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Anzio Annie leaving APG
Seized from Germany after World War II, legendary gun on its way to Fort Lee, Va.

BY KIRSTEN DIZE
Posted 11/19/10

Aberdeen Proving Ground will soon be losing a piece of history — one of the biggest cannons ever built.

The German built K5 long gun that saw service in World War II and later became a major APG attraction was being dismantled this week in preparation for moving it to its future home.

Aberdeen Proving Ground has housed the U.S. Army’s Ordnance School since the 1920s, according to George Mercer, chief of public affairs at APG.

“One of the major missions here, from the 1920s until next year, was to train the Army’s mechanics and maintenance people,” Mercer said. “One of the ways we train those ordnance soldiers is to train them on their heritage.”

Soldiers examined old weapons and learned about how they evolved over the years, Mercer said. Because of that educational role, APG accumulated weapons over the years, and eventually turned the collection into the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum.

The museum became a major Maryland attraction until the post’s security was tightened following the 9/11 terror attacks and public visits were all but ended for several years.

As part of the BRAC relocations, the Ordnance Center and School is moving to Fort Lee, Va. The museum is moving with the school.

“That’s why we’re moving at least part of the collection to Fort Lee,” Mercer said.

Along with the museum goes Anzio Annie, a large railway mounted gun used at the Battle for Anzio Hill in Italy during World War II.

“We captured it and it ended up at the Ordnance Museum,” Mercer said.

With the significant recoil and easy transport in mind, the large guns were mounted on rails.

“It’s probably among the biggest cannons ever built,” Mercer said.

The gun has been dismantled and will soon make the move to Fort Lee.

Mercer said he is not sure the exact date or means with which the heavy piece of equipment will make the trip.

He said the original concept was to move the pieces by truck, but the weight of the pieces may be too much for that option to work. Anzio Annie may have to be moved in separate pieces by rail, he said.

In the meantime the large, historical weapon remains dismantled on post, its parts awaiting their transport south.

"Anzio Hill", "Probably among the biggest cannons built"
Who wrote this crap?
Why doesn't the PR man know anything about the collection?

I take it Bob won't be hauling it down in his pickup?

I wonder what happened to the other gun, they found? Robert? Leopold is on display and is going to be moved. But what about Robert?

There is another K5e displayed at the Batterie Todt, Audinghen, Pas-de-Calais.

www.batterietodt.com/
web.ukonline.co.uk/gaz/bt.html
It notes that parts of the two guns taken to the US were combined to form the one now displayed.

The only other surviving K5 I am aware of is in France.

So they just scrapped the rest of Robert/Express when rebuilding Leopold/Annie?

Looks that way, one (both?) gun was disabled by its crew prior to capture.
The info on the following link suggests this is the case.
web.ukonline.co.uk/gaz/k5.html

Here is another article on the K5 recent move www.ftleetraveller.com...002e0.html As of yesterday Dec 2 the carriage minus the guntube is visible from the road running in front of Fort Lee

Okay this MIGHT be a stupid question, but why dont they just put it on a railway? To move it. It is a railway gun after all? Its German engineering a bit of grease and shes a runner.

Probably the usual problem with a railway, does it go near where you are and where you want to go?
If you've got to dismantle it to get it to and from the railway, you might as well just truck it the whole way.

At the Aberdeen end Annie sat right next to the branch line into the base. I believe the problem was old age and deterioration of the equipment. I was told that Siemans ((the followon company to the one that built Annie's brake system) looked at it and was considering fixing the brake system so it could be used for the move. I suspect that when they looked at the entire system the rebuild of the brakes, bearings, trucks and support structure, was just to big of a job. There is also the fact that railroads are very reluctant to allow unusual equipment on their tracks because of liability requirements. So it might have been the CSX system (The most logical rail company to move it on) simply told them they could do it or that there had to be a huge payment as well as a pretty broad assumption of liability that made the move prohibitive

Way back when, Dr Rainer told me they couldnt move it via rail without lowering the barrel (which raises many of the same issues Bob mentioned) due to the tunnels between APG and Fort Lee. The "original" plan he had was to put it on a boat and sail it up the James river to Fort Lee.

Neil

Might also have been a curve radius issue on the rails between Aberdeen and Ft. Lee

I found some pictures of the move from the APG Newspaper

www.apgnews.apg.army.m...ov2410.pdf

www.apgnews.apg.army.m...ec0210.pdf

Neil

APG bids farewell to Anzio Annie

Story and photo by
YVONNE JOHNSON
APG News
In 1945 President Franklin D. Roosevelt died after 12 years in office, linoleum kitchen rugs were all the rage, and a gallon of gasoline cost 15 cents.

It was also the year Anzio Annie became the star of the Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Annie is the Krupp K5 German heavy railway gun famous for the shelling of Allied Forces at the Anzio beachhead in Italy during World War II.

Hailed as one of the largest land-based cannons ever built, Annie was discovered by Allied troops on a railroad siding outside of Rome in 1944 and was shipped to the Ordnance Museum the following year.

After a 65-year stay at APG, Annie was disassembled during the week of Nov. 15 in preparation for her move to the new home of Ordnance at Fort Lee, Va.

The Meadow Lark Transportation Company and the A&A Rigging Company conducted the dismantling and loading of Annie, under the supervision of museum director Christopher Semancik and logisticians from the Ordnance School’s Base Realignment and Closure Office and the garrison’s Directorate of Logistics.

The job required not only skill but innovation. During the dismantling process, riggers were forced to create a tool to remove rusted bolts that were resisting up to 50,000 pounds of pressure from hydraulic jacks.

It took more than two days to remove the pins from Annie’s undercarriage.

“We knew there’d be hurdles,” said Tom Anhalt, A&A Rigging sales manager. “You always expect them in a job this size.”

A 200-ton and a 130-ton crane were needed to lift Annie’s gun tube. When it was found to weigh more than expected—in excess of 200,000 pounds—it was determined that it would travel to Virginia by railcar.

Contractor Robert Cade, owner of Meadow Lark, said the operation was more material- than time-sensitive. “You can’t rush these things, especially when you’re dealing with one-of-a-kind items like this,” Cade said. “We have to get it right the first time.”

With the relocation of the Ordnance Museum, plans continue for the opening of the APG Museum in 2011.

The new museum will house artifacts and historical items of Aberdeen Proving Ground and the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, which relocated at APG from Fort Monmouth, N.J.