A side view of the 13.5-inch Railway Guns ready for loading. The design of this carriage was the last ever produced for a British railway gun, and was considered to be among the best ever produced anywhere, but only a few were produced in 1918 and none after that.
The story of the British 13.5-in railway guns began in 1916, when it was decided to mount 356-mm (14-in) naval gun barrels onto a new type of railway mounting to provide the British army in France with a really powerful long-range gun of the type the French army was just beginning to bring into service. The 356-mm (14-in) naval gun barrels came from a batch originally intended for export to Japan, and the first of these was mounted onto its carriage at the Elswick Works at Newcastle-upon-Tyne during late 1917. It was early 1918 before the first two equipments were sent to France, one named ‘Boche-Buster’ and the other ‘Scene- Shifter’, Once in France both did sterling work until the war ended.
Back in the United Kingdom during 1919 the two guns were sent off to store, ‘Scene-Shifter’ being hidden away at an ordnance depot at Chilworth minus its barrel, The same fate awaited the other two carriages that had been ordered, both of which were stored away without their intended barrels as soon as they were finished. There they remained until 1940 when the need for some form of counter bombardment gun was urgently needed in the Dover region to deal with the long-range batteries being constructed in the Pas de Calais area, The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, took a personal hand in the measures that provided a new role for the World War I gun carriages and he personally kept in touch with all stages of the guns’ return to service.
The 356-mm (14-in) guns that were originally intended for the carriages had been declared obsolete in 1926 and had subsequently been scrapped, Replacement barrels were sought and found, tucked away in Royal Navy stores, in the form of a number of 343- mm (13.5-in) guns taken from the old ‘lron Duke’ class of battleship. These barrels were in reasonable condition and their dimensions were such that they could be fitted into the 356-mm (14-in) railway carriages without too much trouble. Thus the conversions were made and the old carriages were provided with a thorough renovation and update.
The 343-mm (13.5-in) guns were manned by men from the Royal Marines Siege Regiment and the first of them, HMG (His Majesty’s Gun) ‘Scene-Shifter’ was ready in November 1940. Soon after it was joined by HMG ‘Piece-Maker’ and HMG ‘Gladiator’. Distributed along various railway lines in the hinterland of Dover, these three guns then went into action at times, firing the odd shell in the general area of the Pas de Calais. Unfortunately the fall of these shells could only rarely be observed so their effectiveness was often uncertain. The three guns also had an anti-invasion role as their considerable ranges enabled them to cover a considerable length of coastline, but thankfully they were never called upon to undertake that task.
In November 1943 the guns once more carne under army control and went into training for some possible task involved with the invasion of Europe. It was intended that they would follow up the invasion forces to knock out the Pas de Calais defences from the rear, but in the event they were not required, The war ended with the three guns still in the United Kingdom, and in 1947 they were finally declared obsolete and scrapped. Today nothing of them remains.
Specification
Precise calibre: 342.9 mm (13.5 in)
Length of barrel: 15.90 m (52 ft 2 in)
Weight complete: 244590 kg (539,920 lb)
Weight of shell: 567 kg (1,250 lb)
Range: 36,575 m (40,000 yards)
