Railway gun
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A railway gun, also called a railroad gun, is a large artillery piece, often surplus naval artillery, mounted on, transported by, and fired from a specially designed railway wagon. Many countries have
French 370 mm railway howitzer of World War I
Non-traversing (top); car traversing mount (middle); top carriage traversing mount (bottom)
British 12-inch howitzers on top-carriage traversing mounts, traversed 90°, Catterick, December 1940
Cradle recoil (top); top carriage recoil (second); sliding recoil (third); rolling recoil (bottom)
Schwerer Gustav
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Schwerer Gustav was a German 80-centimetre railway gun. It was developed in the late 1930s by Krupp in Rügenwalde; however, there are theories of another one being built, but only one was ever actuall
Railway gun
…were either destroyed by air attack or lacked trained crews. World War II saw the final use of the railway gun. This included the massive 80 cm (31 in) Schwerer Gustav gun, the largest artillery piece to be used in combat, deployed by Nazi Germany. After the Fall of France Germany added 58 captured French guns to its…
Model of the Schwere Gustav/Dora
An 800 mm Schwerer Gustav shell at the Imperial War Museum, London. Man for comparison
A shell for the Gustav gun (without the sharp ballistic cap) found after the war at the former German firing range near Rügenwalde (today Darłowo), on exhibition in the Polish Army museum in Warsaw
Maxim Gorky I, a fort knocked out of action by five 800 mm shells on 17 June 1942