The BL 18-inch railway howitzer (formally Ordnance BL 18-inch Mk I howitzer on truck, railway) was a British

railway gun A railway gun, also called a railroad gun, is a large artillery piece, often surplus naval artillery, mounted on, transported by, and fired from a specially designed railroad car, railway wagon. Many countries have built railway guns, but the ...

developed during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Part of the progression of ever-larger howitzers on the Western Front, it did not enter service until 1920.

History

BL 18 inch Howitzer Ashbury Station WWII

Five guns and two complete equipments on railway wagons were produced. After

there was no use for such large but relatively short-ranged weapons and they were placed in storage. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the two wagons were used to mount 13.5-inch guns, which were capable of engaging targets on the German-occupied Channel coast of France. In late 1940 one 18-inch howitzer was mounted on the railway mounting nicknamed "Boche Buster" which had been used in

to carry a 14-inch gun.

Deployment to Kent, 1940

In 1940 there were concerns that an enemy invasion was imminent, crossing the English Channel from France. Three heavy rail-mounted guns were deployed on the

Elham Valley Railway The Elham Valley Railway was a line connecting Folkestone and Canterbury in Kent, England. It opened between 1887 and 1889 and closed in 1947. The line was originally proposed by the independent Elham Valley Light Railway Company in the mid-1 ...

line in Kent. The railway route followed a meandering course, enabling the guns to be trained by moving them along the line to a suitable location. The wooded landscape also gave cover for the guns. The heaviest gun was stationed at Bourne Park, where there was a short tunnel; the gun could be stood down in the tunnel, avoiding enemy attack. The other two guns were deployed to

Elham railway station Elham railway station is a disused railway station on the Elham Valley Railway which served the village of Elham in Kent and the surrounding villages. Situated to the east of Elham the clapboard station was opened in 1887 and closed complete ...

. The guns remained in the area for the greater part of the hostilities. The howitzer gun at Bourne, the so-called "Boche Buster", had a barrel of 18 inches diameter and was, apart from a ponderous and unreliable Russian siege cannon, the largest railway gun in Europe. It had originally had a 14-inch barrel during

, and the last action in which it fired was in 1916 when three rounds completely destroyed the railway station at

Arras Arras ( , ; pcd, Aro; historical nl, Atrecht ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department, which forms part of the regions of France, region of Hauts-de-France; before the regions of France#Reform and mergers of ...

in France. The gun was then stored at

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

until early in 1940, when the authorities realised the potential of the weapon for military defence. It was fitted with an 18-inch naval barrel at the

Darlington railway works Darlington Works was established in 1863 by the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the town of Darlington in the north east of England. The main part of the works, the North Road Shops was located on the northeast side of the Stockton and Darl ...

in the spring of 1940. The barrel was one of several that had been removed from British battleships following the

Washington Naval Treaty The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Nav ...

in 1922, which banned very large naval guns. It was manned by 50 men and several specialist gunnery officers from the 2nd Regiment of the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. The complete battery, including

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

to work the railway locomotives and supervise track work, numbered 80 men and was known as the 11th Super Heavy Battery. After initial training at

Catterick Camp Catterick Garrison is a major garrison and military town south of Richmond, North Yorkshire, England. It is the largest British Army garrison in the world, with a population of around 13,000 in 2017 and covering over 2,400 acres (about 10& ...

in the summer and autumn of 1940, the 11th Super Heavy Battery, under the command of Major Boyle, moved to Kent in early January 1941. For the journey the gun was disguised as three banana wagons by the skilful use of steel hoops and canvas. At 250 tons all up, the gun was far in excess of the weight limit of the Elham railway, and considerable strengthening works were carried out. It arrived at

Bishopsbourne Bishopsbourne is a mostly rural and wooded village and civil parish in Kent, England. It has two short developed sections of streets at the foot of the Nailbourne valley south-east of Canterbury and centred from Dover. The settlement of P ...

in February, and arrangements were made to store it in the tunnel at Bourne Park. This had originally had two tracks, but had been reduced to single track as an economy measure before the war. To allow through trains to pass while the gun was there, the second track was reinstated. The shells were high, each weighing , and transferring them was a long and arduous job despite the use of special hoists. At Bishopsbourne station itself arrangements were made to allow mess and sleeping coaches to be shunted into the siding. The gun was first fired, for calibration tests, on the morning of 13 February 1941, when the equipment was towed to a stretch of track near the Black Robin public house, Kingston. Several rounds were fired out into mid-channel, the results of which were sighted and marked by observation posts on the cliffs at Dover. In the Kingston and Barham area villagers were warned to open doors and windows, but the blasts were so severe that in many cases houses were damaged. The gun was fired on only two other occasions, shortly after the first; one at the World's Wonder bridge between Barham and Elham and the other at Lickpot bridge, Elham. The railway track had to be altered whenever the gun was run out for firing. At the places where the army decided the gun was most likely to be used in countering an invasion threat, the track was strengthened and the sleeper spacing reduced. The recoil on firing made the gun run back , and even then tended to distort the track. A 200-yard spur railway line was laid into the fields, just north of Kingston village, in order to allow the gun to train on the beaches at Sandwich Bay and

Pegwell Bay Pegwell Bay is a shallow inlet in the English Channel coast astride the estuary of the River Stour north of Sandwich Bay, between Ramsgate and Sandwich in Kent. Part of the bay is a nature reserve, with seashore habitats including mudflats and ...

, as well as the

Straits of Dover The Strait of Dover or Dover Strait (french: Pas de Calais - ''Strait of Calais''), is the strait at the narrowest part of the English Channel, marking the boundary between the Channel and the North Sea, separating Great Britain from continent ...

and the English Channel approaches. On 20 June 1941, the "Boche Buster" was inspected by

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

at Bishopsbourne station, and later that day the Prime Minister viewed the smaller guns at Elham. In 1944 the army decided that all the guns would be more useful in the Allies' drive towards Germany and they were taken to

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...

for testing prior to the

invasion of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...

.M J Forwood, ''The Elham Valley Railway'', Phillimore & Co Ltd, Chichester, 1975, , pages 76 to 80

Preservation

The four BL 18-inch railway howitzers that were deployed during the Second World War were all scrapped in the post-war period. Only the gun from the fifth howitzer, named "barrel number one", survives, it was used for artillery testing at

MoD Shoeburyness MoD Shoeburyness is a military installation at Pig's Bay near Shoeburyness in Essex. History In 1849, the Board of Ordnance purchased land at South Shoebury with a view to setting up an artillery testing and practice range (until then, Plumstea ...

in 1920 before being put into storage at the

Royal Arsenal The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich is an establishment on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England, that was used for the manufacture of armaments and ammunition, proofing, and explosives research for the Britis ...

at Woolwich. In 1940 it returned to Shoeburyness to be used again for experimental firings. Post war it continued to be used until 1959. Its final series of tests was firing experimental cannon shells using much reduced charges. After decades in storage, the barrel was put on public display at

Larkhill Larkhill is a garrison town in the civil parish of Durrington, Wiltshire, England. It lies about west of the centre of Durrington village and north of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. It is about north of Salisbury. The settlement ...

, when the

relocated there in 2008 with the closure of its Woolwich Barracks. In March 2013 it was loaned to the '' Spoorwegmuseum'', the Dutch national rail museum. In September 2013 it was moved back to the

Royal Armouries The Royal Armouries is the United Kingdom's national collection of arms and armour. Originally an important part of England's military organization, it became the United Kingdom's oldest museum, originally housed in the Tower of London from ...

artillery museum at

Fort Nelson, Hampshire Fort Nelson, in the civil parish of Boarhunt in the English county of Hampshire, is one of five defensive forts built on the summit of Portsdown Hill in the 1860s, overlooking the important naval base of Portsmouth. It is now part of the Royal A ...

. It is mounted on a proofing carriage, a gun carriage with very limited elevation and traverse intended for test firing.

Citations

Bibliography

* * Dale Clarke
British Artillery 1914–1919. Heavy Artillery. Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2005
* I.V. Hogg & L.F. Thurston, British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914–1918. London: Ian Allan, 1972.

External links