Talos Guns

Talos Gun
Talos III in 1935.
Type	Railway artillery
Place of origin	Republic of Syara
Service history
In service	1933-1938
Used by	Army of the Syaran Republic
Wars	Siduri War
Specifications
Weight	1,000 tons
Length	40 meters
Shell	Separate-loading, cased charge
Caliber	652mm
Elevation	0° to 70°
Muzzle velocity	920 m/s
Effective firing range	37 kilometers
Maximum firing range	42 kilometers

The Talos Guns, officially the 652mm Railway Artillery Platform, was a 65.2-centimer railway gun employed by the Republic of Syara during the Siduri War. The largest artillery piece utilized by the Army of the Syaran Republic during the war, they first saw usage shelling the Dorman Line during the invasion of Ruvelka. A total of eight were planned but only 5 were completed named Talos I through V.

Each Talos gun weighed 1,000 tons and were 40 meters in length. Setting up each platform to fire took several hours for a fire rate of one shell per 20-25 minutes. The maximum amount of shells ever fired in one day was 16. Syaran railway engineers typically had to construct additional supporting infrastructure for each gun in the event of sustained barrages. Each gun had an effective firing range of 37 kilometers and a max range of 42 kilometers. The barrel could be elevated between 0 to 75 degrees, with a muzzle velocity of 920 meters per second.

Only Talos I-III were available at the start of the conflict, later joined by VI and V in February and June 1935 respectively. Talos VI was 60% complete when the project was cancelled, leaving the rest of the guns unfinished. All five guns saw service on the Quenminese Front and the Mansuri Front. Due to their heavy nature and large caliber they were typically reserved for targeting large fortifications or troop concentrations. Three guns were lost during the course of the conflict. Talos II was undergoing repairs in southern Shirvaniya when its repair facility was struck by the Royal Tennaiite Air Force, destroying the rail yard and severely damaging the platform, which was subsequently scrapped. Talos IV was employed in Mansuriyyah during the Battle of Dayr Hafir before being deliberately disabled by the Syarans to prevent its capture by the Mansuri Army. Talos III was damaged during the Battle of Tân Xuyên, forcing its withdrawal back to Syara for repairs. It was destroyed by while crossing over the Zagyva River after explosives planted by the Ruvelkan resistance movement, the Földalatti, on the Highway 112 Zagyva Bridge detonated, sending in crashing into the Zagyva. Talos I and V were last utilized during the Liberation of Ruvelka. Under the Treaty of Debrecen both functional platforms and the unfinished constructions were handed over to the Common Axis as war reparations.

The largest artillery piece ever fielded by the Armed Forces of the Syaran Republic, the utility of such large railway artillery platforms was nevertheless limited. The expense of creating such large shells, and the maintenance required on the platforms, meant they fired less than 600 shells over the course of the war. By comparison, all of Syaran artillery guns combined for more than 400 million shells, and the next largest Syaran railway gun, the 400mm, fired 28,000 shells. Railway artillery fell out of service sharply after the Great War Era owing to the rise of self-propelled howitzers and increased effectiveness of aerial bombardment. Some of the remains of the Talos Guns are on display in several museums across Siduri.