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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Captured Artillery


Khaki

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It would appear that of the three British 12" howitzers captured to the end of March 1918, two were railway and one was tractor; attached excerpt from OH Ministry of Munitions

I have found no evidence of British rail guns being captured before the German spring offensive.

265

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Here is another info from the book from Mr. Muther:

He writes, that in 1916/17 no captured 30,5 was in action, but three of them in autumn 1918

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It looks from the list above as if the British '10-cm-K' (4-inch? possibly Naval?) in 1916/17 were converted to 12,7 cm (5-inch/60-pr.?), and the 3 captured 12-inch look to be all railway guns ('E.' = Eisenbahn?).

Regards,

MikB

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Yes. umg. means "umgerüstet aus". That means the calibre had been changed from 12,7 into 10.

E is Eisenbahn, right

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Yes. umg. means "umgerüstet aus". That means the calibre had been changed from 12,7 into 10.

E is Eisenbahn, right

Sorry, I had it ar$e-about-face, of course. I'd thought 'umgebaut' and not registered the 'aus'.

Since - as far as I know - there was no standard 10 cm. gun in German-built WW1 inventory, I'm guessing they were converted to fire captured Russian 10 cm ammunition?

Regards,

MikB

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No, the 10cm is a fault. I´ve got another source, that says, the british 12,7cm L/41 was changed into german 10,5cm L/47.

See #14 "Schwere Flachfeuer-Geschütze"

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I'm glad that the evidence seems to be pointing increasingly towards the 12" railway howitzers having been captured during the Spring Offensive, when there would clearly have been opportunities that simply did not exist in 1917. Now we just need to nail down where and when.

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Today I can't do anything. Sitting at the local lake,drinking beer. ..

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No, the 10cm is a fault. I´ve got another source, that says, the british 12,7cm L/41 was changed into german 10,5cm L/47.

See #14 "Schwere Flachfeuer-Geschütze"

That's something I didn't know.

Do you know whether they used bagged charges and tubes to suit the 60-pr. screw breech, or modified it to use cased propellant?

Regards,

MikB

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That's something I didn't know.

Do you know whether they used bagged charges and tubes to suit the 60-pr. screw breech, or modified it to use cased propellant?

Regards,

MikB

No. Unfortunately I haven´t found anything in my books.

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Hello!

Please have a look here:

Captured british railway gun in Lys (France). But I think, it is a 305mm Mk I, isn´t it?

http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/dhm.php?seite=5&fld_0=BA163717

I also found a video, in which we see captured british guns (4:30)

http://www.filmportal.de/video/bilder-aus-der-grossen-schlacht-3-teil

Maybe the german recordings are wrong, and we talk about the 12" Mk I????????

By the way... here are a lot of videos about the Great War:

http://www.filmportal.de/videos?subject[]=689

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The 12" railway howitzers in the video compilation are the same two shown in the still photo posted earlier by Green Acorn. Until contradicted by authoritative evidence, I continue to think that they are Mk Vs and that the date is after March 1918.

Trust you had an enjoyable afternoon, drinking beer by the lake!

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The 12" railway howitzers in the video compilation are the same two shown in the still photo posted earlier by Green Acorn. Until contradicted by authoritative evidence, I continue to think that they are Mk Vs and that the date is after March 1918.

Mick,

I have to agree with you.

Hendo

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The 12" railway howitzers in the video compilation are the same two shown in the still photo posted earlier by Green Acorn. Until contradicted by authoritative evidence, I continue to think that they are Mk Vs and that the date is after March 1918.

Trust you had an enjoyable afternoon, drinking beer by the lake!

I will have a look in the german official recordings of 1918. Maybe the event is mentioned...

By the way: Greetings from the lake (the house is the "Villa Hügel" from the family Krupp)

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Andy,

You lucky b********, a pleasant day by the Baldeneysee.

Hendo

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YES! 1 mile from my home... Every single free minute I´m there...

The lake is well-known in Australia or did you google it?

Well, I´ve checked the artillery lists of the official recordings 1918.

None british gun is mentioned in the recorded battles:

Great battle of France march, 21

Armentières, april 9 and 10

Chemin des Dames and Reims, may 27

Noyon, june, 9

Marneschutz-Reims, july 15

Soissons and Reims, july 18

Somme and Avre, august 8

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Thanks for the photos, Andy. Interesting to see Villa Hügel too. History and beer go well together!

What we need at this point, I think, is a narrative account of the loss of the 12" rail guns from the British perspective.

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I don´t have any infos about that, sorry.

I only know, the battery 1025 was under command of the 2nd army, later 1st army

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Do you have more infos, Paul?

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