Recoil’s easy - park it on a slight downhill with the handbrake off! ![]()
What if the required firing position and firing direction is on a slight uphill?
Asking for a friend …
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Me Likey!
Then you spend a lot of time running after it?..
Well, that may be - the ludicrous part - but, but…consider the US M65 Atomic Cannon - not too far removed from the concept is it? Wasn’t it even based on the same railroad gun?
Just sayin’…
The designer of the M65 was inspired by the German K5.
There were many railway guns based on the same principle,
a big box girder with the gun sandwiched between them.
The [British Boche Buster in WW II(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/BocheBusterCatterick12December1940.jpg) could also have served as inspiration
or the Scene Shifter from WW I
I’m of the mind that the Tiger II’s had enough trouble moving themselves with their underpowered engines so how are they supposed to move themselves AND a rail cannon?
We can’t let common sense get in the way of the Fuhrer’s uber-weapon fantasies! ![]()
But it would certainly hog the tables at model shows, so may not be popular with other club members…
I fundamentally disagree with the sentiment expressed in the quote. That is a long conversation with many contentious components.
Years ago I purchased the Dragon German Railway Gun K5(E) Leopold and two tiger II and to scratch build the dual direction pivoting point on each tiger. Months latter a fellow molder offered me the full costs of the kits. I sold them to him and he ended building them as individual kits.
As far as I can remember this was a concept vehicle.
A smoke-filled bunker with the sounds of falling Allied shells shaking the walls. Dust floating down on the stub of a guttering candle. Shot glasses of Schnaps and soaked cocktail napkins with someone scribbling on them…
“Look here, Hans! If ONLY we had mounted our rail guns on Tiger tanks, the Allies would have been at our mercy!!!” Maniacal laughter, followed by… “Wake up, Hans! It’s time to see where the Iron Crosses grow!”
It’s probably worth mentioning in British service the names were applied to the railway carriages, not the guns. For example, in WW1 “Boche Buster” and “Scene Shifter” mounted 14 inch guns intended as turret guns for a Japanese battleship (“Scene Shifter” had the turret’s left hand gun, therefore the breech opened in that direction, contrary to normal land ordnance practice). After WW1, being non-standard, these were scrapped. In WW2, “Scene Shifter” (and “Gladiator” and “Piecemaker”) mounted British 13.5 inch naval guns, while “Boche Buster” mounted a BL 18-inch railway howitzer.
Cheers,
M

