Railway guns of the Axis forces

[Sturm78]

Kaelble Z 6 tractor

Sturm78

[EPOCH3]

Regarding photos of the Kaelble truck pulling the 15cm K (E),


From the E-Batterie 655 unit history book: " St. Valery Arbeit in Hülle und Fülle. Vom Bautrupp mussten die zerstörten Gleise des Bahnhofs wiederhergestellt werden. Der AVT hatte die neue Feuerstellung zu vermes¬sen. Von den Geschützbedie¬nungen waren Munitionsunter¬stände, Lauf- und Deckungs-gräben zu bauen. Bald mussten die neuen, von Krupp ange¬forderten Geschütze eintreffen; also war Eile geboten. Kaum waren diese Arbeiten beendet, als eine zweite Stellung in unmittelbarer Nähe der Küste bei Hourdel ausgebaut wer¬den musste. Von hier konnte die Schussweite der Geschüt¬ze besser ausgenutzt werden. Der AVT wurde von St. Vale¬ry fort nach seiner neuen Ar¬beitsstätte verlegt und richtete sich in einem einzelstehenden Gehöft ein. Die bisher als Vermesser verwendeten Leute wurden auf zwei Mess-und Beobachtungsstellen verteilt, während die bisherigen Auswerter nun ihre Haupt¬tätigkeit am Plan hatten. Bisher war es stets so ge-wesen, dass dort, wo unsere Geschütze eingesetzt wurden, auch schon Gleise lagen, so¬dass die Einfahrt in die Feuer-stellung verhältnismässig ein-fach war. Anders war es je¬doch in Le Hourdel. Wer hätte jemals gedacht, dass dort, weit weg von jeder Bahnstrecke, Eisenbahngeschütze aufge¬stellt werden würden! Im Ge¬lände der Kiesbrecherei wur¬de ein Damm aufgeschüttet. Schwellen und Schienen wur-den herbeigeschafft und ein Gleisstück gebaut, das Raum bot für unsere beiden neuen
15 cm-Kanonen, die wir eben erhielten. So hatten wir wieder das alte Kaliber. Mit ihrer Rundumlafette ermöglichten diese Geschütze ein schnelleres und wendigeres Schiessen auf bewegliche Ziele, als das bei einem Geschütz mit grösserem Kaliber, aber starrer Lafette der Fall war. Auf dem Bahnhof St. Valery wurden die beiden Kanonen auf Spezialfahrzeuge der Deutschen Reichsbahn, sogenannte Culemeyer-Wagen, ver¬laden und neun Kilometer weit über die Landstrasse bis in die Feuerstellung gezogen. Die Auffahrt auf die Gleise ging reibungslos und schnell, und bald war alles so gut getarnt, dass man Gleise wie Geschütze auch auf kurze Entfernung nicht mehr er¬kannte.
Während bisher mit Flie-ger- oder Erdbeobachtung ge-schossen wurde, musste jetzt eine völlig neue Schiessart, das sogenannte „Langbasis-Verfahren" erlernt werden. Es ermöglichte ein schnelles und sicheres Schiessen auf beweg¬liche Seeziele. Immer und im¬mer wieder wurde dieses neue Verfahren geübt, und jeder-mann hatte den einzigen Wunsch, es einmal gegen den Feind zu erproben."

Google translation (not great): St. Valery's work galore. The destroyed tracks of the station had to be restored by the construction team. The AVT had to measure the new firing position. Ammunition shelters, trenches and cover trenches had to be built from the gun controls. Soon the new guns requested by Krupp had to arrive; so there was a hurry. This work was hardly finished when a second position in the immediate vicinity of the coast at Hourdel had to be expanded. From here the range of the guns could be better used. The AVT was moved from St. Vale¬ry fort to its new workplace and set up in a single farm. The people previously used as surveyors were divided into two measuring and observation points, while the previous evaluators now had their main activity on the plan. Until now it had always been so that there were already tracks where our guns were deployed, so that the entry into the firing position was relatively easy. It was different in Le Hourdel, however. Who would have ever thought that railway guns would be set up there, far away from any railway line! A dam was heaped up in the area of ​​the gravel crusher. Thresholds and rails were brought in and a piece of track was built, which provided space for our two new ones 15 cm cannons that we just received. So we had the old caliber again. With their all-round gun, these guns made shooting faster and more agile aim at moving targets than was the case with a gun with a larger caliber but a rigid gun carriage. At St. Valery station, the two cannons were loaded onto special vehicles of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, known as the Culemeyer wagons, and pulled nine kilometers along the country road to the firing position. The driveway to the tracks went smoothly and quickly, and soon everything was so well camouflaged that tracks and guns could no longer be recognized even at short distances.
While shooting with aerial or earth observation was used up until now, a completely new type of shooting, the so-called "long-base method", had to be learned. It made it possible to shoot quickly and safely at moving sea targets. Time and time again this new procedure was practiced and every man had the only wish to test it against the enemy.

[na4222]

Hi Greg. Thanks for that. Very useful. Hope all is well.

Best regards,
Nezar

[forttravel]

A piece captured near Leningrad.

46438.jpg

And one more, unknown.

3313.jpg

Source: http://goskatalog.ru

[EPOCH3]

The French gun is perhaps a 370 Mle 1875-79 or might also be a 340 Mle 1912 if the barrel shown is broken (I can't really make out what is behind the soldier on the deck - a piece of the barrel maybe?)

Given the barrel band behind the trunnion area I would says its not the 340 - The 370 barrel is much shorter than the 340 as well although
I still think the barrel is cut/damaged and not shown in its entirety.

German piece - maybe a 28cm Bruno Lang K (E) ?

[forttravel]

That one is well known from Danzig.
Source as above.

[jopaerya]

Nice photo of the 19.4 cm railway guns with open turret, Regards Jos

[forttravel]

Eastern front, nice camo, no details.
Source: http://goskatalog.ru

[jopaerya]

Thanks Piotr for all these nice photo's from this source

[Manuferey]

Are you guys sure pictures in post #381 and #383 were taken on the Eastern front?

The guns look like Italien 194/29 i.e. ex-French 194 Mle 1870-93 with the top of the casemate removed . See here, in particular the camouflage on the 2nd picture of post #10:
viewtopic.php?p=1407796#p1407796

Emmanuel

[schwarzermai]

Are you guys sure pictures in post #381 and #383 were taken on the Eastern front?

The guns look like Italien 194/29 i.e. ex-French 194 Mle 1870-93 with the top of the casemate removed . See here, in particular the camouflage on the 2nd picture of post #10:
viewtopic.php?p=1407796#p1407796

Emmanuel

Hello Emmanel
i think these guns were captured in the east - but not on the front in/after action - just in Heereszeugamt where these guns were parked/stored since 1940 ...

in CAMO 500/12474/306 (frames 074 und 077) you can find infos about more french Railwayguns

Uwe

[jopaerya]

Hello Guys

Typical is as Emmanuel stated the top hood is from the gun house as we see in Italian 19.4 cm railway guns.
Just thinking out loud could the Italian expedition force in Russia used these guns ????

Regards Jos

[Manuferey]

The French gun is perhaps a 370 Mle 1875-79 or might also be a 340 Mle 1912 if the barrel shown is broken (I can't really make out what is behind the soldier on the deck - a piece of the barrel maybe?)

Given the barrel band behind the trunnion area I would says its not the 340 - The 370 barrel is much shorter than the 340 as well although
I still think the barrel is cut/damaged and not shown in its entirety.

German piece - maybe a 28cm Bruno Lang K (E) ?

I vote for a 370 Mle 1875-79 with the muzzle cut (there is a ring around the muzzle when intact) for the 1st picture and I concur for the 2nd one: 28 cm Lange Bruno.

According to Guy François in Eisenbahnartillerie, the three Lange Bruno, arming E.688, were last used at Sevastopol in 1942. Their barrels were worn out at the end of the firings. Since they were of no use without new barrels, it is possible that the Germans left them behind in the Sevastopol area where they were captured later by the Red Army.

Emmanuel

[schwarzermai]

The French gun is perhaps a 370 Mle 1875-79 or might also be a 340 Mle 1912 if the barrel shown is broken (I can't really make out what is behind the soldier on the deck - a piece of the barrel maybe?)

Given the barrel band behind the trunnion area I would says its not the 340 - The 370 barrel is much shorter than the 340 as well although
I still think the barrel is cut/damaged and not shown in its entirety.

German piece - maybe a 28cm Bruno Lang K (E) ?

I vote for a 370 Mle 1875-79 with the muzzle cut (there is a ring around the muzzle when intact) for the 1st picture and I concur for the 2nd one: 28 cm Lange Bruno.

According to Guy François in Eisenbahnartillerie, the three Lange Bruno, arming E.688, were last used at Sevastopol in 1942. Their barrels were worn out at the end of the firings. Since they were of no use without new barrels, it is possible that the Germans left them behind in the Sevastopol area where they were captured later by the Red Army.

Emmanuel

Hello Emmanuel, the Guns of 688 were returned into the Reich in July 1942, the battery was rearmed to K5 guns.
uwe

[Manuferey]

Thank you, Uwe. Then, the gun on the picture was captured in Germany.

Emmanuel