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The Fahrpanzer was a mobile artillery piece made prior to World War I in Germany, implemented in several German fortifications from 1890 onwards and exported to several foreign military powers prior to the outbreak of hostilities.

As designed the Fahrpanzer was mounted on narrow gauge railroad trucks and was wheeled along 60 cm tracks to its battle station. When not in use it would be pushed into a protective bunker to avoid damage during heavy bombardment. The Fahrpanzer was not autonomous: as originally designed it could only be pushed into place and rearmed from outside. It is not clear whether in practice any Fahrpanzer were retrofitted to be self-propelled or self-reloading. However artillery pieces of any kind were in short supply during World War I, and many Fahrpanzers were removed from their fortifications and installed in forward trenches by the Germans.

For road transport the Fahrpanzers had purpose-built horse-drawn carriages. All export models of the Fahrpanzer were sold with such a carriage, and it appears some export Fahrpanzer remained affixed to their carriages for the duration of their military career. All Fahrpanzer were fully armored and operated by a two-man crew. They may have been positioned and rearmed by the gun crew, or by handlers stationed outside the weapon. In any event the lack of self-propulsion and self-rearming capability placed its operators at risk. The Fahrpanzer could have benefitted from continued development to equip it with such capabilities, however the emergence of fully autonomous armored tanks on the battlefield effectively rendered the concept obsolete. A period illustration clearly showing several remote-controlled, machinegun armed Fahrpanzer engaged in trench warfare does exist, however no photos or documents exist to suggest the idea ever evolved past the conceptual stage.

Armament consisted of one Grunson 5.3 cm quick-fire gun capable of +10 degrees and minus 5 degrees elevation, mounted in a 360 degree rotating turret. The gun could fire a 1.75 kg shell with a muzzle velocity of 495 m/sec, and fire a maximum of 30 shells per minute. The shells were fed from inside by the two-man gun crew, who would be fully protected by the Fahrpanzer's armor until it ran out of ammunition. In practice the firing of the gun destabilized the Fahrpanzer badly, reducing the accuracy of the crew's aim. (source en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrpanzer )


Survivors:

Fahrpanzer - Tøjhusmuseet, Copenhagen (Denmark)
picasaweb.google.com/1...5329596930

(2x) Fahrpanzer - War Museum, Athens (Greece)
www.flickr.com/photos/...193139808/
www.flickr.com/photos/...193139808/
wallpapergravity.com/I...?ID=491656

Fahrpanzer - Royal Museum of the Armed Forces, Brussels (Belgium)
commons.wikimedia.org/...photo2.JPG
svsm.org/gallery/fahrpanzer

(2x) Fahrpanzer - Polish Army Museum, Fort IX Czerniakowski, Warsaw (Poland)
commons.wikimedia.org/...C3%B3w.jpg

Fahrpanzer - Fort de Mutzig, also known as Feste Kaiser Wilhelm II (France)
www.dsm1918.de/gerate-...zer-1.html

Fahrpanzer - Fort Hospitz (Switzerland)
www.festungswelt.de/sc...hospiz.htm

(3x) Fahrpanzer - Fort Airolo (Switzerland)
www.fortlitroz.ch/index.php?p=200
fortifikace.sweb.cz/ai...airolo.htm

(2x) Fahrpanzer - Museo de Cañones Navales, Viña del Mar (Chile)
www.vinadelmar.travel/...vales.html

(2x) Fahrpanzer - Escuela Naval de Chile, Viña del Mar (Chile)
www.fsgfort.com/upload...8%20Pb.pdf (photo show 4 but two are now at Museo de Cañones Navale)


Fahrpanzer - Valparaíso (Chile)
www.flickr.com/photos/...otostream/

Fahrpanzer - National Museum of Military History, Sofia (Bulgaria)
www.bulgarianartillery...Athens.htm

Fahrpanzer - under restoration (Bulgaria)
imageshack.us/photo/my...48229.jpg/

Fahrpanzer (patrs/wreck) - Feste Baden, near Wattwiller (France)
www.panoramio.com/photo/36777625

Any more ... ?