In 1952 Joseph Stalin had his scientists working on atomic bombs in Chelyabinsk.
But the villagers in the area were reporting sightings of strange giant things in the forest.
Concerned about these reports Stalin directed Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria to discretely find the giant thing and destroy it. Not wanting to deploy substantial resources to the project, he had .50 caliber Maxim guns places on wheeled artillery carriages and sent to the area to deal with the problem.
The US Army had also deployed such weapons in the past.
During the First World War these guns were taken from storage and were intended for coast defense against landing boats, or with their powerful .50 caliber cartridge, to cut down massed horse cavalry charges.
The gun crew consisted of a gunner who fired the weapon, two loaders, #1 to carry ammo from the limber and #2 to feed the ammo to the gun. A third man was the gun commander who would observe targets and direct the gunner. There was also a horse holder who maintained the horses, limber, caisson, and sometimes would help bring ammo forward.
The men were trained in all the positions and could take over for one another in the event of a casualty.
None of these served overseas but were deployed around the coastal perimeter, southern border, and Canal Zone of the United States.
The unexplored jungles of the Canal Zones were particularly dangerous.
It's the only time these guns were fired in anger by US forces when gun #2 of a four gun battery defended the Canal Zone from a giant tarantula.
In the early 1950s a similar weapon was used by the Soviet Union to dispatch a giant tarantula that was ravaging cattle herds in Soviet Chelyabinsk. The cause of the giant in the Soviet Union was thought to be sloppy atomic research contaminating the local area with radioactive waste. The cause of the giant tarantula in the Canal Zone remains unknown.
Soviet figures by Atlantic, and generic civilians, US Army by Hat WWI US artillery crews, gun carriage by Eagle Games and giant Maxim gun by Atlantic WWII Russian set, all in 1/72nd scale.
3 comments:
I wonder why the Vickers or Maxim. 50 guns didn't see longer service. The M2 Browning is still in use.
It was extremely heavy and best for prolonged firing. The M2 is much lighter and is generally used against vehicles and aircraft while mounted on vehicles. There was a water cooled version of the M2 that was mostly used on AA guns for a while in WWII. As horse cavalry disappeared so too did the .50 Maxim.
Thank you very much for the information. Very interesting subject. I wonder how effective it would be as support weapon if mounted on a Brengun Carrier. The watercooled M2 was used on the Norwegian Naval National Guard's vessel into late 90ies.
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