As a child I was told the story of “the lost guns”. Two German guns that were the spoils of WW1 and would be placed in a fortified position approximately where now the Haringvliet dam is. During transport these guns sank away in the sand , not to be recovered.
As a child I have been looking in the dunes , searching for this guns, but all we found was a toppled over 3,7cm Flak gun, of which the breech was blown by the EOD to check if no cartridge was still in place.
Later on it appeared that the story about the gun had “faded” through the years. The guns were no WW1 German spoil of war, but much older 24cm IJ (Ijzer/Iron) guns, bought in 1875 by the dutch army from the Finspong company in Sweden.
Nine of these guns were placed on the fortress walls of Hellevoetsluis in 1880, facing the Haringvliet, being able to stop any ship that wanted to sail to Rotterdam.
The Guns have a 24cm calibre, shell weight is 150 kg, Vo 380 mtrs/sec and range of the guns was 3 km. The shells were Notch shells.
In 2007 the gun was finally found back in the dunes, and it was transported to Hellevoetsluis. Thanks to local investors, enough money was gathered to build a new gun cradle to original specifications, and to repair the concrete turntable the cradle rotates on.
Today it’s the only surviving gun of it's kind, brought back in it’s original state.
Regards, DJH
As a child I have been looking in the dunes , searching for this guns, but all we found was a toppled over 3,7cm Flak gun, of which the breech was blown by the EOD to check if no cartridge was still in place.
Later on it appeared that the story about the gun had “faded” through the years. The guns were no WW1 German spoil of war, but much older 24cm IJ (Ijzer/Iron) guns, bought in 1875 by the dutch army from the Finspong company in Sweden.
Nine of these guns were placed on the fortress walls of Hellevoetsluis in 1880, facing the Haringvliet, being able to stop any ship that wanted to sail to Rotterdam.
The Guns have a 24cm calibre, shell weight is 150 kg, Vo 380 mtrs/sec and range of the guns was 3 km. The shells were Notch shells.
In 2007 the gun was finally found back in the dunes, and it was transported to Hellevoetsluis. Thanks to local investors, enough money was gathered to build a new gun cradle to original specifications, and to repair the concrete turntable the cradle rotates on.
Today it’s the only surviving gun of it's kind, brought back in it’s original state.
Regards, DJH
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