# Railway Guns



## reddragon (Mar 2, 2005)

Anyone have any interest in the railway guns used during World War II?


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## mosquitoman (Mar 2, 2005)

I've heard of one called Anzio Annie but that's it


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## evangilder (Mar 2, 2005)

There was Anzio Annie and the Anzio Express. I spoke with a veteran recently who was getting fired on by the Anzio Express. He said it was doing some serious damage to the poor guys down on the beaches.


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## reddragon (Mar 2, 2005)

Yes, I spoke with a fellow who was at Anzio and he said they would fire the gun at the same time each day. He said one day it hit their field hospital.


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## cheddar cheese (Mar 2, 2005)

Ive heard of a German one called the Dora, and a big bad Mother F*cker it was too


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## trackend (Mar 3, 2005)

There where many large calibre guns during ww2 indeed at Dover the British had two winnie and pooh. Anzio had 2 guns Leapold and Robert one of which now resides in the US at Maryland


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## cheddar cheese (Mar 3, 2005)

Heres the Dora... 8


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## trackend (Mar 3, 2005)

Im of too Duxford hopefully next week I seem to remember theirs a shell from (it may be dora there) I'll get a pic of it and some info


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## cheddar cheese (Mar 3, 2005)

Be certain to get lots of good shots while youre there! 8)


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## reddragon (Mar 6, 2005)

The limited information I have on Dora says it's only combat action was at Sevastopol, firing 48 rounds at 7 targets in 5 days. It also says Dora was seen outside Warsaw in 1944 and then vanished. I have a few seconds of film of a Gerat 040 Karl-Morser 600 mm caliber heavy mortar firing on Warsaw during the uprising. I wonder if that's what they are thinking of when they say it was seen outside Warsaw?


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## mosquitoman (Mar 6, 2005)

48 rounds in 5 days- that's an incredibly bad rate of fire


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## CharlesBronson (Mar 6, 2005)

The Dora or schwere Gustav, is a demential gun. Expend 1330 metric tons of good steel in a single cannon, show that some nazi generals and technicians where not in his right mind.


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## mosquitoman (Mar 6, 2005)

just think of how many King Tigers that would be!


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## BombTaxi (Mar 6, 2005)

The Germans had a thing for big guns though. They used a range of heavies at Verdun which had little effect of the French forts but were of massive psychological importance to the German command.


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## mosquitoman (Mar 6, 2005)

Do you think they were compensating for something?


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## BombTaxi (Mar 6, 2005)

mosquitoman said:


> Do you think they were compensating for something?



Hehe, more than likely


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## Medvedya (Mar 7, 2005)

Blick! Unsere Waffen sind so viel grober als diejenigen Tommi!


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## mosquitoman (Mar 7, 2005)

Ja, genau!


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## CharlesBronson (Mar 7, 2005)

A more equilibrated, usable, and much better artillery piece was the self propelled Mörser de 600mm,

Although his retro-loading and rifling it looks more like a very heavy howitzer


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## HealzDevo (Mar 7, 2005)

All of this sounds cool, never knew there was more than two WW2 railway guns. You are right though that they appear very big, bulky, take a lot longer to load and use a lot of resources. Although they did have a physiological advantage in being able to shell London, from across the channel, with the right Fortifications, the right air defence etc, a battery of these railway guns could really have caused Churchill and the British some headaches. The resources once created just weren't really used to greatest effect towards the end of WW2 especially after the Battle Of Britain, when they would have been useful for continuing the devastation that the large Luftwaffe raids had started. 8)


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## reddragon (Mar 8, 2005)

Great video, Charles! I've never seen any of the 80 cm in action and I have only a few seconds of footage of the Gerat 040 Karl-Morser in action. Where did you find them?


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## BombTaxi (Mar 8, 2005)

The thing with big guns is that airpower made them obsolete.A bomber could deliver bombs bigger than many artillery shells, in fairly larger numbers, with fewwer men involved at the point of engagement, and could be used for other roles as well. That kind of flexibility made super-heavy artillery extinct


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## CharlesBronson (Mar 8, 2005)

Try Altavista Video Search


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## GermansRGeniuses (Mar 8, 2005)

BombTaxi said:


> The thing with big guns is that airpower made them obsolete.A bomber could deliver bombs bigger than many artillery shells, in fairly larger numbers, with fewwer men involved at the point of engagement, and could be used for other roles as well. That kind of flexibility made super-heavy artillery extinct




Or the bombers could just blow the crap out of the railway guns, furthering their obsolence.


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## KraziKanuK (Mar 9, 2005)

Squadron/Signal has an _InAction_ book on railroad guns. Lots of pics and not just of the German ones, plus other interesting data. ie in May 1940 the Germans had 33 heavy guns from 15cm to 28cm in 16 Batteries.

As an aside, the Germans and Brits dueled with heavy guns across the Dover Straight.


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## cheddar cheese (Mar 9, 2005)

GermansRGeniuses said:


> BombTaxi said:
> 
> 
> > The thing with big guns is that airpower made them obsolete.A bomber could deliver bombs bigger than many artillery shells, in fairly larger numbers, with fewwer men involved at the point of engagement, and could be used for other roles as well. That kind of flexibility made super-heavy artillery extinct
> ...



Simple, but effective


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## CharlesBronson (Mar 9, 2005)

Without a doubt the best of all wagnerian german guns was the K-5 (e) 280mm railway gun. 







With his 60 km range was superbly accurate, also there was a experimental version know as K-5 Glatt ( smoothbore) wich can reach 110 km.

Is funny that even in those enormous calibres the germans keep using the final copper case to enclose the propulsion charge.

K-5 eisebanh in action.


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## trackend (Mar 10, 2005)

cheddar cheese said:


> Be certain to get lots of good shots while youre there! 8)


Sorry Cheesy Duxford will have to wait for a couple of weeks as I'm in Marbella at the moment but "I shall return" (where's my cob pipe)  
so I will get up there in the near future and run off a dozen rolls of film and a couple of flash cards in the digital as well 8)


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## Karbine (Mar 22, 2005)

i have some nice pictures on my site in the tanks page of the k5


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## CharlesBronson (May 3, 2005)

Deploying a 88 Flak 18.


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## reddragon (May 6, 2005)

Karbine said:


> i have some nice pictures on my site in the tanks page of the k5




You've got some very nice photos there!


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## me262 (May 13, 2005)

the germans made 6 gerat 040 and 041( plus 1 prototype karl):
adam eve,1st batt
thor odin, 2nd batt
loki ziu
the difference between the gerat 040 and 041 was the use of different barrels , 040 used the 60 cm barrel and the 041 used the 54 cm barrel
there is 1 surviving gun and is in the tank museum of kubinka in russia


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