Landships II

 Me again. I think you guys need to take another gander at this rail gun. I looked it up and compared every minute detail of it with my books that cover French artillery as well as my collection of photos of French artillery pieces. The weapon is indeed on a Batignolles "affût-truc à berceau", but it is hardly a 305mm gun; the ordnance is far too stubby and thick for that. After examining closely the recoil recuperator mounted at top of the cradle and the construction of the barrel I say definitively that this a "Matériel de 370mm modèle 1915 sur affût-truc à berceau". It is much easier to confuse this railroad howitzer to the larger "Matériel de 400mm modèle 1916 sur affût-truc à berceau", than with any of the 305mm guns. There does not seem to have been a railroad howitzer built in 305mm in France. If you have access to it, take a look at pgs.131 and 132 in Stéphane Ferrard's "Les matériels de l'armée de terre française 1940: tome 2. This is the volume on heavy artillery equipments still in service in 1939 and 1940. The ordnance for these monster railroad howitzers came from old pre-Dreadnaughts such as Charles-Martel, Bouvines etc... Also take a look at the old Squadron Signal volume on German railroad guns. It has a section on the French railroad guns that the Germans used during the war, and it includes this very same 370mm howitzer.