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Here is the T1 you mention. I probably will not get back to this display, so I hope this is OK for you. According to the information board, this is the first one built. It sits front and center out in front of the museum. When I pulled up in my car, I was amazed by its size, even though I'm sure there are other bigger, this was the biggest I've ever seen.

Pictures are plenty good enough. Very impressive piece of ordnance. One of these years I'm going to get my @ss down there and see it for myself.

That is interesting. I nvere knew there was a 240mm 'partner piece' to the 280mm Atomic Cannon. I'm wondering if the 240mm gun was built first then upgraded to a 280mm. Usually the 'partner weapons' would be a gun and a howitzer using the same mount and recoil system

3" AT gun - 105mm Howitzer

4.5" gun - 155mm Howitzer ( The 4.5" gun was a dog and not deployed in significant numbers)

155mm gun - 8" Howitzer (Probably the most well known pair)

8" gun - 240mm Howitzer

So a 240 mm gun and a 280mm (or so) Howitzer would have been a possible next step. But the atomic Cannon is very defintly a gun not a howitzer and why have two guns as a pair?

The artillery families were all the result of the Westervelt Board of the post WWI era that developed a lot of doctrine and procedures that formed the basis for the Artillery Branch through WWII.

The US fielded 240mm howitzers as early as 1918:
www.lemaire.happyhost..../3971.html

In fact there was a T1 240mm howitzer as early as 1940, standardized as the M1 in 1943. I presume the VWM's T1 is a latter post-war model (T numbers being often reused).

www.lemaire.happyhost..../3972.html

Neil

Yea but this is a 240mm GUN. The 240mm Howitzer used the same mount as the 8" gun. There is a 240mm barrel at Aberdeen on it's transport carrage. Both the 8" gun and the 240mm Howitzer were split into two loads for transport. some M10 GMCs were converted to prime movers to tow them.

Whe I first saw the header line for this thread I was expecting (and hoping) to see a complete 240mm Howitzer since Aberdeen doesn't have the mount, only the barrel.

This gun would be part of the next larger 'family' of weapons.