Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II

ARTILLERY
within a cradle, which in turn recoiled along the chassis,
controlled by hydro-pneumatic compensators.
The vehicles were powered by 44.5-litre motors,
although they were only expected to travel for short
distances under their own power. For longer journeys
they were loaded aboard specially built transporters
or on railway cars. Six were manufactured, together
with tracked, armoured ammunition carrier/loaders,
and were issued to 628 Heavy Artillery Battalion
(Motorised), which promptly named them 'Adam',
'Eve', 'Odin', 'Thor', 'Loki' and 'Ziu'. They first
went into action at the Siege of Brest-Litovsk in June
1941, and were also present at Lvov and Sebastopol
as well as elsewhere. In 1942, the Army asked for proposals
to increase their range, and Rheinmetall's
answer was to produce new barrels in 54cm calibre
which fired 1250kg (27551b) shells to a maximum
range of about 10km (6.2 miles). From then on, the
barrels seem to have been swapped to suit whatever
ordnance there was available. Two were seized by
American forces in Bavaria in 1945.
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Above: The 60cm mortars fired a shell weighing 2.23
tonnes (2.2 tons), which was specially designed to drive
deep into a fortification before exploding.
THE K5 GUNS
Also considerably more practical than 'Gustav' and
'Dora' were the K5 guns in 28cm calibre, which fired
255kg (5651b) shells out to a range of close to 64km
(40 miles). A total of 28 of these were constructed
between 1936 and 1945, and all were used most effectively
in combat, the most famous probably being
'Anzio Annie', which was used to bombard the Anzio
beachhead, and is now on display at the US Army's
artillery proving grounds at Aberdeen, Maryland.
Like the Paris Guns, the K5 employed deeply incised
rifling - the 12 grooves were 7mm (0.25in) deep -
and each shell had very precisely machined curved
slots into which were inserted soft iron rails to form
splines, matching the pattern in the barrel exactly,
instead of the simple lugs or studs of the original.
These guns too were mounted on railway cars, though