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Friday, September 5, 2008

USN Artillery






















While Bill Jr. and Wayne do excellent modelling work, when it comes to the big guns, I am the big dog in this pack. This is a US Navy, yes, Navy, railway artillery gun from the First World War.























Since the British Fleet was large and powerful, most of the German Fleet never ventured into open waters in the Atlantic. That left large elements of the US Navy with very little to do and since they were experts in large gun operations, they came up with massive railway artillery.






















These 14" guns were highly accurate and fired over 700 rounds in the last few weeks of the war. Five of these guns were fielded and there were plans to ship 30 to France by the end of 1918. They typically fired from a curve so they could run the gun along the curve to change the target. They also dug a hole under the rails between the tracks to allow the gun to recoil at high elevation.






















HaT Canadian WWI Infantry shown in the photos for size. The basic train is the AHM 14" US Army railway gun with a few changes to the trucks, and adding onto the back half a passenger car body. A quick easy and cheap conversion to give your AEF added firepower! I got the gun and passenger car body used at a train show to keep the price down. It makes for an interesting focal point and can penetrate nearly any bunker. They were supported by Army engineers who would prepare the railways and firing site. Only one sailor was killed and several of the Army troops died as a result of enemy action. A highly successful operation.

8 comments:

Bill Jr said...

Hey Mike,
Nice conversion, I may have to do that with one of my Guns, I have 3- They we're First made by Cox, then AHM, and later Model Power got the molds. One of my 3 I'd converted to a European version gun simular to what the Germans had captured and fielded in France. And Just as an FYI, The Large Railroad Guns We're used during WWII, but kept Mainly on the West coast in the event of a Japanese attack.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek said...

The four WWII era RR guns were purpose built for the US Army. Two were kept right down the street from me at Fort MacArthur and the other two in the canal zone in Panama. Some firing positions were build maybe three miles from me in Huntington Beach. They were scrapped after the war, too bad. One of the five Naval guns still exists in a museum back east.

Bill Jr said...

Hey Mike,
I Do Believe that, that Last remaining gun is located close to Ken in Aberdeen, Md on display at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds Museum, right next to Leopold.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek said...

US Navy Museum
805 Kidder Breese Street SE
Building 76
Washington Navy Yard
Washington, DC 20374-5060
(202) 433-4882; fax (202) 433-8200

They have the rail gun out front.
Aberdeen has the Atomic Annie and Anzio Annie which both look similar.

Nuno Cabeçadas said...

Nice work Mike :)
Every day I like more conversions or scratchbuild models over standard models.
How are you? Its been a while since I saw you in HaT's forum.
Cheers

Mike Bunkermeister Creek said...

Good to have you visiting me here! Due to a computer problem I can't post on the HaT forum for now, but I do still read it often.

Conversions that are easy are my favorite, and you can come up with some pretty good stuff with just a little imagination.

Nuno Cabeçadas said...

I come here often. Your blog is listed in my RSS feeds and I know when is updated.

Glad to know you are ok.

Cheers

Mike Bunkermeister Creek said...

Thank you Nuno for visiting here often. Be sure to tell all your friends about Bunker Talk.