Photo Credit: National Archives
Mammoth 274mm railroad gun captured in the U.S. Seventh Army advance near Rentwertshausen, easily holds these 22 men lined up on the barrel. Although of an 1887 French design, the gun packs a powerful wallop. Photograph taken on April 10, 1945.
First used in the U.S. Civil War, railway guns continued to be used through World War II. Mammoth guns that could fire ammunition great distances, they were easily spotted and destroyed by aircraft, and therefore obsolete on the battlefield.