WWII SUPER GUNS

In the second great global conflict, railways were mounted with some of the biggest artillery pieces the world had seen

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As early as 1934, Nazi Germany began developing an arsenal of weapons to tackle the Maginot Line, the vast fortified network then being built by France along its eastern border. Among these weapons were several giant railway guns with enough power to smash their way through the Maginot's thick concrete walls. Not that the guns were ever used for this purpose. When the Wehrmacht invaded France in 1940, it did so via the dense Ardennes Forest, bypassing the defences altogether. But the Nazis would find other uses for their monstrous new weapons.

The largest guns at their disposal were a pair of 31-inch titans called Schwerer Gustav and Dora. Designed by the German arms manufacturer Krupp, these artillery pieces were the largest ever built.