My co-author, Greg Heuer, and I are happy to announce the release of our new Osprey book 'Railway Guns of World War I.' The book describes in chronological order, why and how railway-mounted guns were developed, the different technological approaches taken by each army, and how the guns were fielded and operated. Many of the photos have never been published before and the art illustrations show several unique aspects and views of the guns based on Greg's 3-D computer modeling of the guns.
Most accounts of WWI railway artillery treat each army's guns separately and then just list the guns and describe their technical characteristics as if each nation's development of railway artillery was accomplished in a vacuum. We tried to tell the whole story of the guns - when and why they were fielded, how their roles and designs changed during the war, how they were employed, and interplay between Allied and opposing armies. For technical information the Ordnance Department's two volume study will forever be indispensable, but to me the bigger story gets lost in the details.
Though I am admittedly biased in my opinion,( Greg Heuer is a friend ) I'm reasonably certain the book will be a worthy investment for Great War historians/study enthusiasts.
I ordered your new book, but it took a very long time before it was sent to me. And even then, it took over a week before the shipment reached me. Nevertheless, I got it today and I have to congratulate you on this book! A very interesting read, and I can recommend it to all artillery enthousiasts... Keep up the good work!
I got my copy from BookDepository - took 10 days to Australia and it was discounted as well.
The book is a good overview of the Railway Artillery of WW1 and certainly is an excellent introduction to
the more detailed texts such as the post-WW1 survey by the US Ordnance Dept and Guy François' book in the
"Les Canons de la Victoire 1914-1918" series.
If I have a criticism it is that the point was missed that adapting naval guns to railway or land use is not as simple as dropping
an ex-battleship gun onto a railway wagon with a suitable mounting . The recoil absorbing systems of the naval guns are only designed
to reduce the recoil forces to the point where the residual force can safely be absorbed by the structure of the ship. The many solutions to the problem
of residual recoil forces lead to the multiplicity of designs produced during WW1. These varied from ignore the problem and shunt
the railway gun back to the firing position after it has slithered down the track 100m or so (British solution) to the elaborate massive
wooden structures employed by the Saint-Chamond designs.
This book (imho) is a useful library addition for anyone interested in Railway guns and/or the heavy artillery of WW1.
I agree that I did not adequately bring that point out in the book. I had to pick and choose what could be included and, in retrospect, the engineering of the railway mountings and recoil systems was something that I thought might be too difficult for the average reader. Yet, based on your comment I see the topic deserved at least some sort of overview.