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82-574: Mirs Bay, along with other waterways near Hong Kong, was once was home to various coastal defences (e.g. Dapeng Fortress ) used against pirates during the Ming Dynasty . Mirs Bay was used by then American Commodore (later Admiral ) George Washington Dewey during the Spanish–American War as a refuge and repair facility for the US Navy . In 1949, the colonial government imposed

164-611: A railroad gun , is a large artillery piece, often surplus naval artillery , mounted on, transported by, and fired from a specially designed railway wagon . Many countries have built railway guns, but the best-known are the large Krupp -built pieces used by Germany in World War I and World War II . Smaller guns were often part of an armoured train . They were only able to be moved where there were good tracks, which could be destroyed by artillery bombardment or airstrike. Railway guns were phased out after World War II. The design of

246-586: A 120 mm (4.7 in) gun intended for coastal defense, selling some to the Danish government in the 1890s. They also designed a 200 mm (7.9 in) model the Obusier de 200 "Pérou" sur affût-truck TAZ Schneider for Peru in 1910, but they were never delivered. The United Kingdom mounted a few 4.7 in (120 mm) guns on railway cars which saw action during the Siege and Relief of Ladysmith during

328-414: A concrete pontoon barge on which stood two cylindrical towers on top of which was the gun platform mounting. They were laid down in dry dock and assembled as complete units. They were then fitted out before being towed out and sunk onto their sand bank positions in 1942. The other type consisted of seven interconnected steel platforms built on stilts. Five platforms carried guns arranged in a semicircle around

410-601: A critical component of the defence, and smaller guns were also employed to protect the mine fields from minesweeping vessels . Defences of a given harbor were initially designated artillery districts, redesignated as coast defense commands in 1913 and as harbor defense commands in 1924. In 1901 the Artillery Corps was divided into field artillery and coast artillery units, and in 1907 the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps

492-718: A curfew under the Public Order Ordinance forbidding movement of watercraft in Mirs Bay between 10 PM and 6 AM without written permission of the Hong Kong Police Force . The order remains in force after the 1997 handover of Hong Kong . For purposes of the order, the dividing line between Tolo Channel and Mirs Bay runs from Wong Chuk Kok Tsui to Ngo Keng Tsui ( 鵝頸咀 ; 22°27′47″N 114°18′08″E  /  22.4629544°N 114.3022423°E  / 22.4629544; 114.3022423 ). Within

574-462: A curved section of track or on a turntable with no provision to traverse the gun on its mount. The second is to traverse the rail car body on its trucks, known as a car-traversing mount . Generally this is limited to a few degrees of traverse to either side unless an elaborate foundation is built with a centre pivot and traversing rollers. The design of the foundation is the only limit to the amount of traverse allowed in this latter case. The third choice

656-427: A curved section of track or turntable. The American post–World War I assessment of railway artillery praised its ruggedness, ease of manufacture and convenience in service, but acknowledged its unsuitability for smaller guns, due to excessive time of operation and lack of traverse, and that it was not suitable for the largest howitzers firing at high angles because of the enormous trunnion forces. With rolling recoil

738-632: A locomotive over the Richmond and York River line (later part of the Southern Railway ) and used at the Battle of Savage's Station to interfere with General George McClellan 's plans for siege operations against Richmond during the Union advance up the peninsula. Photographic evidence exists of at least one Union 13-inch siege mortar mounted on a rail car during the Siege of Petersburg . It

820-507: A long story, none of these weapons were shipped to France except three 8-inch guns, as few of any type were completed before the Armistice. Forty-seven 8-inch railway guns were ordered, with 18 completed by the Armistice and a total of 37 (or 47, references vary) completed before the contract was canceled. Eight 10-inch railway mounts of 54 ordered were completed by the Armistice, and twelve 12-inch railway mounts were completed by 1 April 1919;

902-573: A machine-shop car, a spare parts car, a berthing car, a kitchen car, a commissary car, and a medical dispensary car. After delivery by ship, these trains were assembled in St. Nazaire in August and fired a total of 782 shells during 25 days on the Western Front at ranges between 27 and 36 kilometres (30,000 and 39,000 yd). Each 14-inch (36 cm) projectile weighed 1,400 pounds (640 kg) and

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984-416: A protected harbor's defences. In the middle 19th century underwater minefields and later controlled mines were often used, or stored in peacetime to be available in wartime. With the rise of the submarine threat at the beginning of the 20th century, anti-submarine nets were used extensively, usually added to boom defences, with major warships often being equipped with them (to allow rapid deployment once

1066-409: A railway gun has three firing issues over and above those of an ordinary artillery piece to consider. Namely how the gun is going to be traversed – i.e. moved from side to side to aim; how the horizontal component of the recoil force will be absorbed by the gun's carriage and how the vertical recoil force will be absorbed by the ground. The first method of traverse is to rely entirely on movement along

1148-598: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Coastal defense and fortification#China Coastal defence (or defense ) and coastal fortification are measures taken to provide protection against military attack at or near a coastline (or other shoreline ), for example, fortifications and coastal artillery . Because an invading enemy normally requires a port or harbour to sustain operations, such defences are usually concentrated around such facilities, or places where such facilities could be constructed. Coastal artillery fortifications generally followed

1230-521: Is on a built-up island, 400 meters (1,312 ft) from the shore, and connected to it by a causeway that high tide completely submerses. The most elaborate sea fort is Murud-Janjira , which is so extensive that one might truly call it a sea fortress. The most recent sea forts were the Maunsell Forts , which the British built during World War II as anti-aircraft platforms. One type consisted of

1312-522: Is returned to battery, or the firing position, by either helical springs or by air in a pneumatic recuperator cylinder that is compressed by the force of recoil. This is the most common method used for lighter railway guns and for virtually all field artillery designed after the French introduced their Canon de 75 modèle 1897 . Top-carriage recoil is the situation in which the gun is mounted in an upper carriage that moves on wheels on fixed rails mounted on

1394-517: Is to allow the separate gun mount to rotate with respect to the rail car body, known as a top-carriage traversing mount . This usually requires the gun to be mounted on a central pivot which, in turn, is mounted on the car body. With few exceptions these types of mounts require some number of outriggers, stabilisers, or earth anchors to keep them in place against the recoil forces and are generally more suitable for smaller guns. The American post– World War I assessment of railway artillery considered that

1476-440: The 14 and 12 inch railway guns from Great Britain. Only the oldest weapons used a combination of top-cradle and sliding recoil. One example being the earliest mounts for the British designed BL 9.2 inch Railway Gun . The combination of rolling and cradle-recoil methods absorbed both the horizontal and vertical components of the recoil force and needed no special preparations, but all other types required some method to transmit

1558-542: The Endicott Board , whose recommendations would lead to a large-scale modernization programme of harbour and coastal defences in the United States, especially the construction of well dispersed, open topped reinforced concrete emplacements protected by sloped earthworks. Many of these featured disappearing guns , which sat protected behind the walls, but could be raised to fire. Underwater mine fields were

1640-707: The First World War the British Admiralty designed eight towers code named M-N that were to be built and positioned in the Straits of Dover to protect allied merchant shipping from German U-boats . Nab Tower is still in situ. The Maunsell Forts were small fortified towers, primarily for anti-aircraft guns, built in the Thames and Mersey estuaries during the Second World War . With

1722-700: The Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence . This tells the story of coastal defence along the South China coast from the Ming dynasty onwards. Taiwan has several coastal fortifications, with some, such as Fort Zeelandia or Anping Castle dating to the time of the Dutch East India Company . Others, such as Cihou Fort , Eternal Golden Castle , Hobe Fort , date more to the end of the 19th century. The Uhrshawan Battery dates primarily to

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1804-556: The Obusier de 520 modèle 1916 , a 20-inch (520 mm) railway "Fort Buster" to do what the German 16.53-inch Big Bertha had done at the outbreak of World War I and reduce the German forts in the final line of German defenses. One was destroyed in trials and the other did not complete firing trials prior to the signing of the Armistice. The gun remained in storage and was captured by the Germans during World War II. It later formed part of

1886-549: The Panama Canal Zone where they could be shifted from one ocean to the other in less than a day. Improved carriages were designed to allow their transportation to several fixed firing emplacements including concrete foundations where the railway trucks were withdrawn so the gun could be rapidly traversed (swiveled horizontally) to engage moving ship targets. After the American entry into World War I on 6 April 1917,

1968-578: The Second Boer War . A 9.2 inch gun was taken from the Cape Town coast defences and mounted on a rail car to support the British assault on Boer defenses at Belfast , north-east of Johannesburg , but the battle ended before it could get into action. The outbreak of the First World War caught the French with a shortage of heavy field artillery . In compensation, large numbers of large static coastal defense guns and naval guns were moved to

2050-518: The U.S. Army recognized the need to adopt railway artillery for use on the Western Front. No US railway guns existed at that time. Due to low production and shipping priorities, the Army's railway gun contribution on the Western Front consisted of four U.S. Coast Artillery regiments armed with French-made weapons. Three additional railway gun regiments were in France, but did not complete training prior to

2132-528: The U.S. Coast Guard would patrol the shores of the United States during the war. Some patrolled on horseback with mounted beach patrols. On 13 June 1942 Seaman 2nd Class John Cullen, patrolling the beach in Amagansett, New York , discovered the first landing of German saboteurs in Operation Pastorius . Cullen was the first American who actually came in contact with the enemy on the shores of

2214-673: The gun turrets and searchlights . The defence of its coasts was a major concern for the United States from its independence. Prior to the American Revolution many coastal fortifications already dotted the Atlantic coast, as protection from pirate raids and foreign incursions. The Revolutionary War led to the construction of many additional fortifications, mostly comprising simple earthworks erected to meet specific threats. The prospect of war with European powers in

2296-555: The 12-inch contract was cancelled at that point. At least some of the 10-inch gun barrels were shipped to France and mounted on French-made carriages, but sources do not indicate any use of them in combat. Three railway mountings for the Chilean 12-inch guns were ready for shipment by the Armistice, and the remaining three barrels were kept as spares. A total of twenty-two 10-inch guns were eventually mounted. Ninety-one 12-inch railway mortars were ordered, with 45 complete by 7 April 1919 and

2378-574: The 1790s led to a national programme of fortification building spanning seventy years in three phases, known as the First, Second and Third Systems. By the time of the American Civil War , advances in armour and weapons had made masonry forts obsolete, and the combatants discovered that their steamships and ironclad warships could penetrate Third System defences with acceptable losses. In 1885 US President Grover Cleveland appointed

2460-640: The 1860 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom , following concerns about the strength of the French Navy. In 1865 Lieutenant Arthur Campbell Walker , of the School of Musketry advocated the use of armoured trains on "an iron high-road running parallel with that other 'silent highway', the source of all our greatness, the ocean, our time-honoured 'moat and circumvallation'" During

2542-545: The Armistice, and they did not see action. Other Coast Artillery units also operated various types of French-, British-, and American-made heavy artillery. The Army also converted some of the numerous coast artillery weapons to railway mounts. A total of 96 8-inch guns (including some from Navy spares), 129 10-inch guns, 45 12-inch guns , and 150 12-inch mortars could be spared from fixed coast defense batteries or spare stocks. Twelve 7-inch ex-Navy guns and six 12-inch guns being built for Chile were also available. To shorten

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2624-608: The Castrum Maris as Fort Saint Angelo . In the 1550s, Fort Saint Elmo and Fort Saint Michael were built, and walls surrounded the coastal cities of Birgu and Senglea . In 1565, the Great Siege of Malta reduced many of these coastal fortifications to rubble, but after the siege they were rebuilt. The fortified city of Valletta was built on the Sciberras Peninsula, and further modifications were made to

2706-644: The English Channel in the areas around Dover and Calais . The Wehrmacht deployed three 40.6-cm (16-inch) guns. The British Army deployed three 13.5-inch (34.3-cm) railway guns on the East Kent Light Railway , locating them around Lydden and Shepherdswell. These were codenamed the "Gladiator", the "Sceneshifter", and the "Peacemaker". 9.2-inch Mark 13 guns were located near Canterbury and Hythe , Kent; and 12-inch howitzers, Mk 3 and 5 , located around Guston, north of Dover on

2788-475: The French 240 mm Canon de Mle 1893/96 M used struts. The other method is build a firing position and recoil pit (épi de tir in French) underneath the tracks, using either heavy timbers like the French 340 mm (13 in) and 400 mm (16 in) howitzers or an elaborate concrete or steel base. These latter were mostly used by the Germans for the 21 cm (8.3 in) and larger railway guns and by

2870-501: The French for their Batignollesmounts . Generally, for these emplacements the rails merely served to guide the gun into position and the gun was often mounted on a central pivot to allow up to 360° of traverse. The primary drawback of these positions was the lengthy time to build them. The idea of railway guns was first suggested in Russia in 1847 by Gustav Kori (proposal), followed by Ye. Repin (project, 1855), Pyotr Lebedev (who outlined

2952-536: The German artillery complement during the Siege of Leningrad . The gun was disabled by a premature detonation and later abandoned. Baldwin Locomotive Works delivered five 14"/50 caliber railway guns on trains for the United States Navy during April and May 1918. Each 14"/50 gun mounted on a 72-foot (22 m), 535,000-pound (243 t) rail carriage with four 6-wheel bogies was under

3034-593: The Pacific coast. In 1939–40 the threat of war in Europe prompted larger appropriations and the resumption of work along the Atlantic coast. Under a major program developed in the wake of the Fall of France in 1940, a near-total replacement of previous coast defenses was implemented, centered on 16-inch guns in new casemated batteries. These were supplemented by 6-inch and 90 mm guns , also in new installations. In WW2

3116-624: The Southern Railway line to Deal and Ramsgate. The 18-inch howitzer "Boche Buster" was sited on the Elham Valley Railway , between Bridge, Kent, and Lyminge, and was intended for coastal defense against invasion. It was not capable of cross-channel firing, having a maximum range of only about 20 km (12 miles). The IJA (Imperial Japanese Army) employed one railway gun, the Type 90 240 mm railway gun , which served as

3198-659: The Spanish founded the "city-fort" of Ancud in 1768 and separated Chiloé from the Captaincy General of Chile into a direct dependency of the Viceroyalty of Peru. China first established formal coastal defences during the early Ming dynasty (14th century) to protect against attacks by pirates ( wokou ). Coastal defences were maintained through both the Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty that followed, protecting

3280-478: The United States during the war and his report led to the capture of the German sabotage team. For this, Cullen received the Legion of Merit . The walls around coastal cities, such as Southampton , had evolved from simpler Norman fortifications by the start of the 13th century. Later, King Edward I was a prolific castle builder and sites such as Conwy Castle , built 1283 to 1289, defend river approaches as well as

3362-414: The advent of missile technology coastal forts became obsolete. Britain's coastal forts were therefore decommissioned in 1956 and the units manning them disbanded. Russia Federation developed A-222E Bereg-E 130mm coastal mobile artillery system , K-300P Bastion-P coastal defence system and Bal-E coastal missile complex with Kh-35 /Kh-35E missiles. Railway artillery A railway gun , also called

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3444-521: The bay are numerous smaller harbors and inlets on the Hong Kong side: The bay includes a number of islands, with an extensive group lying in the northwestern part of the bay, including: To the south of Mirs Bay, water flows out to the South China Sea . 22°34′N 114°22′E  /  22.567°N 114.367°E  / 22.567; 114.367 This Hong Kong location article

3526-400: The beach assault of modern amphibious operations , seaborne assaults of the classical and medieval age more often took the form of coastal raiders sailing up river and landing well inland of the coast. Prior to the invention of naval artillery that could sink hostile ships, the most that coastal defence could do was act as an early warning system, that could alert local naval or ground forces of

3608-469: The claim that it is a photo of the Confederate gun from 1862 dubious. France also used improvised railway guns during the Siege of Paris (1870–1871) . In France, Lt. Col Peigné is often credited with designing the first railway gun in 1883. Commandant Mougin is credited with putting guns on rail cars in 1870. The French arms maker Schneider offered a number of models in the late 1880s and produced

3690-713: The coast against pirates, and against the Portuguese and other European powers that sought to impose their will on China. Subsequently, the European powers built their own coastal defences to protect the various colonial enclaves that they established along the Chinese coast. One such, a fort built by the British commanding the Lei Yue Mun channel between Hong Kong Island and the mainland, has been converted into

3772-471: The coast, sea forts are not. Instead, they are off the coast on islands, artificial islands , or are specially built structures. Some sea forts, such as Fort Denison or Fort Sumter , are within harbours in proximity to the coast, but most are at some distance off the coast. Some, such as for example Bréhon Tower or Fort Drum completely occupy small islands; others, such as Flakfortet and Pampus , are on artificial islands built up on shoals. Fort Louvois

3854-579: The coastline. The first of these was Sliema Point Battery , built to protect the northern approach to the Grand Harbour. A chain of fortifications, including Fort Delimara and Fort Benghisa , was also built to protect Marsaxlokk Harbour. From 1935 to the 1940s, the British built many pillboxes in Malta for defence in case of an Italian invasion. The coastline of New Zealand was fortified in two main waves. The first wave occurred around 1885 and

3936-546: The coasts of Malta and Gozo. Many of these have been destroyed, but a few examples still survive. After the British took Malta in 1800, they modified the Order's defences in the harbour area to keep up with new technology. Malta itself, Gibraltar , Bermuda , and Halifax, Nova Scotia were designated Imperial fortresses . The Corradino Lines were built in the 1870s to protect the Grand Harbour from landward attacks. Between 1872 and 1912, many forts and batteries were built around

4018-439: The command of a United States Navy lieutenant with a standard U.S. Army 2-8-0 locomotive , a 10-ton crane car, two armored ammunition cars carrying 25 shells each, two cars carrying the recoil pit foundation materials, two fuel and workshop cars, three berthing cars , a kitchen car, a commissary car , and a medical dispensary car. A sixth locomotive pulled a headquarters car for Rear Admiral Charles Peshall Plunkett , with

4100-641: The construction of the Valdivian Fort System that begun in 1645. As consequence of the Seven Years' War the Valdivian Fort System was updated and reinforced from 1764 onwards. Other vulnerable localities of colonial Chile such as Chiloé Archipelago , Concepción , Juan Fernández Islands and Valparaíso were also made ready for an eventual English attack. Inspired in the recommendations of former governor Santa María

4182-489: The development of land fortifications, usually incorporating land defences; sometimes separate land defence forts were built to protect coastal forts. Through the middle 19th century, coastal forts could be bastion forts , star forts , polygonal forts , or sea forts, the first three types often with detached gun batteries called "water batteries". Coastal defence weapons throughout history were heavy naval guns or weapons based on them, often supplemented by lighter weapons. In

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4264-583: The early 17th century, the Order began to strengthen the coastal fortifications outside the harbour area, by building watchtowers . The first of these was Garzes Tower , which was built in 1605. The Wignacourt , Lascaris and De Redin towers were built over the course of the 17th century. The last coastal watchtower to be built was Isopu Tower in 1667. Between 1605 and 1667, a total of 31 towers were built, of which 22 survive today (with another 3 in ruins). From 1714 onwards, about 52 batteries and redoubts , along with several entrenchments, were built around

4346-434: The entire gun, mount, and carriage rolls backward, typically between 30 and 50 feet (9.1 and 15.2 m), restrained only by the brakes. The mount was winched back into firing position by cables fastened to the track. This system was usually combined with cradle recoil because the springs of the trucks cannot withstand the vertical component of the recoil force alone. This type of mount was usually fitted with car-traverse. It

4428-720: The first half of the 19th century. It actually underwent bombardment during the Sino-French War . The islands of Malta , Gozo and Comino all have some form of coastal fortification. The area around the Grand Harbour was possibly first fortified during Arab rule, and by the 13th century, a castle known as the Castrum Maris was built in Birgu to protect the harbour. The Maltese islands were given to Order of Saint John in 1530, who settled in Birgu and rebuilt

4510-578: The fortifications over the years. The harbour area was strengthened even more by the building of the Floriana Lines , Santa Margherita Lines , Cottonera Lines and Fort Ricasoli in the 17th century and Fort Manoel and Fort Tigné in the nearby Marsamxett Harbour in the 18th century. The Order also built Fort Chambray near Mġarr Harbour in Gozo. In the early 15th century, a number of watch posts had been established around Malta's coastline. In

4592-480: The front, but these were typically unsuitable for field use and required some kind of mounting. The railway gun provided the obvious solution. By 1916, both sides were deploying numerous types of railway guns. During the First World War France produced more railway guns in more calibers and with different mountings than everyone else combined. The largest French gun produce by Schneider of France

4674-424: The girders absorbing the recoil force after moving only about 1 to 2 metres (3.3 to 6.6 ft) to the rear. The sleepers must be jacked up again to allow the gun to roll forward to its firing position. This was often done by handwheels driving gear trains attached to the wheels, or even by electric motors on more modern mounts. Almost all of these type of mounts were of the non-traversing type and had to be fired from

4756-618: The impending attack. For example, in the late Roman period the Saxon Shore was a system of forts at the mouths of navigable rivers, and watch towers along the coast of Britannia and Gaul . Later in Anglo-Saxon Wessex , protection against Viking raiders took the form of coast watchers whose duty was to alert the local militia, the navy, which would attempt to intercept the raider's ships, or failing that, to destroy them after they had beached. Against smaller raiding forces,

4838-400: The late 19th century separate batteries of coastal artillery replaced forts in some countries; in some areas these became widely separated geographically through the mid-20th century as weapon ranges increased. The amount of landward defence provided began to vary by country from the late 19th century; by 1900 new US forts almost totally neglected these defences. Booms were also usually part of

4920-400: The lower. The gun and upper carriage recoil together, restrained by the usual hydraulic buffers. Return to battery is effected either by gravity, through the use of inclined rails, which the gun and carriage have run up, by springs, or even by rubber bands, on some improvised mounts. It is not well-suited to firing at steep upward angles because it cannot absorb much of the vertical component of

5002-472: The more than 250 railway guns built in the United States from 1916 to 1942, the five navy 14"/50 guns that were sent to France during World War I and possibly two 8-inch guns in the Philippines were the only ones ever to be used in combat. Reportedly, the eight 8-inch railway guns in the Philippines in 1941–42 were either destroyed by air attack or lacked trained crews. World War II saw the final use of

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5084-631: The railway carriage at Corregidor ), Bermuda , Newfoundland , Puget Sound , Chesapeake Bay , Delaware Bay , and Fort Hancock, New Jersey (near New York City ). Although numerous 12-inch railway mortars were available, few were deployed. In 1930 the US Army tested them at Fort Hancock, New Jersey , and Fort Miles , Delaware . During World War II, four railway mortars were among the temporary harbor defenses of Grays Harbor , Washington state , and emplacements for an additional four at Cape George, Washington , were constructed, but never armed. Of

5166-513: The railway gun, with the massive 80 cm (31 in) Schwerer Gustav gun, the largest artillery piece to be used in combat, deployed by Nazi Germany . After the Fall of France Germany added 58 captured French guns to its inventory while Italy was given 19 French guns with many of these being captured by the Germans after the Italian capitulation . Both Nazi Germany and Great Britain deployed railway guns that were capable of firing across

5248-411: The recoil force. Sliding recoil has the car body sitting on a set of wooden crossbeams or "sleepers" placed underneath it which have been jacked down on to a special set of girders incorporated into the track so that about half the weight of the mount has been transferred to them from the trucks . The gun, car body and trucks all recoil together with the friction generated by the crossbeams sliding on

5330-485: The remainder eventually completed. The 7-inch and 8-inch guns and 12-inch mortars used a common carriage, with a depressed center and two 4-wheel or 6-wheel bogies. The bogies were interchangeable for standard-gauge or (with 12-wheel bogies) 60-cm (23.6-inch) gauge track. Outriggers and a rotating mount allowed all-around fire. This allowed the weapons to be used in coast defense against moving targets. The 8-inch guns and 12-inch mortars were kept on railway mountings after

5412-442: The ship was anchored or moored) through early World War I. In World War I railway artillery emerged and soon became part of coastal artillery in some countries; with railway artillery in coast defence some type of revolving mount had to be provided to allow tracking of fast-moving targets. In littoral warfare , coastal defence counteracts naval offence, such as naval artillery , naval infantry ( marines ), or both. Rather than

5494-410: The sixth platform, which contained the control centre and accommodation. The seventh platform, set further out than the gun towers, was the searchlight tower. In Colonial times the Spanish Empire diverted significant resources to fortify the Chilean coast as consequence of Dutch and English raids. The Dutch occupation of Valdivia in 1643 caused great alarm among Spanish authorities and triggered

5576-406: The surrounding land. Built 1539 to 1544, the Device Forts are a series of artillery fortifications built for Henry VIII to defend the southern coast of England. Between 1804 and 1812 the British authorities built a chain of towers known as Martello Towers to defend the south and east coast of England , Ireland, Jersey and Guernsey against possible invasion from France . This type of tower

5658-399: The theoretical foundations of the railway artillery in Primeneniye Zheleznykh Dorog k Zashite Materika , 1857) and P. Fomin (developed a project of a large-caliber cannon, 1860). The first railway gun used in combat was a banded 32-pounder Brooke naval rifle mounted on a flat car and shielded by a sloping casemate of railroad iron . On 29 June 1862, Robert E. Lee had the gun pushed by

5740-470: The threat of losing their ships, and their way home with their loot, was often enough to force them to curtail their attack. In addition there was a system of fortified towns , burghs , that were positioned at choke points along navigable rivers to prevent raiders from sailing inland. Sea forts are completely surrounded by water – if not permanently, then at least at high tide (i.e. they are tidal islands ). Unlike most coastal fortifications, which are on

5822-416: The track trained the gun on different targets along the Confederate lines. The Dictator silenced the Confederate guns on Chesterfield Heights to prevent them from enfilading the right end of the Union line. Another photo exists of a gun mounted on an armoured rail car with the caption of "Railway battery used in siege of Petersburg" although no textual evidence survives in support of the caption, which makes

5904-435: The utility of even a small amount of traverse for fine adjustments was high enough that either of the two latter traversing methods is preferable to a fixed mount. There are four primary methods to absorb the recoil force for railway guns: cradle recoil , top-carriage recoil , sliding recoil and rolling recoil . Cradle recoil means that the gun recoils backward in its cradle, slowed and stopped by hydraulic buffers. It

5986-478: The vertical force to the ground. One way is to build a platform on either the ties or the ground with girders, beams, pads or floats. The horizontal component would be alleviated by either sliding recoil or rail clamps, guys or struts to secure the mount in place. The French Schneider 194 mm (7.6 in) and 240 mm (9.4 in) mounts and the British 9.2 inch guns and 12 inch howitzers used rail clamps or guys. The American 8 in (200 mm) gun and

6068-435: The war, while almost all of the 7-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch guns were returned to the coastal forts. With 47 available, plus an additional 24 ex-Navy Mark VI guns on railway mounts by 1942, the 8-inch guns were the most-commonly-deployed American railway gun through World War II. About 12 of these were used for the defense of Oahu , Hawaii . Others were stationed for the coastal defense of Manila (eventually dismounted from

6150-663: Was 50,330 pounds (22.83 t) while French railways were designed for a maximum of 39,000 pounds (18 t). These axle journals overheated at speeds of more than 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) per hour. After reaching its intended firing site and constructing the recoil pit, each gun could fire about two shells per hour. One of these guns was retained after the War as an ammunition test gun at the Dahlgren Weapons Laboratory until all United States battleships with 14"/50 guns were scrapped shortly after World War II. The gun

6232-585: Was a response to fears of an attack by Russia . The second wave occurred during World War II and was due to fears of invasion by the Japanese . The fortifications were built from British designs adapted to New Zealand conditions. These installations typically included gun emplacements, pill boxes, fire command or observation posts , camouflage strategies, underground bunkers , sometimes with interconnected tunnels, containing magazines , supply and plotting rooms and protected engine rooms supplying power to

6314-724: Was also used elsewhere in the British Empire and in the United States. In the early Victorian era, Alderney was strongly fortified to provide a massive anchorage for the British Navy before France became an ally of Britain in the Crimean War , even so plans changed slowly and the Palmerston Forts , a group of forts and associated structures were built during the Victorian period on the recommendations of

6396-435: Was created to operate these defences. The development of military aviation rendered these open topped emplacements vulnerable to air attack. Therefore, the next, and last, generation of coastal artillery was mounted under thick concrete shields covered with vegetation to make them virtually invisible from above. In anticipation of a conflict with Japan , most of the limited funds available between 1933 and 1938 were spent on

6478-401: Was fired at 2,800 feet (850 m) per second. The railway carriages could elevate the guns to 43 degrees, but elevations over 15 degrees required excavation of a pit with room for the gun to recoil and structural steel shoring foundations to prevent caving of the pit sides from recoil forces absorbed by the surrounding soil. The trains moved cautiously because axle loading under the gun barrels

6560-587: Was nicknamed the Dictator or the Petersburg Express . When it was first fired, the recoil destroyed the flatcar on which it was mounted. A flatcar strengthened by additional beams covered by iron plate was able to resist recoil damage from a full charge. The Dictator was then fired from a section of the Petersburg and City Point Railroad where moving the strengthened flatcar along a curve in

6642-609: Was then placed on display outside the U.S. Navy Museum at the Washington Navy Yard . Baldwin constructed six similar gun carriages and two of an improved Mk II type designed to permit firing the gun at all elevation angles without transferring weight to a separate foundation. These eight guns were completed too late to see combat, and were designated the 14-inch M1920 railway guns . Some were later stationed through World War II in special coast defense installations at San Pedro, California , (near Los Angeles ) and in

6724-443: Was unsuitable for smaller guns due to the lack of traverse. The great advantage of this method is that it requires minimal preparation and can fire from any suitable section of curved track. The methods were often used in combination with each other. Examples include the French 520 mm (20 in) railway howitzer which used cradle-sliding recoil. The American 14"/50 caliber railway gun Mark II used cradle-rolling recoil as did

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