Who was Arnhem Annie?
The “Annie” was an American and British name for the 280 mm/11″ railroad mounted artillery piece of Anzio fame. The Germans called it the Leopold or the K-5 . Because of staffing, barrell life and other factors, it was demed as an inefficient weapon of war. The “Annie” tradition was preserved after WW2 with the competitive need of the US Army to be a part of the Nuclear Arms triad/quadrad by having an “Atomic Annie” to counter the newly formed USAF dominance in the Nuclear Weapons field and the US Navy’s search foracceptance of the Fleet Submarine loaded with launch tubes filled with ballistic missiles. The Army built and tested this weapon but had still not figured out how to transport it to a combat zone. “Arnhem Annie” may have existed, Based on numbers and facts, it is unlikley as a weapn.
