Overall Favorite Weapon

wolfy,i think that the germans were the first ones to bulid massive weapons,than the allies followed suit.
so yes,the germans did build massive weapons.

 

While the Germans certainly did deploy some large railway guns, I'm not sure they get credit for being the first ones.

The history of railway guns goes back to the 19th century. FWIW, the attached Wiki article cites early British and Russian claims. Early examples exist from the Ameican Civil War and by WWI, "everybody" was doing it. Perhaps somebody who has studied this could shed some light?

Railway gun - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

In response to Dora and Gustav -- though I love them dearly -- I have to say that the British Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs were just as effective as those huge shells, but much cheaper and more versatile.

 

And more accurate.



Cheers...

 

These railroad guns are pretty tactically deficient and limited, lol. What were they thinking? They must have to lay new track just to reposition.

 

They were pretty much obsolete by WWII. I know a couple of tricks that were used were to station them on a curve of track and even more limitedly to place them on a turntable in a switching yard.

 

Apparently, they were thinking of guns big enough to demolish the Maginot Line. But they ended up outflanking that, so the guns weren't needed for their original purpose.

Apparently the guns needed four sets of railway tracks on which to move. I think they could be disassembled into smaller pieces for long-distance transport, but that still would have required building German-gauge railway tracks all the way to the Crimea, just to bombard Sevastapol.

An incredible waste of resources IMHO, but a great story.

 

The U.S. and British toyed with re-activating one or two large rail guns for Europe but as the RAF and USAAF had effectively wrecked the rail system the idea was abandoned. So apart from the Home use of British Railguns in Kent, the only other use was 14inch and 8inch rail gun use in the U.S.A. Panama, Hawaii and surprisingly Vancouver, until Britsh 6" and 9.2" fixed batteries could be completed.

Generally modern railway guns took there own turntable with them

View attachment 5931
Note the ammunition on the dumb truck in the background. The turntable was used as a railtrack for ammunition supply.
View attachment 5932
Detail showing the track in the background

As an aside shortly after the Boer War the Director of Artillery said it would be good to have a method to put 60pounder guns on rail wagons.
By the time all the various arms of service had their input the thing had developed into a complete design for a 60pounder rail mounted gun with full railway system and brakes for main line traction, the DG of A then said it had all got out of hand -all he wanted was a couple of ramps and a winch to allow rolling the gun on and off the railtruck.

 

I really love the M1 Garand out of any of the firearms in the war, just had the look and feel to me of being the perfect weapon., Stg 44 comes in at 2nd though.

But i also do love some good ol Motars just the accuracy they could get with them from such a distance.

 

The bagpipes....confused the hell out of the enemy, sucoured those awaiting relief, and quickened the pace of those wanting to get out of earshot.

 

HAHA!.

 

+1!

 

Probably the M-1 Garand. Simply because of that really neat pinging sound when it runs through the clip and it's expended. And the speed of it for a rifle is pretty cool as well.

 

"The bagpipes....confused the hell out of the enemy, sucoured those awaiting relief, and quickened the pace of those wanting to get out of earshot."

Urqh,

I recall reading once that in the Italian campaign when the Brit's ran into a particularly nasty strong point held by the Germans the standard response was, "Send up two tanks, or a piper!"

Seamus

 

YouTube - Bagpipes in the Longest Day

Only a movie....but you get the idea...

 

My fathers unit in Burma got a Guhurka piper when they needed to get rid of an particularly annoying Japanese bugler and his Oxford educated Tannoy mate.

~Steve

 

One of my favorite scenes in the movie, though there is a lot i do enjoy that part, especially the frenchmen welcoming everyone along the way offering the wine.

 

Infantry weapons: MG 42

Armoured fighting vehecules: Hmm, ticky one the Pshering

Planes: B 25 lebrador

Sorry for my english, i´m from sweden

 

Cheer up, we understand!

I'm really impressed how well people whose primary language is not English are able to converse on this board. Other than a little French, I know I couldn't return the favor!

 

Infrantry Weapons: K98 (mauser). I like rifles more than smg thanks to their longer firing range

Tanks: Type 5 Chi-Ri heavy tank (japanese)

Tank Destroyer: Jagdpanther. IMO it looks cooler than other tank destroyers.

Aircraft: A6M2 Zero (mitsubishi)

Navy vessel: Yamato. Biggest battleship ever build.

Non-Armed Transport Vehicle: Bicycle (xP)