Recently I found an article in a Chinese magezine about history. The article is about surviving Japanese WWII fortifications in northeast China. It says that Japanese army bought a few 240mm railway guns from France, and there are still some shelters built for this kind of guns remain in northeast China. I wonder when the Japanese bought 240mm railway guns? And how many? Any further information?
Thank you! Recently I found a very good article on the French 240mm railway gun in Japanese service. This article says Japanese army ordered the gun in 1925 and it was sent to Janpan in November 1929. This railway gun was specially made for Japanese army by Schneider, and it was called "Type 90 railway gun" in Janpan. After testing it, Japanese army was very satisfy and made many spare parts for it. At last it was sent to south-east China. This article also includes a number of wonderful photos of this gun.
The french 240 mm railway gun for Japan was a modification of french "canon de 240 mm modèle 1918" built by Saint-Chamond between 1919 and 1925. The Japanese gun was tested at Saint-Pierre-Quiberon range, the 165 kg shell was fired to 50800 m.The japanese gun was build by Schneider who had purchased Saint-Chamond artillery works in 1925 years. Yours sincerely,
