Book New Vanguard: Railway Guns of World War II 231 by Steven J. Zaloga MOBI, EPUB
9781472810687 1472810686 World War II marked the zenith of railway gun development. Although many of the railway guns initially deployed at the start of the conflict were of World War I vintage, Germany's ambitious development program saw the introduction of a number of new classes, including the world's largest, the 80cm-caliber Schwerer Gustav and Schwerer Dora guns, which weighed in at 1,350 tons and fired a huge 7-ton shell. This book provides an overview of the types of railway guns in service during World War II, with a special focus on the German railway artillery used in France, Italy, and on the Eastern Front, analyzing why railway guns would largely disappear from use following the end of the war., World War II was the railway gun's technological zenith. As well as the huge but impractical 80cm K(E) "Gustav" and "Dora," Germany also fielded modern and versatile new railway guns such as the 28cm K5(E), of which the famous "Anzio Annie" was an example. Although increasingly vulnerable from the air, the Wehrmacht's railway guns saw combat across Europe - from artillery duels across the Channel to the sieges of Sevastopol and Leningrad and the bombardment of Allied invasion beachheads. As well as the advanced German types, this book surveys the railway guns that all combatants either developed, improvised or fielded - France, Belgium, Italy, Finland, the USSR, Japan, Britain and the USA - and explains the diverse roles that they played throughout the conflict. With new color recreations of the most important railway guns of the war, this is the story of how these weapons reached their peak just before ballistic missiles made them obsolete. Book jacket.
9781472810687 1472810686 World War II marked the zenith of railway gun development. Although many of the railway guns initially deployed at the start of the conflict were of World War I vintage, Germany's ambitious development program saw the introduction of a number of new classes, including the world's largest, the 80cm-caliber Schwerer Gustav and Schwerer Dora guns, which weighed in at 1,350 tons and fired a huge 7-ton shell. This book provides an overview of the types of railway guns in service during World War II, with a special focus on the German railway artillery used in France, Italy, and on the Eastern Front, analyzing why railway guns would largely disappear from use following the end of the war., World War II was the railway gun's technological zenith. As well as the huge but impractical 80cm K(E) "Gustav" and "Dora," Germany also fielded modern and versatile new railway guns such as the 28cm K5(E), of which the famous "Anzio Annie" was an example. Although increasingly vulnerable from the air, the Wehrmacht's railway guns saw combat across Europe - from artillery duels across the Channel to the sieges of Sevastopol and Leningrad and the bombardment of Allied invasion beachheads. As well as the advanced German types, this book surveys the railway guns that all combatants either developed, improvised or fielded - France, Belgium, Italy, Finland, the USSR, Japan, Britain and the USA - and explains the diverse roles that they played throughout the conflict. With new color recreations of the most important railway guns of the war, this is the story of how these weapons reached their peak just before ballistic missiles made them obsolete. Book jacket.