World War Photos

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German and captured railway guns in World War II.
Railway guns were placed on a special railway platform enabling it to fire. Lesser works were often placed in rotating turrets, and could be part of armored trains. Railway guns in the strict sense were large-caliber independent units (from 200 mm to 800 mm) used as a long range artillery siege. Many guns were built as mounted on the works of sized caliber naval artillery. Just as in the case of armored trains, the dynamic growth of aviation in the 30s of the twentieth century was the beginning of the end use of railway guns.
One of the most famous railway guns was called “Paris gun” used to fire the capital of France in 1918. The heaviest railway gun of the First World War was the French 520 mm howitzer Schneider, the largest railway gun in general was a German construction used during the Second World War Dora with a caliber of 800 mm. Although the giant railway guns could not realistically weigh on the war, their ability to break down into dust massive fortifications and devastating psychological impact on the enemy posed major advantage.