Part Forty Two: the Artillery, Railway Gun
In World War One, super heavy artillery was often mounted on railroad carriages for better mobility. This idea fell out of fashion as World War Two started, now the Germans, Russians, and British made limited use of railway guns, the U.S. Army only deployed one model:
8-inch Navy Gun Mark VI, Mod 3A2 on Railway Mount M-1A1
Standard
The 8-inch Navy gun Mk.VI, M3A2 on railway mount M1A1 was a World War II improved replacement for the World War I-era 8-inch (203 mm) M-1888 gun and was used by the US Army's Coast Artillery Corps in US harbor defenses. The guns were also mounted in fixed emplacements on the barbette carriage M-1A1. These guns were US Navy surplus 8"/45 caliber guns from battleships scrapped under the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. Mark VI (also Mark 6) was the Navy designation.
The gun was quickly assembled at the start of World War Two. Its carriage was developed from an experimental 12-inch railway howitzer carriage with all-round rotating mount and outriggers and was designed to track a target ship for seacoast defense. All told, some 32 railway versions and 16 barbette versions were produced. They had a short service life, being cut up for scrap after the war.
Weight in firing order: 230,000lbs. Elevation and depression: +5 degrees to +45 degrees. Maximum range is 32,000 yards. Rate of fire is 2rpm.
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The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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