BruceV8
Active Member
One of my pet subjects is Super Heavy artillery guns and ammunition. This all came about when I was posted to Folkestone and began to read up on the local military history. It wasn't long before I came across the big cross channel guns and the other coastal defence guns and this got me thinking. In the end I did a far bit of research and produced a service paper on the subject, but I can't have covered everything.
The furthest inland shell strikes were reported was Maidstone and near Chatham - some 55 miles from the firing points near Calais. These were 21 cm shells from the K12 railway guns. Dover town alone was subjected to 2226 reported shell strikes but, to my knowledge, there has never been a report of an unexploded shell being found. But all ammunition, regardless of size, has a failure rate and if only 1% of those shells failed to function (and that would be a very low failure rate) then there must be at least 22 unexploded shells under Dover.
Of course a shell weighing 500 - 1000 kg arriving at a steep angle and high velocity is likely to bury itself leaving a large splash crater if on open ground or demolishing any building in its path. So its quite possible that some of those reported shell explosions were actually blinds impacting.
So - do any BOCN members have any super heavy gun or ammunition items in their collections? And have those involved in EOD/EOC ever come across large shells? The British definition of 'Super Heavy' is 9.2 in and above, but I also include German 21 cm shells (at 8.2 in) because of the massive range they achieved. For the record I recovered two inert 18 inch railway gun shells from Shoeburyness in 2000 and these are on display at the EOD Troop at Shorncliffe (Folkestone).
The furthest inland shell strikes were reported was Maidstone and near Chatham - some 55 miles from the firing points near Calais. These were 21 cm shells from the K12 railway guns. Dover town alone was subjected to 2226 reported shell strikes but, to my knowledge, there has never been a report of an unexploded shell being found. But all ammunition, regardless of size, has a failure rate and if only 1% of those shells failed to function (and that would be a very low failure rate) then there must be at least 22 unexploded shells under Dover.
Of course a shell weighing 500 - 1000 kg arriving at a steep angle and high velocity is likely to bury itself leaving a large splash crater if on open ground or demolishing any building in its path. So its quite possible that some of those reported shell explosions were actually blinds impacting.
So - do any BOCN members have any super heavy gun or ammunition items in their collections? And have those involved in EOD/EOC ever come across large shells? The British definition of 'Super Heavy' is 9.2 in and above, but I also include German 21 cm shells (at 8.2 in) because of the massive range they achieved. For the record I recovered two inert 18 inch railway gun shells from Shoeburyness in 2000 and these are on display at the EOD Troop at Shorncliffe (Folkestone).