Does anyone know the Navy number or the Baldwin class number for the 14" railway gun on display at the Washington Navy Yard? It is one of 11 built in 1918. This gun was used at Dahlgren, Virginia for munitions testing.

148. It is not the original 14/50 Mk1 barrel. You can see more about it here:
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collec ... war-i.html

A more comprehensive history can be found here:

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/l ... rance.html

Thanks Adam,

That is a very clear account of the five Navy guns in France. It is save to assume they and five of the six Army guns were scrapped at some point.

Though it's not the same type, there's also a Navy Railway 16" mount at the Dahlgren Navy test facility:

Those Navy as well as the Army ones were scrapped because they were useless for the Army's Coast Artillery Corps, which inherited them after the war. These guns only had a small arc of side to side adjustment and were good for firing at fixed targets, but not for moving ones. The Coast Artillery Corps had to deal with defending against ships off the coast, moving targets, that these guns couldn't engage effectively.

The Germans continued to use railroad guns into WWII. The most successful was the 283 mm (11.1 in) K6e. Two of them were together (Bruno & Leopold) were referred to as "Anzio Annie".

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krupp_K5

Generally considered a waste of resources, Dora and Heavy Gustav 2, were 80 cm or 31.5 inch railguns built by the Germans in WWII. Only Dora, after four weeks of preparation of the firing site, fired 48 shots at Sevastopol in June, 1942. This was the only time either gun fired at an enemy target. The guns had to be assembled on site on specially prepared parallel tracks. Five trains were needed to move the hardware and support equipment which included two large A frames, also assembled on site. Assembly was timed at 56 hours. Heavy Gustav 2 was test fired in February, 1943. Dora, with a new barrel liner, fired two demonstration shots before Hitler and the top military brass in March, 1943. Both guns were subsequently dismantled and parts distributed by rail within or near the Rugenwald test range in Pomerania. Near the end of the war German troops destroyed critical parts. The remains of were cut up for scrap after the war, some of which lasted until 1950.

Text above is from a book in German with quite a few photos, published in 2001. There appear to be a lot of "alternative facts" about these guns on the Internet.

Alex Huff

The gun in the photo is not 16". Here is what I have on it:

The 12” gun (12”/35 Army Model 1895 #19 on mount #9 of twelve built by the Marion Steam shovel Co.) arrived at Dahlgren March 6, 1942 from Aberdeen Proving Ground via the Washington Gun Factory. It was moved to display at Fort Lee, VA in 2011.

This US railway gun survives in Brazil:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_g ... hem177.JPG

The Centrailia-Chehalis RR here in Washington has the car from a 12" seacoast mortar that servived in the Bremerton Navy yard. There are at least two guns on display that were on railroad mounts.

Simple typo on the size, I've seen that gun in person.
I've also seen that mortar mount flatcar, makes me wonder if the vet museum literally next door has asked if they can have it...

I spent some time living in Sevastopol within walking distance of the shore batteries (Dora's victims). The craters, even today, are massive.

We had a captured railway gun in Australia, the 11" Amiens railway gun. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiens_Gun It was taken to England and then Australia at the end of WW1, and put on display at Canberra railway station.

The army wanted to play with it at the start of WW2, and off it went with suitable assurances about it being returned at the end of hostilities, etc, etc. Unfortunately, much of it ended up being scrapped instead, with only the barrel being returned. It is now on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

My research went rather far afield but I learned a lot about the navy Mark I railway guns. If anyone wants a copy of my findings send me an Email.

While looking for other things, I came across this movie footage of a US Navy railway gun being assembled during WW I; location is credited as France, and seems confirmed based on some buildings and railroad equipment in the background near the beginning of the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C_pBP09cFA

At about 1:18 in this short clip, you can see Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, along with other dignitaries, inspecting the completed Navy mobile gun.

Many of the medium caliber guns mounted in coast defense sites in the U.S. were dismounted and sent to France for use there, either mounted on wheeled carriages or on rail mounts. This was especially true for the 12-inch breech-loading seacoast mortars and the 6 and 8-inch disappearing guns which were made obsolete with the building of battleships with 14 and 16-inch guns.

Thanks!

Jim,

Other than the five Navy Mark I 12" guns no US railway guns were ever deployed in France. The Army sent three of the Mark I guns but they were not ready for combat before the end of the war. It has long been reported that three 8-inch railway guns were deployed in France during WWI. However the dates on the gun cards show that six guns were shipped in late September 1918 and were back in New York by the end of the year. This makes it very unlikely that any were used in combat.