French 320 mm railway gun

Krupp K5 railway gun

A railway gun, also called railroad gun or railgun is a large artillery piece, designed to be placed on rail tracks. Many countries have built railway guns, but the best known are the large Krupp-built pieces used by Germany in World War I and World War II. Some of these were so large that they required two parallel sets of tracks to support the gun. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 438 pixelsFull resolution (4945 × 2706 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 438 pixelsFull resolution (4945 × 2706 pixel, file size: 1. ... K5 railway gun This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... K5 railway gun This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Krupp K5 railway gun The Krupp K5 was a heavy railway gun used by Germany through World War II. // Description The Krupp K5 series all were consistent in mounting a 21. ... Artillery with Gabion fortification Cannons on display at Fort Point Continental Artillery crew from the American Revolution Firing of an 18-pound gun, Louis-Philippe Crepin, (1772 – 1851) A forge-welded Iron Cannon in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. ... Rail tracks. ... For the U.S. town, see Krupp, Washington. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Railway guns (like their seagoing analogues, battleships) have been rendered obsolete by advances in technology. Their large size and limited mobility make them vulnerable to attack, and similar payloads can be delivered by aircraft, rocket, or missile. This article is about a battleship as a type of warship. ... A Soyuz rocket, at Baikonur launch pad. ... It has been suggested that Guided missile be merged into this article or section. ...

History

A railway gun used in the siege of Petersburg during the American Civil War

The idea of railway guns appears to have been first suggested in the 1860s by a Mr Anderson, who published a pamphlet in the United Kingdom titled National Defence in which he proposed a plan of ironclad railway carriages. A Russian, Lebedew, claimed to have first invented the idea in 1860 when he is reported to have mounted a mortar on a railway car. The first railway guns used in combat were constructed and used during the American Civil War, when guns and mortars were mounted on flatcars and during the Siege of Petersburg. France also used improvised railways guns during the Siege of Paris in 1870 and the United Kingdom mounted a few six inch guns on railway cars during the First Boer War intending to bombard forts around Pretoria, but Pretoria was captured before they could be deployed. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 594 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1015 × 1024 pixel, file size: 120 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 594 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1015 × 1024 pixel, file size: 120 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America Commanders Ulysses S. Grant Robert E. Lee Strength 67,000 – 125,000 average of 52,000 Casualties 53,386 ~32,000 The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 15, 1864, to March... Combatants Prussia, Baden Bavaria, Württemberg (later German Empire) France Commanders Wilhelm I of Germany Helmuth von Moltke Louis Jules Trochu Joseph Vinoy Strength 240,000 regulars 200,000 regulars 200,000 militia and sailors Casualties 12,000 dead or wounded 24,000 dead or wounded 146,000 captured 47... The First Boer War (Dutch: Eerste Boerenoorlog, Afrikaans: Eerste Vryheidsoorlog, literally First Freedom War) also known as the First Anglo-Boer War or the Transvaal War, it was fought from 16 December 1880 until 23 March 1881. ... Motto: Praestantia Praevaleat Pretoria (May Pretoria Be Pre-eminent In Excellence) Country South Africa Province Gauteng Established 1855 Area  - City 1,644 km²  (634. ...

In France, Lt. Col Peigné is often credited with designing the first railway gun in 1883. Commandant Mougin is credited with putting guns on railcars in 1870.

The French arms maker, Schneider offered a number of models in the late 1880s and produced a 120 mm gun intended for coastal defense, selling some to the Danish government in the 1890s. They also sold a 20 cm model to Peru in 1910. Schneider may refer to: Schneider (surname) for the name and people Schneider, Indiana, a small town in the United States. ...

The outbreak of the First World War caught the French with a shortage of heavy field artillery. In compensation, large numbers of large static coastal defense guns and naval guns were moved to the front, but these were typically unsuitable for field use and required some kind of mounting. The railway gun provided the obvious solution. By 1916, both sides were deploying railway guns. The most famous railway gun of the war is probably the Paris Gun. Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... The German Paris Gun, also known as Williams Gun, was the largest rail artillery gun of the Great War. ...

The Second World War saw the final use of the railway gun, with the massive Schwerer Gustav 800 mm gun, the largest artillery gun to be fired in anger, deployed by Germany. The rise of the aeroplane effectively ended the usefulness of the railway gun. Similar to stationary battleships, they were massive, expensive, and, in the correct conditions, easily destroyed from the air. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Preparing to fire the gun Schwerer Gustav and Dora were the names under which the German 80 cm K (E) railway guns were known. ... This article is about a battleship as a type of warship. ...

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Railway gun

• Krupp K5
• Paris Gun
• Schwerer Gustav
• Big Bertha (Howitzer)

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Krupp K5 railway gun The Krupp K5 was a heavy railway gun used by Germany through World War II. // Description The Krupp K5 series all were consistent in mounting a 21. ... The German Paris Gun, also known as Williams Gun, was the largest rail artillery gun of the Great War. ... Preparing to fire the gun Schwerer Gustav and Dora were the names under which the German 80 cm K (E) railway guns were known. ... Big Bertha Big Bertha (German: Dicke Bertha; literal translation Fat Bertha) is the name of the L/14 model of heavy mortar-like howitzers built and used by Germany during World War I. The name Big Bertha is often mistakenly applied to the Langer Max and Paris Gun railway guns. ...

In fiction

• The Yoko Tsuno-series graphic novel Le Canon de Kra (in French) features a large railway gun deployed on the Isthmus of Kra

• In the alternate history novel Worldwar: In the Balance, a lucky hit by a railway gun destroys a crucial alien ship containing most of the invader's nuclear warheads.

• In Metal Slug, a railroad gun is a miniboss.

• In Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory there is a mission that revolves around the loading and firing of a railway gun.

• Medal of Honor features a mission where the player has to destroy a railway gun named Greta.

• In the Battle Angel Alita manga, an 80 cm railway gun is constructed and used against Tiphares by the Barjack.

• In Warship Gunner 2 a large railroad gun is a boss, it can be disabled temporarily by destroying the locomotives that move it.

• In the Xbox 360 game Chromehounds, the unidentified weapon of Morskoj is a giant railway gun.

• In an episode of GaoGaiGar, a Zondar fuses with a railway gun, and wipes out several famous Japanese universities.

• In an episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, a railway mortar is deployed against the Angel Ramiel without success.

La Fille du Vent Yoko Tsuno is a comic book series created by the Belgian writer Roger Leloup published at Dupuis and in Spirou magazine since its debut. ... Trade paperback of Will Eisners A Contract with God (1978), often mistakenly cited as the first graphic novel. ... Le Canon de Kra (The Cannon of Kra) is the fifteenth book from Yoko Tsuno comic book series written by Roger Leloup and published in 1985. ... The Kra Isthmus is the narrow landbridge which connects the Malay Peninsula with the mainland of Asia. ... Alternative history or alternate history can be: A History told from an alternative viewpoint, rather than from the view of imperialist, conqueror, or explorer. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Metal Slug ) is a run and gun video game for the Neo-Geo console/arcade platform created by SNK. It was released in 1996 for the MVS arcade platform. ... Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (ET) is a freeware first-person shooter (FPS) computer game, and a standalone sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein, created by Splash Damage. ... Medal of Honor is the first title in the long-running Medal of Honor series of video games. ... This article relates to the manga by Yukito Kishiro, not the upcoming film by James Cameron. ... This article is about the comics published in East Asian countries. ... The Barjack flag. ... The King of Braves GaoGaiGar (勇者王ガオガイガー or Yuusha-Oh GaoGaiGar) is a Japanese animated television series series made in 1997, and the eighth and final Yuusha or Brave Fighter series funded by Takara and produced by Sunrise during the lapse in Transformers popularity. ... Original run October 4, 1995 – March 27, 1996 No. ... // In the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, Angels are beings which attack Tokyo-3 over the course of the story. ...

External links

• "When Artillery First "Took to the Rails"
• "Railwaygun Web Museum". Retrieved April 21, 2005.
• K5 Eisenbahngeschutze

References

• Hogg, Ian V. (2005). Allied Artillery of World War One. Crowood Press. ISBN 1-86126-712-6. 
• Jäger, Herbert (2001). German Artillery of World War One. Crowood Press. ISBN 1-86126-403-8. 
• Engelmann, Joachim (1976). Armor in Action - German Railroad Guns. Squadron/Signal Publications. ISBN 0-89747-048-6.