Heavy French Railway Artillery from the Origins to 1945

When France entered the Great War in August 1914, its army was devoid of modern heavy artillery equipment. Faced with a new and monstrous form of warfare and totally outclassed by the German heavy artillery, 
the expert arm must then organize a response from scratch by improvising simple and very powerful equipment. The formula of Heavy Artillery on Railroad quickly became the only way to put into action on the land 
battlefield high-powered pieces from the navy or coast artillery, existing in large numbers but impossible to implement on their original carriages, very heavy and static. The studies then undertaken under the 
sign of urgency can be based on old achievements, certainly modest but very innovative in their time such as the carriage-trucks on track of 0.60 m put into service in the 1890s in the fortresses and the 
construction by the Schneider Company of a battery of modern howitzers ordered by Peru shortly before the war. The book traces the detailed history of all these improvised creations and the genesis of new 
employment concepts that will place French artillery at the very forefront of achievements in terms of ALVF. Between the two wars, the evolution of materials and the experimentation of very long-range guns 
are the subject of a complete and unpublished presentation, illustrated with very rare documents. For all the phases of the two world wars, the organization of the units, the conditions of employment of the 
ALVF and the most spectacular results obtained on the various fronts are very detailed, without forgetting the reuse of our equipment by the armies. of the Axis from 1940 to 1945.

Hardcover edition from 2022 (€ 43.00)

NEW book - lavishly illustrated with photos and drawings.