Great Guns : Railway Guns. The installation of heavy artillery on the train carriages was first proposed by the Russian Citizen, Gustav Kori in 1847, and was first used in American Civil War combat.
When World War I began, France and Germany installed their naval cannon and cluster cannons specifically to be deployed to the frontline through a rail
Once properly positioned, the cannon (railways gun) is mounted on a specially constructed semi circle track to allow pointing towards the target.
In World War II, the Germans made Schwerer Gustav cannon with its really big size, so it could fire 31-inch bullets, seven tons of shells and can reach the target up to 30 miles.
These armaments are very expensive and very vulnerable to air strikes, after World War II they are eliminated and replaced by bomber aircraft and surface-to-surface missile launchers.
The following photographs tell the history of some of the greatest guns (Railways Guns) ever made and used in combat, from the first used by Confederate forces in the American Civil War, from World War 1 to World War 2
Great Guns : Railway Guns
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| FRANCE - CIRCA 1918: Artillery unit poses on Railway train artillery train with huge gun in World War I France (Photo by Buyenlarge / Getty Images) |
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| Petersburg, Va. Railroad gun and crew. Photo shows Robert E. Lee's railroad battery. (Source: David H. Schneider, Lee's Armored Car, Civil War Times, Feb. 2011.) Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the siege of Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865 |
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| Krupp 42 cannon, on a flat wagon. (Photo by Albert Harlingue/Roger Viollet/Getty Images) |
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| France, 1916, World War I, Heavy artillery in the Somme, A 274-mm gun mounted on the railway. (Photo by Photo12/UIG/Getty Images) |
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| An 8-inch Mk. VI railway gun, in use during World War One at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Great Britain, circa 1914-1918. (Photo by Keystone View Company/FPG/Getty Images) |
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| 12-inch gun on Railway mounting in action, Meaulte, August 1916. British Front – France ’16 General Battle Somme. (Photo by Robert Hunt Library/Windmill Books/UIG via Getty Images) |
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| Eight French soldiers are camouflaging a 370 mm railway gun with the inscription ìKeityî. 5th September 1917. Noyon, Oise region. Western Front. World War I. Autochrome LumiËre. Photo: Paul Castelnau (1880-1944). France. (Photo by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images) |
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| French soldiers are camouflaging a 370 mm railway gun with the inscription ìKeityî. 5th September 1917. Noyon, Region Oise. Western Front. World War I. Autochrome LumiËre. Photo: Paul Castelnau (1880-1944). France. (Photo by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images) |
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| 16-inch railway gun which pulverized the Hindenburg Line, World War I, France, 1917-1918. Stereoscopic card detail. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images) |
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| German railway guns in action during World War 2. Spanish postcard intended for supporters of Franco’ s Republic which was in favour of the Third Reich. Spanish caption: ‘Artilleria antiaerea alemana de ferrocarril’. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images) |
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| View of a massive railroad gun which drawfs the troops that stand on and around it, 1940s. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images) |
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| A soldier Italian Co-Belligerent Army firing a 194mm railway gun on the Cassino front during the Battle of Monte Cassino, Italy, World War II, 17th January- 18th May 1944. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) |
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| (GERMANY OUT) 2.ww: campaign in the west (battle of France) 10.05.-22.06.1940: A railway gun firing.May 1940 No further information.- undated- Published by: Kl. Kriegsheft 5/6.1940Vintage property of ullstein bild (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images) |
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| NON SPECIFIE – CIRCA 1940: Capture d’un énorme canon à rail allemand parmi six autres ; les soldats postés sur le canon peuvent nous rendre compte de l’immensité de cette artillerie allemande, circa 1940. (Photo by Keystone-FranceGamma-Rapho via Getty Images) |
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