The
28 cm (11
in) Howitzer
L/10 was designed in 1884 by the British Armstrong company and
220
built
by the Osaka Artillery Arsenal. It fired a 217 kg shell at a maximum
range of 7,800 m. The howitzer entered service in 1892 and was
installed in shore batteries in forts overlooking Tokyo Bay and Osaka
Bay, when the Meiji "Static Defense" policy of the 1870s
and 1880s emphasized coastal defenses.
The
L/10 was thus primarily intended for anti-ship operations and
remained in use until the end of WW2.
It
saw use as a siege gun during the Russo-Japanese War due to a lack of
heavy siege guns. Requested
by General Nogi Maresuke,
a battery of L/10 was transported and assembled for the siege of Port
Arthur.
The
huge shells were nicknamed "roaring trains" by the Russian
troops, and during their period at Port Arthur over 16,949 of these
shells were fired. In
December 1904, using artillery observers on 203 m Hill, the howitzers
were able to sink the Russian warships one after the other:
-The
battleship Poltava
was sunk on December 5, 1904,
-The
battleship Retvizan
was sunk on December 7, 1904,
-The
battleships Pobeda
and Peresvet
and the cruisers Pallada
and Bayan
on December 9, 1904.
All
six would be raised, repaired, renamed, and recommissioned by the
Japanese after the war.
-The
battleship Sevastopol,
although hit five times by the 280 mm shells, managed to move out of
range of the guns.
-Russo-Japanese
War Photo Album of
the
3rd
Army, No. 3, Meiji 38.4, Japanese
National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS).
