German Rail Gun

[boltaction]

So that's where the idea of the Imperial Walkers in Star Wars came from!

As the post in earlier this page states, these are indeed white elephants but when you consider they were purpose built it makes more sense. These two behemoths were designed and built solely for the purpose of trashing the French Maginot Line. However, the German surprise attack through the Ardennes and French lack of organization meant the MAginot Line fell rapidly, and from behind as I recall, so the guns were never needed to break a "siege". Remember most wars are fought based on the previous one, and in the 1930's the assumption was that a war between France and Germany would risk becoming another bloody useless stalemate, so the equipment was designed on that assumption. Once France fell, other uses had to be dreamt up, and these guns did a fine job (or Gustav anyway) hammering Leningrad. Ludicrously large siege pieces, yes, but then, how much of military equipment and design is ludicrous anyway?

Ed