Re: The guns are neat, but look at that stack...

John West Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> be converted to 42" gauge. Apparently the
> Philippine guns were actually deployed to counter
> the Japanese invasion, but most were destroyed
> enroute by air attack.

Because the USAAF in the Philippines was caught on the ground and destroyed, 12 HOURS after the attack on Pearl Harbor, so they had no air cover. the destruction at Clark Field was arguably a greater blow to the US/allied war effort than Pearl. With no air cover the Asiatic fleet had to scurry south (why the PT boats became so famous, they really were expendable) and with no air or navel support the ground forces never had a chance. Also the US could do nothing to impede the movement past the Philippines of Japanese forces bound for Malaya and Indonesia.


> The only situation that seems to get much
> historical note was the German use of a railway
> mounted big gun to shell Paris in the First World
> War, but the value seems to have been more
> psychological than real.
>

the Germans also used them to shell the Dover area from Calais in 1940-41, gets lost in the Battle of Britain. Would have been more important if Hitler had actually mounted the invasion of England (Operation Seawolf, IIRC) instead of attacking the USSR in '41.
hank