17cm Kanone Eisenbahn - Railway Gun

Calibre :

173mm ( 6.81" )

This weapon was produced with the intention of replacing the 15cm K (E) by a heavier weapon, though in fact no more than six were built and issued in 1938. Although the 17cm K (E) was an improvement over the 15cm, so far as shell weight and range were concerned, it was still too little gun for too much mounting - and finally convinced the army that if railway guns were to be built at all they might as well be big ones.

The mounting was the same as that of the 15cm K(E), a well base flatcar on two six-wheel bogies with the gun pivot mounted. The mounting only required slight modification to make it suitable for the gun selected; this, the 17cm Schiffskanone L/40 naval and coastal gun, was an elderly design but one that was readily available; the guns, dating from c. 1901/2, had been designed as the casemate guns of the Deutschland class predreadnoughts.

Courtesy from German Artillery of World War II
Ian V.Hogg - Greenhill Books - ISBN 0887403220

References / Credits :
Deutsche Eisenbahn Geschützen - Gerhard Taube - Motor Buch Verlag - ISBN 3-613-01352-5
Die schweren Geschütze der Welt - Franz Kosar - Motor Buch Verlag - ISBN 3-613-02204-4
German Artillery of World War II - Ian V.Hogg - Greenhill Books - ISBN 0887403220
Eisenbahn Geschütze der Welt - Franz Kosar - Motor Buch Verlag - ISBN 3-613-01976-0
German Railroad Guns in action - Joachim Engelmann - Squadron - ISBN 0-89747-048-6

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