebuster, in WW1, and who at the outbreak of WW2 was the only serving officer with experiance of railway guns.He was tasked with finding the WW1 rail mountings and to set up a Super Heavy Artillery school at Catterick.He found BB in a transport shed stored since 1920. It was refitted with an 18" barrel and saw service just outside Canterbury, Derek.

 

There seemed to be a small 'flood' of Dora Shell-cases onto the collector market last year, with one for sale at Beltring, and examples turning up in private collections. I've no idea where they came from though.



Seems like a that would have been a tremendous waste of brass. Why didn't they use powder bags?

 

Seems like a that would have been a tremendous waste of brass. Why didn't they use powder bags?

Thats a good question.

The large calibre naval guns operated with cordite bags.

I wonder if any of our resident ordnace experts can reply?

Regards
Tom

 

Damn (not the first word that crossed my mind)... The bell from my local Parish is smaller than that...




cheers