french railway gun

[vesubius]

Hi, often I see in list of french railway guns a piece of 285 mm caliber. Is this a single model from old naval guns or is a oversized 274 mm naval gun in railway carriage. Does yuo have a picture too?

[jopaerya]

Hi Vesubius

I found this photo in the book "Riesengeschütze und schwere
Brummer einst und jetzt" from R. Lusar , the photo is in the capter
of French guns but as you see with German troops .
Sorry for the blurry photo but it the only one I could find .

Regards Jos

[vesubius]

Thanks a lot jopaerya, yuo have come again in my help with the picture.

[David Lehmann]

Hello,

Concerning 1939-1940, there were 16x 274mm Gl 17 mobilized, 5x 293mm howitzers kept is reserve and not mobilized. Below you have 164, 194 and 240mm guns and the bigger guns are of 305, 320, 340, 370, 400 and 500mm.

Stéphane Ferrard writes about the "274/285mm à glissement modèle 17", that's probably the gun you are looking for.
This 274mm gun is a naval gun present on many vessel. In 1914. As soon as 1915, the program saw the possibilty to recalibrate them in 285mm after intensive use of the barrel. I don't know how many of the 16 guns still in service in 1940 were really in 274mm or in 285mm.
There were in fact 2 kinds of barrels:
- 274mm Mle87/93 L/34
- 274mm Mle93/96 L/30

In 1914-1918, new shells were introduced that increased the range from 27,000 to 29,000 meters.

274/285mm à glissement modèle 17
Length: 12.80 m
Caliber: L/30
Length of the rifled part: 10.83 m (4° at right)
Mobility: rail car
Speed: 15-30 km/h
Total weight: 155 tons
Total length (except shock absorber of the car): 25.9 m
Elevation: 40°
Traverse: - don't have an exact value -
Time to be ready before firing: 20 minutes

Ammunition:
- obus explosif en acier à amorçage de culot Mle1915 à fausse ogive
- obus explosif en acier Mle1915
- obus explosif en fonte aciérée Mle1915 type B
- obus explosif en fonte aciérée, tronqué à fausse ogive Mle1917
Muzzle velocity: 842 m/s
Max. range: 29,000 m
RoF: 1 shell every 4 minutes

Regards,

David

[jopaerya]

Hello All

Could this be the 52 cm Haubitze (E) 871 (f) , this gun
was used near Leningrad in the Artillerie-Batterie (E) 686 ??

Photo = Ebay.de

Regards Jos

[Manuferey]

Hi Jos,

Some other pictures of the 520 mm Mle 1916 French railway gun at

http://html2.free.fr/canons/can520.htm

and a brief history (in French).

The front truck definitely looks like the one on your ebay picture.

Emmanuel

[jopaerya]

Hello All

Here a other picture of the railway gun .

Photo = Ebay.de

Regards Jos

[jopaerya]

Hello

Here a other photo of the 52 cm Haubitze .

Photo = Ebay.de

Regards Jos

[jopaerya]

Hello

Here some picture's of the gun after the explosion of the 52 cm gun on 05-01-1942 ,
looks that the gun was named Berta or Berte . Photo's from Ebay.de .

Info = Eisenbahnartillerie from G. Francois

Regards Jos

[Manuferey]

the gun was named Berta or Berte

Jos,

The picture you posted on 3 Dec 2008 clearly shows "Berta" written on the barrel.

Separately, here is a picture of the breech of the 520 mm gun in its manufacturing facilities in France:
http://www.firstworldwar.com/photos/gra ... gun_01.jpg

Emmanuel

[jopaerya]

Hello

Looks to me the backside of the 52 cm Haubitze (E) 871 (f) ??

Photo = Ebay.de

Regards Jos

[Manuferey]

It does indeed.

In addition, the same picture also appeared on ebay.de a year ago along with another picture showing the whole gun. The caption mentioned "52 cm RUSSLAND 1941".

Only one gun remained in 1940 in the French inventory. It was used by the Germans in the siege of Leningrad and blew up on January 5, 1942 due to a defective shell. So the picture would indeed have been taken at the end of 1941.



Emmanuel

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

Can somebody identify this french railgun?

Image from Ebay
Sturm78

[Manuferey]

Hi Sturm78,

It's a 274 mm Mle 1917 railway gun: the typical row of bolts can be seen next to the trunnion.

Emmanuel

[Sturm78]

Thank you very much, Emmanuel.
Godd view!!

Regards Sturm78