Shore-Based
Naval Artillery in France

Illustrated with six photographs, the attached article is one of the very first pieces of journalism to document the planning, construction, testing and deployment of the rail-based artillery batteries that were manned by the U.S. Navy in W.W. I France.

“They dreamed a dream wherein a squadron of colossal trains, sheltered in armor plate, cruised constantly on dry land behind the battle lines. On each train a hundred bluejackets and their officers lived, ate, slept and worked the giant guns that rested upon mechanically perfect mounts and hurled explosive shells to the limit of their extreme ranges. In short, they dreamed the United States Naval Railway Batteries just as complete to the firing lines a few months later.”

The article was penned by Kendrick Scofield, who was the Associate Editor of The American Rifleman
at the time.

Click here to read about the U.S. Navy railroad guns of W.W. I.