Site of the 'Lange Max gun which opened the battle of Verdun by shelling the city. Schnelladekanone L-Lange 38cm SKL/45 were naval guns for Bayern class battleships, used as heavy land artillery on the Western Front. Originally mounted on fixed concrete bases, but these took too long to build. In 1917 mobile railway guns called Max E were introduced and 8 were produced. These had problems: very poor traverse of ony 2 degrees otherwise carriage had to be tirned: gun had to be loaded at zero elevation and lerge recoil meant gun could not be elvated too steeply so range limited to 23,000m. Some guns were also emplaced in the Pommern Costal battery on the Flanders coast protecting occupied Ostend and had range of 47,000m.