Leopold 28cm K5 Railway Gun Book Review

By Michael Benolkin

Review

The German railway guns played havoc on both fronts. The 280mm K5 series were famous among allied forces, nick-naming them 'Anzio Annie' as they would periodically fire on their positions. The troops never saw the gun in combat as it was able fire from almost 40 miles away! Nevertheless, troops had no problem identifying that incoming round as it resembled the sound of an approaching high-speed freight train.

Allied air forces had one heck of a time trying to find and neutralize these guns, but the Germans wisely hid these guns in railway tunnels, bringing them out when needed, and using diesel switch engines to move the guns as the smoke from steam engines always attracted allied air raiders looking for an easy target.

This title is an impressive bit of work! It combines full-color walk arounds of the worlds two surviving K5 railway guns along with some of the nicest black and white photos of the K5s in action.

According to the cover, there are 224 color photos and 31 black and white photos of this formidable weapon, plus a huge fold-out sheet with line drawings of the K5 in 1/35 and 1/72 scale.

If you're looking for the perfect reference build your monster-sized 1/35 Trumpeter or Dragon Leopold K5 guns, or have on of the nice Hasegawa 1/72 examples, this is what you've been waiting for! Definitely recommended!

Note: This title will be available soon from Squadron Mail Order. You'll find the various titles from Model Centrum Progres of Poland listed on Squadron's site as Progressive Publishing.

My sincere thanks to Squadron Mail Order for this review sample!