artillery Archives - Mechtraveller

French Siege Mortar Models

Alastair — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 12:21:39 +0000

This is a set of 1/5th scale French siege mortars from the 19th century. They are in the 1,000-piece collection of artillery models at the Musée de l’Armée – Invalides in Paris. Models like this were made for a number of reasons; as royal gifts, as design and development models for armourers and soldiers, and […]

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La Forteresse de Mimoyecques V3 Museum, Pas-de-Calais

Alastair — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 15:22:33 +0000

The huge World War II underground site in a clay quarry at Mimoyecques was the secret location intended for several batteries of German ultra long range superguns, Hitler’s V3 weapon, aimed at London. The V-Weapon Programme The Third Reich’s propaganda ministry first mentioned a sinister programme of Vergeltungs-Waffen (retaliation weapons) in June 1944, as the […]

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155mm Gun M1A1 ‘Long Tom’

Alastair — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 13:26:36 +0000

This impressive howitzer was designed for the US Army in the inter-war years to fill a requirement for a modern long-range field-artillery piece. Its development was a little sluggish. The first model was produced in 1920, but it wasn’t until 1940 that the bugs were ironed out and it was put into service. It first […]

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The Hercules Cannon

Alastair — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 12:22:05 +0000

This giant cannon was cast by the Flemish master gunmaker Remy de Halut* at his foundry in Mechelen, in 1547. The Hercules cannon (El Cañón Hercules) is an extra long culverin – a ‘Royal or Double culverin’ – designed for long range destruction. Its 4.17m (13½ ft) barrel could probably hurl a 175mm (6″) cannonball […]

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Review: Museum of the Atlantic Wall, Pas de Calais

Alastair — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 10:16:57 +0000

The Museum of the Atlantic Wall, aka ‘Batterie Todt’, is all about the big guns! Not only was the giant concrete casement built specifically to accommodate a massive gun, it now has one of the two remaining German K5 railway guns parked alongside as a major exhibit. It’s important too, to recognise that it should […]

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Longues-sur-Mer Battery, Normandy

Alastair — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 16:29:31 +0000

The coastal artillery battery at Longues-sur-Mer is one of the key Normandy D-Day battlefield sites to visit, for a number of reasons – it’s in the midst of the landing beaches (between Omaha and Gold); it’s an open site, free to visit; and it still has its guns (very rare)! History of the Longues-sur-Mer Battery […]

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Review: Le Grand Bunker Musée du Mur le l’Atlantique, Ouistreham

Alastair — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 09:24:25 +0000

My expectations of the Grand Bunker Musée (museum) were not all that high when I eventually got around to visiting, but it turned out to be really interesting. I originally thought the 16m tall concrete bunker, which has been restored to its 1944 condition, was a flak tower, but it was actually designed to be […]

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Iraqi Supergun Section

Alastair — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 18:25:28 +0000

This was one of the 26 sections destined to be part of Saddam Hussein’s ‘Project Babylon’ Iraqi supergun project started in the late 80s. The project was the brainchild of Dr Gerald Bull, a Canadian artillery expert who had been involved in the US-Canadian HARP project (High Altitude Research Project) in the sixties. The object […]

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Maisy Battery Revisited

Alastair — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 16:02:06 +0000

We reviewed the German battery at Grandcamp Maisy in Normandy, last year (Oct 2018), but I was in the neighbourhood in April, so I stopped by to have a look for myself. I spent a happy 40 minutes chatting to Dan Sterne, the owner (Gary)’s son, and wandering about the site. So I thought I’d […]

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Review: Azeville Battery, Normandy

Alastair — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 09:10:46 +0000

The German battery at Azeville north west of Utah Beach was supposed to be taken on D-Day itself. It was still firing on Utah on the morning of D+3 (9th June). Azeville is a little different to other batteries in Normandy in that you spend the first half of your visit in underground passages rather […]

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