World War II Chronicle: February 20, 1941
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Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel, having arrived in Tripoli just eight days ago, leads his newly formed Afrika Korps (currently consisting of the 5th Light Division and the 15th Panzer Division) east, making their first contact with British forces at El Agheila, Libya on this date.
Page 17 features a story about a new railway gun undergoing trials at a frigid Aberdeen Proving Ground (Md.). Baldwin Locomotive Works is producing the rail car portion and the gun is a 8-in./45-caliber left over from battleships that were scrapped by the 1922 treaty limiting naval construction. The gun and its carriage weigh 225,000 lbs., but can travel anywhere that has railroad tracks. The larger 12″ and 16″ rail guns require special routes and can take up to two weeks to arrive at their destinations — long enough for the HMS Queen Elizabeth to cross the ocean four times.
From the article:
[…] these 8-inchers can be moved on an hour’s notice, to any point the railroad tracks go, and then be fired within an hour after arrival. They can chuck those 260-pound pieces of steel out at the rate of one a minute.
A battery of four, working together, could drop a ton of steel on the target every two minutes.
Brother, that’s not hay.
When the Germans or Japanese are about to land, having an 8″ gun on hand is certainly better than the 16″ gun that’s a week away. But it would be interesting to see armor penetration figures, to see if sacrificing the firepower of the larger guns for the mobility of the 8-inch guns would have panned out for coastal defense.
George Fielding Eliot analyzes the Balkan situation on pages 13 and 15… Bacon is 35 cents a pound at your local District Grocery Store but don’t get too excited — that’s over $6 a pound in 2021 dollars… Also, check out the surprisingly heartwarming story about Pres. Abraham Lincoln still receiving letters on page 16… Page 18 features an interesting comparison of liquid-cooled or air-cooled aircraft engines. We will examine this topic in a forthcoming post… Sports section is on page 42.