Originally posted by Tails
Big gun...
Anyone know how effective railway guns like that actually were?
Especially the Gustav which, I believe, actually needed the railway built as it went (ran on two sets of side-by-side tracks)
The Gustav only needed a two sets of angled tracks at it`s firing position (to set the horizontal firing angle), this was typical as railway guns go; otherwise it was sent into it`s deployment place broken down in pieces and assambled on the spot on the normal RR lines.
The Gustav itself was an uber-example, build and designed originally to deal with the Maginot line, but it wasn`t ready before France was overrun. And in the 30s it was seen as the only solution, bombers did not have the payload. In fact, it was not until 1945 when bombers could do the same job, but more cheaply, and then only the specialized Lancaster types.
Otherwise, I think the normal railway guns were very useful and practical in Europe, all large continental armies had them. Bringing such heavy arty piece into action and serve it was much simplier in Europe`s dense RR network then transporting it on road. Think of the efforts that would require a 50 ton gun into position in the muddy russian roads, an artyman`s nightmare.. Of course, they were specialized, high performance heavy pieces for special tasks, and did not neccesary offer much advantage vs ordinary field howitzers in ordinary task, like, bombarding entranched infantry. But some special tasks, like quickly overcoming fortifications absolutely required them, and nota bene, there was no other weapon that could do the same! Their enourmous firepower had more effect on moral than physical, just think of 'Anzio Annie', which was actually one example of the standard 280mm Wehrmacht RR guns.
Re the 'Paris gun' aka the 'Big Bertha', it was actually a highly modified German naval gun. The British tried to come up with their own version of it in WW1, with similiar background ie. based on a 380mm RN naval gun, named 'Bruce'. I think they wanted it to fire accross the Channel. From memo, it had less range than the Big Bertha but did not see action. The US also came up with a short ranged, but huge caliber howitzer in the end of WW2. It was a towed weapon, and said to be highly mobile, but didn`t see action either. IIRC it was the 'Little David'.
