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The Guns Of Navarone

gesshots
Hello Everyone,
I entered The guns of Navarone on imfdb website and received data on many of the small arms in the film. However there was no mention of the stars of the movie: the rail mounted cannon and title subject of the movie.
Can anyone ID these weapons?
They look similar to the 50 calibre - 16inch guns found on Iowa class battleships, but if they are German / Krupps they probably have a metric designation.

This bit of trivia has eluded me for some time, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
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Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • rufe-snow
    The flic dates to the early 60's, saw it when I was still in the service. At that point in time coast defense type of very large cannon had been obsolete for years. Doubtful if any would have been still functional. My take on it is that they phonies were put together buy the smoke and mirrors guys that work in Hollywood.
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  • mark christian
    It is strange that this pops up now because I just finished rereading the book a few weeks ago. Going by the book: British Intelligence estimated the size of the guns at 9 inches; which would be about 230mm. Near the end of the novel when Capt. Mallory enters the actual gun gallery he finds that their actual size is 12 inches; or about 300mm. This would be the absolute maximum size and weight that would be possible to transport in pieces via ship, hoist into place inside a gun gallery set back into a mountain and then assemble in place. Something he size of the 800mm Dora probably weighed over 1000 tons without it's special railroad transport and fired a massive 8 ton shell that was too large for anti shipping use and with a slow rate of fire was intended only for siege warfare on fixed targets. The actual guns depicted in the film are based on the 280mm Leopold railroad guns which weighed about 200 tons and had a rate of fire ten times that of Dora. Only a handful of these guns remain in existence so the guns you see in the film are simply the work of studio special effects persons. It is a great film with plenty of lovely Greek scenery and some fine acting.
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  • givette
    Yeh. What M/C said. Author was depicting the few guns that were actually used against allies during WWII. Called Leopold (my father was on the receiving end at Anzio), and Robert. Allies dubbed Leupold 'Anzio Annie'. Audie Murphy experienced 'ol Annie', also when fighting in Italy.

    Several more [of these type of siege guns] were made, so the author 'dovetailed' the probabilities into his novel that they were the ones on the fictional island of Navarrone.

    For a closeup picture of the gun, look for any post made by Gunbroker member Mike Whiskey. Best, Joe

    PS..back to the movie, I'd love to nail-down just exactly what scope Anthony Quinn had on his rifle. This pilgrim is still searching.
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  • gary wray
    gesshots.....good question, one that I have also thought about. Having just finished helping move an American 12" gun (from the BB Wyoming)inside a casemate at Fort Miles, I have a bit of a feel for the problem and gun size. I have viewed the flick many times and "the twins" look to me more like German 38cm SK C/34's of the Bismark and Tirpitz than the K5(E)28cm of "Anzio Annie" fame. The 38cm guns were actually put in casemates by the Germans up and down the coast in France, Denmark and Norway so it could, and was, done. They weighed far less than the RR guns and could be broken down into different loads for movement. But since it was fiction, who knows? I can tell you that in my eyes the shells look more like 1800lb of the C/34's than the 563lb of the K5(E). Finally, the Germans also developed RR guns out of the C/34's and our troops captured several of the "Siegfried's" in the Rhone Valley near the end of the war. Thanks for the question[^]
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  • MIKE WISKEY
    " The actual guns depicted in the film are based on the 280mm Leopold railroad guns which weighed about 200 tons".............HERE YA GO
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  • gesshots
    Thank you all for the info on The Guns of Navarone.

    Unrelated but interesting: I came upon http://www.imfdb.org/ by accident.
    This website offers considerable information on the firearms used in the movies.

    Best Regards,
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  • ltcdoty
    A bit of The Guns of Navarone trivia. At the end of the movie they
    show British warships sailing the strait. The last ship in line is the
    USS Slater that was sold to Greece. The Slater is being restored and is berthed on the Hudson River at Albany, New York.
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  • mark christian
    quote:Originally posted by ltcdoty
    A bit of The Guns of Navarone trivia. At the end of the movie they
    show British warships sailing the strait. The last ship in line is the
    USS Slater that was sold to Greece. The Slater is being restored and is berthed on the Hudson River at Albany, New York.


    That is some neat information. It looks like some of us "Gun nuts" are also movie fans. Who would have thought it possible [;)].
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  • sandwarrior
    Great movie. I loved watching it. However, it was based on the Dodecanese Campaign which was actually a German (notice how I didn't say Axis) victory. The book and movie actually focus around the Battle of Leros, which took place in that campaign.
    After reading the AAR's I'm sometimes amazed we even won WWII. The campaign was pretty much all about the Brits trying to secure territory for after the war, instead of fighting the war where it needed to be fought. All under the guise of finding a better way to transport 'needed arms and goods to our friends, the Soviets.' Just like when Monty tried to claim English rights in Normandy after he had taken Caen and finally Cherbourg. We had to slap the dumbass Brits around and explain to them we still had the rest of the war to fight. Just like them to run off and start claiming territory before the job got finished.
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  • gesshots
    Now now, you can't say such things about the British and omit the French.
    After all they were are allies too.
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