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Schwerer Gustav
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Schwerer Gustav (English: Heavy Gustav) and Dora were the names of the German 80 cm K (E) railway guns. They were developed in the 1930s by Krupp in order to destroy large forts. They weighed nearly 1,350 tonnes, and could fire shells weighing seven tonnes to a range of 37 kilometers (23 miles). Designed in preparation for World War II, and intended for use against the deep forts of the Maginot Line, they were not ready for action when the Wehrmacht outflanked the line during the Battle of France.
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Schwerer Gustav (English: Heavy Gustav) and Dora were the names of the German 80 cm K (E) railway guns. They were developed in the 1930s by Krupp in order to destroy large forts. They weighed nearly 1,350 tonnes, and could fire shells weighing seven tonnes to a range of 37 kilometers (23 miles). Designed in preparation for World War II, and intended for use against the deep forts of the Maginot Line, they were not ready for action when the Wehrmacht outflanked the line during the Battle of France. Gustav was used in the Soviet Union at the siege of Sevastopol during Operation Barbarossa. They were moved to Leningrad, and may have been intended for Warsaw. Gustav was captured by US troops and cut up. Dora was destroyed near the end of the war to avoid capture by the Red Army.
It was the largest calibre rifled weapon in the history of artillery to see actual combat, and fired the heaviest shells of any artillery piece . It is only surpassed in calibre by the American 36-inch Little David mortar and a handful of earlier siege mortars that all fired smaller shells.
The Nazis envisioned these "super guns" as powerful terror weapons which could smash enemy fortifications and bombard cities from incredible distances. However their massive size and consequent poor mobility made them of little strategic use. In fact, the incredible quantities of materials and manpower required to construct and operate such weapons, both of which might have been put to use elsewhere, meant they likely had a negative overall impact on the Nazi war effort.
Development
In 1934 the German High Command (OKH) commissioned Krupp of Essen, Germany to design a gun to destroy the forts of the French Maginot Line which were then nearing completion. The gun's shells had to punch through seven meters of reinforced concrete or armour plate steel, one metre thick, from beyond the range of French artillery. Krupp engineer Dr. Erich Müller calculated that the task would require a weapon with a calibre of around 80 cm, firing a projectile weighing 7 tonnes from a barrel 30 meters long. As such, the weapon would have a weight of over 1000 tonnes. The size and weight meant that to be at all movable it would need to be supported on twin sets of railway tracks. In common with smaller railway guns, the only barrel movement on the mount would be elevation, traverse being managed by moving the weapon along a curved section of railway line. Krupp prepared plans for calibres of 70 cm, 80 cm, 85 cm, and 1 m.
Nothing further happened until March 1936, when Hitler visited Essen during which he enquired into the giant guns' feasibility. No definite commitment was given by Hitler, but design work began on an 80 cm model. The resulting plans were completed in early 1937 and approved. Fabrication of the first gun started in the summer of 1937. However, producing such a large weapon proved difficult and it became apparent that the original completion date of spring 1940 would not be met.
Krupp built a test model in late 1939 and sent it to the Hillersleben firing range for testing. Penetration was tested on this occasion. Firing at high elevation, the 7.1 tonne shell was able to penetrate the specified seven meters of concrete and the one meter armour plate . When the tests were completed in mid-1940 the complex carriage was further developed. Alfried Krupp personally hosted Hitler at the Rügenwald Proving Ground during the formal acceptance trials of the Gustav Gun in the spring of 1941. Hitler was so awe-struck, he commanded that the 11 tonne shell could only be used at his discretion. As he never gave permission, it was never deployed.
Two guns were ordered. The first round was test-fired from the commissioned gun barrel on September 10 1941 from a makeshift gun carriage on the Hillersleben firing range. In November 1941, the barrel was taken to Rügenwald where 8 further firing tests took place using the 7,100 kilogram armor-piercing (AP) shell out to a range of 37,210 meters.
In combat, the gun was mounted on a specially designed chassis, supported by four bogies on parallel sets of railway tracks. Each of the bogies had 20 axles, giving a total of 80 axles (160 wheels). Krupp christened the gun Schwerer Gustav (Heavy Gustav) after the senior director of the firm, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach.
The ammunition for the gun consisted of a heavy concrete-piercing shell and a lighter high-explosive shell. A super-long-range rocket projectile was also planned with a range of 150 km that would require the barrel being extended to 84 meters. This rocket projectile might have enabled the bombardment of England.
In keeping with the tradition of the Krupp company, no charge was made for the first gun. However, they did charge seven million Reichsmark for the second gun Dora, named after the senior engineer's wife.
History
Schwerer Gustav
In February 1942 Heavy Artillery Unit (E) 672 reorganized and went on the march, and Schwerer Gustav began its long ride to the Crimea. The train carrying the gun was of 25 cars, a total length of 1.5 kilometers (1 mile). The gun reached the Perekop Isthmus in early March 1942, where it was held until early April. A special railway spur line was built to the Simferopol-Sevastopol railway 16 kilometers(10 miles) north of the target, at the end of which four semi-circular tracks were built specially for the Gustav to traverse. Outer tracks were required for the cranes which would have assembled Gustav.
The siege of Sevastopol was to be the gun's first combat test. Installation began in early May, and by 5 June the gun was ready to fire. The following targets were engaged:
- 5 June
- Coastal guns at a range of 25,000 m. Eight shells fired.
- Fort Stalin. Six shells fired.
- 6 June
- Fort Molotov. Seven shells fired.
- The White Cliff: an undersea ammunition magazine in Severnaya Bay. The magazine was sited 30 meters under the sea with at least 10 meters of concrete protection. After nine shells were fired, the magazine was ruined and one of the boats in the bay sunk.
- 7 June
- Firing in support of an infantry attack on Sudwestspitze, an outlying fortification. Seven shells fired.
- 11 June
- Fort Siberia. Five shells fired.
- 17 June
- Fort Maxim Gorki and its coastal battery. Five shells fired.
By the end of the siege on July 4 the city of Sevastopol lay in ruins, and 30,000 tons of artillery ammunition had been fired. Gustav had fired 48 rounds and worn out its original barrel, which had already fired around 250 rounds during testing and development. The gun was fitted with the spare barrel and the original was sent back to Krupp's factory in Essen for relining.
The gun was then dismantled and moved to the northern part of the eastern front, where an attack was planned on Leningrad. The gun was placed some 30 km from the city near the railway station of Taizy. The gun was fully operational when the attack was cancelled. The gun then spent the winter of 1942/43 near Leningrad.
Then it was moved back to Germany for refurbishment. Despite some claims, it was never used in Warsaw during the 1944 uprising, though one of its shells is on display at the Polish Army museum there.
The gun then appears to have been destroyed to prevent its capture sometime before April 22, 1945, when its ruins were discovered in a forest 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of Auerbach about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Chemnitz.
Dora
Dora was the second gun to be produced. It was deployed briefly against Stalingrad, where the gun arrived at its emplacement 15 kilometers (9 miles) to the west of the city sometime in mid-August 1942. It was ready to fire on September 13. It was quickly withdrawn, however, when Soviet encirclement threatened. When the Germans began their long retreat they took Dora with them. Dora was broken up before the end of the war, being discovered in the west by American troops some time after the discovery of Schwerer Gustav.
Langer Gustav
The Langer Gustav was a long cannon with 52 centimeter caliber and a 43 meter barrel. It was intended to fire super-long-range rocket projectiles weighing 680 kilogram to a range of 190 kilometers. This gave it the range to hit London. It was never completed after being damaged during construction by one of the many RAF bombing raids on Essen.
Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster Project
The Monster was to be a 1,500 tonne mobile, self-propelled platform for an 80-cm K (E) gun, along with two 15 cm sFH 18 heavy howitzers, and multiple MG 151 auto cannons. It was deemed impractical, and in 1943 was canceled by Albert Speer. It never left the drawing board and no progress was ever made. It would have easily surpassed the Panzer VIII Maus (Largest and heaviest tank ever built) and the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte (Also never built, although one twin 280 mm gun turret has been rumoured to have been completed) in weight and size.
Ammunition
High Explosive
- Weight of projectile: 4.8 t (4,800 kg)
- Muzzle velocity: 820 m/s
- Maximum range: 48 km
- Explosive mass: 700 kg
- Crater size: 30 ft (10 m) wide 30 ft (10 m) deep.
AP Shell
The main body was made of chrome-nickel steel, fitted with an aluminium alloy ballistic nose cone.
- Length of shell: 3.6 m
- Weight of projectile: 7.1 t (7,100 kg)
- Muzzle velocity: 720 m/s
- Maximum range: 38 km
- Explosive mass: 250 kg
- Penetration: In testing it was demonstrated to penetrate 7 metres of concrete at maximum elevation (beyond that available during combat) with a special charge .
Models
- 80 cm "Schwerer Gustav" (Heavy Gustav) - Deployed in March 1942 against Sevastopol.
- 80 cm "Dora" - Deployed against Stalingrad in September 1942. Possibly never fired.
- 52 cm "Langer Gustav" (Long Gustav) - Started but not completed.
See also
External links
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