Railway Guns

[reddragon]

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?

 

[BombTaxi]

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

 

[CharlesBronson]

Try Altavista Video Search

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

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.

 

[KraziKanuK]

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.

 

[cheddar cheese]

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.

Simple, but effective

 

[CharlesBronson]

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.

 

[trackend]

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)

 

[Karbine]

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

 

[CharlesBronson]

Deploying a 88 Flak 18.

 

[reddragon]

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

You've got some very nice photos there!

 

[me262]

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