WWI-vintage 42cm Haubitze(t) superheavy howitzer in action during the Siege of Sevastopol in 1942

The 42cm L/15 Küstenhaubitze M. 14 was a superheavy siege howitzer used by Austria-Hungary during the First World War, and one piece pictured here survived to serve with German forces during the Second World War. It was designed to penetrate the weakly armored decks of modern dreadnoughts in accord with the prevailing coastal defense doctrine that held it was better to attack the weakest point with high-angle indirect fire than to attempt to challenge the strongly armored sides with direct fire. The latter attack required increasingly large and expensive guns that had to be equally well armored to withstand return fire from the battleship. Howitzers on the other hand were significantly cheaper and could be concealed in defilade to avoid the expense of armoring them. The disadvantage of indirect fire was that due to the higher time of flight the chances of scoring a hit were considerably reduced, however it was thought that the use of multiple guns would compensate for this. Two h