15 cm K (E)
Encyclopedia
The 15 cm Kanone in Eisenbahnlafette (gun on railroad mounting) (15 cm K (E)) was a German railroad gun used in the Second World War. It participated in the invasion of Belgium
in 1940, but spent most of the war on coast-defense duties.
. The gun was mounted on a simple pivot mount on a ballrace on a well-base flatcar with four outriggers. In action the outriggers and their jacks would be dropped to stabilize the gun and absorb the firing recoil. In addition jacks locked the spring suspension, bore on the surface of the rails and screw clamps gripped the rails for more stability. The elderly 15 cm Schnelladekanone L/40 was used because it was available in some numbers.
. They spent most of the war assigned to Artillery Battery (Artillerie-Batterie) 655 (E) in Belgium on coast-defense duties along the Channel
coast.
.
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
in 1940, but spent most of the war on coast-defense duties.
Design
This weapon was the first modern railroad gun to enter service with the HeerHeer (1935-1945)
The Heer was the Army land forces component of the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945, the latter also included the Navy and the Air Force...
. The gun was mounted on a simple pivot mount on a ballrace on a well-base flatcar with four outriggers. In action the outriggers and their jacks would be dropped to stabilize the gun and absorb the firing recoil. In addition jacks locked the spring suspension, bore on the surface of the rails and screw clamps gripped the rails for more stability. The elderly 15 cm Schnelladekanone L/40 was used because it was available in some numbers.
Ammunition
The standard high explosive shell was the 15 cm K Gr 18, a 43 kilograms (94.8 lb) nose-fuzed round containing 5.68 kilograms (12.5 lb) of TNT. An anti-concrete shell was also available, the 15 cm Gr 19 Be. It was a base-fuzed 43.5 kilograms (95.9 lb) shell with a TNT filler of 4.8 kilograms (10.6 lb), with a rounded sheet-steel ballistic cap. A base propellant charge was combined with three increments to form three standard loadings, Small Load (Kleine Ladung) with a muzzle velocity of 600 metres per second (1,968.5 ft/s), Medium (Mittelere) with a muzzle velocity of 725 metres per second (2,378.6 ft/s) and Large (Grosse) with a muzzle velocity of 805 metres per second (2,641.1 ft/s).Combat history
Two guns were damaged by premature detonations in their barrels on 20 May 1940 while bombarding LiègeLiège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
. They spent most of the war assigned to Artillery Battery (Artillerie-Batterie) 655 (E) in Belgium on coast-defense duties along the Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
coast.
Note
Sources are contradictory on the gun used and numbers produced of this weapon. The most recent source, François, has been generally been followed, not least because he cites serial numbers. Do not confuse this gun with those of Naval Artillery Battery (Marine-Artillerie-Batterie) "Gneisenau" that used a slightly more modern 15 cm SK L/45 gun with a gun shieldGun shield
thumb|A [[United States Marine Corps|U.S. Marine]] manning an [[M240 machine gun]] equipped with a gun shieldA gun shield is a flat piece or section of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun or artillery piece, or, more rarely, to be used with an assault rifle...
.