Annie!

This is coolbert:

That American M65 atomic cannon - - a 280 mm large-bore artillery piece, WAS based upon the original design of the German pre-war [World War Two] K5 railway gun?

" [a] scaled up the 240mm shell (then the maximum in the arsenal) and used the German K5 railroad gun as a point of departure for the carriage"

So it would seem!

The K5 [Krupp], two of them used against allied forces - - the Anzio beachhead - - causing great havoc among American and British soldiers!

"The Krupp K5 was a heavy railway gun used by Germany throughout World War II."




The K5 having the same bore [280 mm] as the M65!

The K5 also being very limited as an effective and versatile weapon. An artillery piece NOT having a traversing capability! The K5 was STRICTLY ELEVATION ONLY!

[NOT entirely strictly elevation ONLY, but generally so, with very limited exceptions!]

"This mounting did not permit any degree of horizontal traverse, but instead the carriage had to be aligned on the rails first, with only minimal fine levelling capable once halted. Hence the gun could only fire at targets tangential to an existing railway track."

ALSO - - very advanced for the time, the K5 also was able to fire with some success a rocket-assisted-projectile [RAP]! I had thought that RAP was only a recent development? This is not so? Leave it to the German!

"Towards the end of the war, development was done to allow the K5 to fire rocket-assisted projectiles to increase range. Successful implementation was done for firing these from the K5Vz."

These large-bore cannon generally speaking have only a very limited capability. A terror weapon for the most part? Impressive weapons but not that versatile. The number of trained artillerymen needed to service just one of these big guns could be better utilized by manning a dozen or so batteries of conventional artillery!?

coolbert.