Franz, Michael/Vollert, Jochen M65 Atomic Annie. The 280mm Gun M65 and its Soviet Counterparts 406mm 2A3 and 420mm 2B1

With the Cold War evolving, the search for more military applications of nuclear weapons was carried out by the United States and the Soviet Union. The major aim was, on the one hand, to improve the yield of devices and thus increase their destructive levels, and on the other hand to make them deployable from other launching apparatus. First and foremost, designers on both sides worked on shrinking nuclear devices to the degree they would fit for example into an artillery shell. The development would in 1951 culminate in the American 280mm M65 Gun, today known by its nickname Atomic Annie. In the Soviet Union, work began on the 406mm 2A3 and 420mm 2B1 super-heavy artillery pieces, built in 1957. This publication covers the Atomic Annie in great detail with many in-service photos plus excerpts from the technical manual and also sheds new light on its still secret Soviet counterparts.

The Soviet Union began work on the 406 mm 2A3 and 420 mm 2B1 super-heavy artillery self-propelled guns, which were built in 1957. This publication shows the Atomic Annie in operational photographs as well as its technology in detail using extracts from the technical service regulations and gives the latest findings on its Soviet counterparts, which are still shrouded in secrecy. This is an expanded new edition of the now out-of-print Tankograd title "U.S. Army Gun, Heavy, Motorised, 280 mm, M65 Atomic Annie" (item no. 5033/TM6008).