...Railway artillery - Personal Page of GENE SLOVER

513
2Z.-GER'MAN __ MILLIMETER GUN ON RAILWAY MOUNT, (35)
381. This mount, plates 400 and 401, is of the cradle recoil type,
firing from the wheels with limited traverse to an elevation of about
18 degrees, or from a structural-steel turntable type of ground platform
with all round fire, The mount examined was captured by the
. Belgi&D8 and is in serviceable condition. Emplacements on which it
could have been operated have been found in only two places, the one
in the Forest of St. Gobain, :west of Laon, and the other in the Bois de
Chatelet, about 5 miles north of Chateau Thierry. All evidence available
to-day indicates that while it was being operated from the emplacement
in the Forest of St. Gobain it was serving as a mount for
the long-range guns, all of which were made from worn-out 38centimeter,
45-caliber naval guns. The mount bore ,the date of
February, 1918, at which time it was probably completed by the
firm of Krupp, and the evidence available to date indicates that it
was the only mount of this design that they had. Gen. Arnoulde,
Chief of Artillery of the Belgian Army, informed the writer that the
mount had been found on a special track in the Bois de Leugenboom
near the permanently emplaced 3S-centimeter gun in that same
woods, about 10 'miles south of Ostend. There was no evidence that
it had ever been operated from this position. -
382. GUN . -The gun found on the carriage inspected was of the
1916 model and was humber 33L. The total weight is 77,552 kilograms.
The total length of the gun is 17.13 meters and the distance
from the face of the breech block to the muzzle is 16.1'3 meters,
making the gun about 42 calibers' long. This is very significant,
considering the fact that the gun is supposed. to have a range of 55
kilometers (50,095 yards). The breech is of the standard Krupp
sliding wedge type, the wedge being operated by one handle through
a series of spur gears, to ooe screw.
383. Apparently the gun, plates 400 and 402, is built up of five
main sections; the tube is reinforced by two hoops which are further
reinforced by one jacket extending from the breech forward about
two-thirds of the length, and a breech section attached to the last
named jacket by the recoil lug. In the case observed, the tube has
evidently lengthened. to the extent of about 0.562 inches. The
evidence of this is the extension of the tube beyond its original
position with reference to the end of the forward hoop a distance of
about 0.187 inches and the parting of the forward hoop from the
hoop to the rear to the extent of 0.375 inches. This same condition
was observed on several other guns of this design. The number of
grooves is 100. The width of the grooves is approximately 0.219
inches, and the width of the lands 0.236 inches. The lands show
slight signs of wear on the drh-ing side and copper was visible both on
Digitized by Coogle