Chapter 493 K5 Railway Cannon

K5 railway gun position in the Calais area.

Strangely enough, the Germans seem to have always had a special liking for giant artillery. In the First World War, the Paris Cannon with a caliber of 210 mm and a barrel length of 36 meters was used. However, due to the limitations of the technical level at the time, the Paris Cannon had limited accuracy and existed only as a deterrent weapon, rather than a high-powered artillery with actual tactical value. (The barrel of the Paris Cannon could only fire about 50 shells, and then it had to be sent to the factory to expand the bore. Therefore, the caliber of the cannon was initially 210 mm, then reached 240 mm, and finally reached 260 mm. In addition, the hit rate of the shells was extremely poor. From March 23 to August 9, 1918, in the 140 days, the German Paris Cannon fired 44 times near Paris, of which 183 shells fell into the city and 120 shells fell into the suburbs, killing 256 people and injuring more than 600 people. No shells hit the strategic target. In terms of casualties and attack effects, it was really negligible.)

And 20 years later, the Germans launched the super cannon plan again. First, they ordered Krupp to manufacture an 800mm railway heavy gun (the famous Gustav gun), and then in 1937, they asked Rheinmetall to design and manufacture a tracked self-propelled heavy mortar, the "Karl mortar". They also planned to hang a gun under the belly of a twin-engine bomber to attack targets such as battleships and cruisers, with a caliber of 6mm! The caliber of the main gun of the "Bismarck" class battleship is only 381mm, which is really an exaggerated design.

Yannick is not interested in these flashy and brain-opening things, he only wants the most practical K5 railway gun. This railway gun was designed with full consideration of the timeliness and range of supporting firepower, as well as the mobility and versatility of the gun itself. It is the best among many German railway guns.

The Battle of Anzio in World War II was a battle for the K5 railway gun to show its power. In January 1944, the Allies decided to attack Germany's weak spot and launched the Anzio landing. The first step of this landing launched in the middle of the night went very smoothly, and most of the captured Germans were still wearing pajamas; but the Germans quickly mobilized troops to encircle and send two K5s to the war zone.

The arrival of K5 brought great trouble to the Allies in Anzio. Its ultra-long range allowed it to cover all the war zones in Anzio and support any area. A shell that could form a killing range the size of a football field also made the Allies deeply feel what despair was. There was an attack force of 767 people. After being bombarded by K5, only 6 people returned to the base, and the rest were all killed by K5 heavy artillery.

The Allies relied on air superiority. When the Germans bombarded, they dispatched planes to search for K5. There were also regular patrols in daily life. The actions of the Air Force limited the performance of K5. It could only find a gap to drive out of the tunnel to fight, and hide back in the tunnel after firing a few rounds of shells. Although the Allies found the approximate location of K5, bombers and attack aircraft could not destroy the two K5s, and this situation lasted for many days.

In the end, the Allies won the Battle of Anzio at great cost. They broke through the Gustav Line and lifted the German siege of Anzio, cutting off the retreat of K5. The two captured guns were later sent to the United States for testing and evaluation.

The ultimate purpose of Yannick's construction of the K5 railway gun was to provide fire support for the landing troops as a secret weapon during the landing in Britain. Perhaps these railway guns can go to the Crimean Peninsula in the future and replace the Gustav cannon to bombard the Sevastopol Fortress for a few rounds. But it is obvious that it cannot accomplish the feat of blowing up the Soviet giant ammunition depot located 30 meters underground with one shot. (At the end of May 1942, Manstein attacked the Sevastopol Fortress and brought in the "Dora Cannon", firing 43 shells at several ammunition depots in the fortress. One of the shells with a delayed fuse penetrated into the ammunition depot 30 meters underground and detonated the stored shells.)

In any case, Yannick's secret weapon not only played a role, but also had some excess power. The target was a fixed area that had been mapped long ago. As long as the shells were fired in this area, it would be an effective attack. One shot could overturn all the bunkers around the impact point.

After destroying all the targets received, the 22 railway guns began to fire shells in the form of a barrage. The distance between each impact point was 100 meters. The 22 railway guns opened up a 2-kilometer wide road for the landing troops.

After each shell was fired, the soldiers rushed forward, removed the shell casings, cleaned the barrels, stuffed new shells into the barrels, adjusted the muzzle angle, and finally fired in unison under the order of the superior, and then repeated the previous steps.

There were no less than ten cameras working in every corner of the launch site, recording these spectacular scenes in all directions without blind spots.

This was also Yannick's idea. After all, such a magnificent scene is not common. Preserving it would be a good stock footage that can be used for at least fifty years.

As for the famous Gustav cannon, Yannick had no intention of building it at all. He directly gave its design drawings to Natasha's intelligence officer and asked him to take it back and give it to Natasha.

Later, he received news that Stalin secretly met with Natasha, cordially commended Natasha for her outstanding performance in intelligence work and her contribution to the motherland, and personally awarded her a certificate.

I don’t know how that female spy chief, who was obviously a little twisted in her psychology, resisted the urge to eat Stalin alive on the spot; and then Natasha became the second in command of the intelligence department.

“Fuck you, hold on to the end! If you have the ability, come and defend it?!” The commander of the garrison cursed after receiving Churchill’s call back. In this short time, the iron barrel fortress that the British army was proud of had completely turned into a piece of rags. More than half of the soldiers on the front line had been killed or wounded, and many of them were directly bombed into slag by the Germans’ large-caliber shells, leaving no bones.

The commander of the garrison reluctantly ordered the few remaining soldiers on the front line to abandon their positions and retreat to the second line of defense.

But the Germans’ terrifying heavy artillery blew up the front line and began to slowly advance forward.

The 2-kilometer-wide barrage seemed like a boiling wall of fire, smashing everything, tearing everything, and burning everything.

The commander of the garrison looked at the barrage that was getting closer and closer, and couldn’t help cursing. "Damn, what is the range of their guns? At this rate, the second line of defense is not safe!"

Just then the phone on the table suddenly rang.

"Commander, German paratroopers appeared behind us, and they are frantically attacking our defense line!!"