Lima H0 - 303500 - Model train freight carriage (1) - Leopold railway gun of the Wehrmacht - DRG
No. 37651925
Lima H0 - L303501 - railroad cannon - "Krupp K5" Wehrmacht's railway gun 'Leopold' - DRG
No. 37651925
Lima H0 - L303501 - railroad cannon - "Krupp K5" Wehrmacht's railway gun 'Leopold' - DRG
Lima H0 - L303501 - Wehrmacht's railway cannon 'Leopold' of the Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft (DRG)
With original packaging and booklet
Railway cannon of the German army
No breakage or paint damage
However, the short guardrail and a front fence missing
Please see the photos for a proper impression of this lot.
The presentation rail is not a part of this offer.
The Krupp K5 is a German 280 mm railway gun from the Second World War. Called "Slender Bertha" by the Germans, based upon the “Big Bertha“ of the First World War. The gun fired a shell weighing 255 kg over a distance of nearly 70 km. It weighed 120 tons, including the train chassis and was 32 m long. It was operated by a team of 10 men. The guns were deployed on almost every European battlefront.
Deployed at Anzio
Best known for the deployment of the two Robert and Leopold units from the German Eisenbahnbatterie 712 during the landing at Anzio, where the American bridgehead was heavily attacked. These two cannons were given the nicknames of Anzio Annie and Anzio Express by the Americans.
Both cannons were sent to Italy in 1944. Originally intended for deployment in Tunisia, they were deployed after the end of the North African Campaign and after the retreat of the Africa Corps near Milan in defence of the Gustav line. During the Allied landing in Anzio, the fire mouths were brought into a railway tunnel on the route between Rome-Nettuno. The double track in the tunnel was the ideal location to hide the railway cannons. In the tunnel they were made fire-ready, driven outside to fire, and driven back into the tunnel for another firing salvo. Both weapons sowed death and destruction on the landing beaches and the nicknames Anzio Annie and Anzio Express instilled fear in many on the side of the Allies.
In 1944, ten K5s fell into Allied hands in northern France and Italy. The first two were captured by the U.S. 5th army in Italy on a marshalling yard near Civitavecchia. These were the weapons of Eisenbahnbatterie 712, Anzio Annie and Anzio Express. One of them was shipped to the US where it can be seen at an American Army Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland. In addition to the unit in the US, a K5 (E) can be seen in France at the Atlantik Wall Museum in Audinghen.
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