...Railway artillery - Personal Page of GENE SLOVER

740
2-inch holes are provided in each'lower chord at the front end and six
at the rear for bolting the mount to the emplacement.
725. ANCHoRAGE.-When the German army had retired from the
salient between Soissons and Rheims in August, 1918, the emplacement
shown on platE'S 417 and 418 was found in the Bois du Chatelet,
9.kilometers directly north of Chateau Thierry. This emplacement
was in process of installation and had not been completely erected.
The Germans attempted to destroy it, but succeeded only in ripping
loose a few plates. At the time the emplacement \vas captured no
description of any kind was available of the carriage for which it was
intended. The writer's failure to find any emplacemE'nt in Belgium
from which the mount examined there could be operated, led to further
exaullnation of the emplacement in France, and it was found
that they fitted perfectly.
726. The emplacement is in two main sections, one a base and the
other a rotating section. The rotating section, plates 419 and 420,
is about 28 feet 6 inches in diameter and is supported on 112 8-inch
steel balls. The base is about 35 feet in diameter and 6 feet in depth.
On plate 417 there can be seen at right angles to the direction of the
track of the rotating section two girders, on the ends of which are key
plates or pads. The plate 'which is labeled has six holes in it and the
plate on the opposite end of the girder has eight.
727. The mount is run onto the emplacement with the rotating
section in the position shown in plate 420. It is then raised by the
four jacks which can be seen at the left of plate 417, and are shown
\n their exact positions in plate 420. When the mount is raised the
trucks are removed and the rotating section of the emplacement
turned through 90 degrees. On lowering the mount onto the emplacement,
the key plates on the bottom chords of the carriage are fitted
to the corresponding key plates on the emplacement. The emplacement
is shown in process of installation, with the Gantry crane still
in place, plate 421.
728. The carriage on which the gun is so mounted as to be capable
of movement in a vertical plane only, is traversed by rotating the top
section of the emplacement. A complete circular traversing rack
made up of angles and steel pins is bolted to the structuraJ. base, plate
422. A pinion carried on a vertical shaft on the side of the rotating
section which corresponds to the rear of the carriage engages with
this rack and the mechanism is driven by two-man handles on a
horizontal shaft carrying a worm engaging with a worm wheel on
the top of the vertical shaft, as shown at the right of the top view,
figure 420. This shaft may likewise be driven by meaDS of the four
handles mounted on the two cases in the center of the rotating section
and connected with the worm wheel and shaft through two shafts
Digitized by Coogle