Second nice surprise of my recent gun hunt in Pennsylvania, I went to see the gun mysteriously named "15cm nr4" in Dick Pope's list.
My best hopes were overwhelmed by what I discovered ! The tube presented in Topton, in front of the American Legion, is a very rare '15cm KiSL' gun.
That gun was manufactured only in 8 pieces by Krupp, and put into service as a mobile fortress gun in Metz, France, then in Germany. This remarkably long range gun was a "Kanone in Schirmlafette" ("KiSL" ), meaning it was mounted on a turret equipped with a shielded carriage. It could be moved from one point to another of the fortress by rail. At the war outbreak, the 8 (or 12 ?) available guns were sent to the Front, and first fired on Nancy in September 1914.
One gun was captured by US troops in 1918, I suppose this is the one exposed in Topton !
This gun performances were quite impressive for the beginning of the war : Calibre 149.3mm, tube length 39.4mm, shell weight 52.5 kg (Gr.03) / 51.55 kg (Gr.16Hb), muzzle velocity 688 / 750 m/sec, range 15600 / 19500 m.
Bernard, great photos, I am glad you are took Dick Pope's list and are taking some road trips . I visited this gun in October 2008. Every fall I go to Allentown PA to see a show at the fairgrounds and I swung out the extra 10 miles or so to see this gun. Actually you probably noticed there is another cannon barrel mounted across the street. I wasnt even sure which one was WW1 and remember being disapointed that they were only barrels mounted and not a complete gun but after reading the history on this I am very glad I went. Only 8 of a kind, pretty interesting. Did you find the FK16 in Chester PA? Ive never seen that one. Cant tell what you meant when you said the trip was null but it doesnt sound positive!
