German cannon on rails. Schwerer Gustav - the world's largest cannon
In 1936, Adolf Hitler was faced with the problem of breaking the French Maginot Line, a 400-kilometer defensive line consisting of fortified bunkers, defensive structures, machine gun nests and artillery emplacements. It was decided to build a weapon of such power that it would be able to destroy the long-term fortifications of the line. The factories of Friedrich Krupp A.G produced two monstrous guns: Big Dora and Tolstoy Gustav. "Gustav" (Schwerer Gustav) weighed as much as 1344 tons and could only move on railway, and it took three whole days to prepare for shooting. This thing took part in hostilities only once and was captured by the Allies near Sevastopol.
Gun" Fat Gustav"weighed 1344 tons and to move it along the railway tracks required the dismantling of some parts. The gun was the height of a four-story building, had a width of 6 meters and a length of 42 meters. The maintenance of the Fat Gustav gun was carried out by a team of 500 people under the command of a high-ranking army official. The team needed almost three days of time to prepare the gun for firing.
The diameter of the Fat Gustav cannon projectile was 800 mm. A charge was used to push the projectile out of the barrel smokeless powder weighing 1360 kilograms. There were two types of ammunition for the gun:
high-explosive projectile weighing 4800 kilograms, filled with powerful explosive, and an all-metal projectile weighing 7500 kilograms for destroying concrete.
The speed of the projectiles fired from the barrel of the Fat Gustav cannon was 800 meters per second.
The elevation angle of the Fat Gustav gun barrel is 48 degrees, thanks to which it can hit a target with a high-explosive projectile at a distance of 45 kilometers. The projectile, designed to destroy concrete, could hit a target at a distance of 37 kilometers. Having exploded, the high-explosive shell of the Fat Gustav cannon left a crater 10 meters deep, and a concrete-piercing shell could pierce about 80 meters of reinforced concrete structures.
They finished building it by the end of 1940 and the first test shots were fired at the beginning of 1941 at the Rugenwalde training ground. On this occasion, Hitler and Albert Speer, Reich Minister of Arms and Munitions, arrived on a visit.
The installation of the gun began in early May and by June 5 the gun was ready to fire. It fired 300 shells into Sevastopol (at a rate of about 14 per day) and fired another 30 times during the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, after which the gun fell into the hands of the Allies, who sold it for scrap.
Not easy to charge
Projectile and charge in a case of an 800 mm cannon
The construction of "Fat Gustav" was often described as a waste of time and money, which was partly true, although the defenders of Sevastopol may have had a different opinion. On the other hand, if it had not been possible to bypass the Maginot Line and it had been possible to shoot at Gibraltar, then the gun could have played important role in war. But there are too many "woulds" here.
During the siege of Sevastopol, cannon shots were guided by data from a reconnaissance aircraft. The first defeat from a cannon was a group coastal guns, destroyed by a total of 8 salvos. 6 salvos were fired at Fort Stalin with the same effect. 7 shots were fired at the Molotov fort and 9 at the Northern Bay, where a successful hit from a heavy shell penetrated the fort deep into the ammunition depots, which destroyed it entirely.
Neither helped the Nazis nor powerful weapon, nor a well-trained army. History has put everything in its place.
Hitler and the Generals examine fat Gustav in 1941.
In 1936, Adolf Hitler was faced with the problem of breaking the French Maginot Line, a 400-kilometer defensive line consisting of fortified bunkers, defensive structures, machine gun nests and artillery emplacements.
Thanks to this, the Maginot line of defense, in addition to its considerable length, provided a defense depth of 100 kilometers. Having visited the Friedrich Krupp A.G. engineering plant in 1936, Hitler ordered the development of a weapon capable of destroying long-term fortifications, which was supposed to help overcome the Maginot Line. In 1937, Krupp engineers completed the development of this weapon, and in 1941, two copies of the weapon were created, the 800-mm Dora and Fat Gustav guns.
The Fat Gustav gun weighed 1,344 tons and some parts had to be dismantled to move it along the railroad tracks. The gun was the height of a four-story building, had a width of 6 meters and a length of 42 meters. The maintenance of the Fat Gustav gun was carried out by a team of 500 people under the command of a high-ranking army official. The team needed almost three days to prepare the gun for firing.
The diameter of the Fat Gustav cannon projectile was 800 mm. To push the projectile out of the barrel, a charge of smokeless powder weighing 1360 kilograms was used. There were two types of ammunition for the gun:
a high-explosive projectile weighing 4800 kilograms, filled with a powerful explosive, and an all-metal projectile weighing 7500 kilograms for destroying concrete.
The speed of the projectiles fired from the barrel of the Fat Gustav cannon was 800 meters per second.
The elevation angle of the Fat Gustav gun barrel is 48 degrees, thanks to which it can hit a target with a high-explosive projectile at a distance of 45 kilometers. The projectile, designed to destroy concrete, could hit a target at a distance of 37 kilometers. Having exploded, the high-explosive shell of the Fat Gustav cannon left a crater 10 meters deep, and a concrete-piercing shell could pierce about 80 meters of reinforced concrete structures.
They finished building it by the end of 1940 and the first test shots were fired at the beginning of 1941 at the Rugenwalde training ground. On this occasion, Hitler and Albert Speer arrived on a visit, Reich Minister for Armaments and Munitions.
Interesting facts:
- In German the gun was called Schwerer Gustav.
- The construction of "Fat Gustav" was often described as a waste of time and money, which was partly true, although the defenders of Sevastopol may have had a different opinion. On the other hand, if it had not been possible to bypass the Maginot Line and it had been possible to shoot at Gibraltar, then the gun could have played an important role in the war. But there are too many "woulds" here.
- During the siege of Sevastopol, cannon shots were guided by data from a reconnaissance aircraft. The first defeat from the cannon was a group of coastal guns, destroyed by a total of 8 salvos. 6 salvos were fired at Fort Stalin with the same effect. 7 shots were fired at the Molotov fort and 9 at the Northern Bay, where a successful hit from a heavy shell penetrated the fort deep into the ammunition depots, which destroyed it entirely.
Hitler instructed the leadership of the Krupp concern to develop a heavy-duty long-range weapon capable of penetrating concrete fortifications up to seven meters thick and one meter of armor. The implementation of this project was the super-powerful Dora cannon, named after the wife of its chief designer, Erich Muller.
The first samples of super-heavy guns
By the time the Fuhrer came up with such an ambitious idea, German industry already had experience in producing artillery monsters. At the end of the First World War, Paris was bombarded by a battery consisting of three heavy guns"Colossal" system. The barrels of these monsters had a caliber of two hundred and seven millimeters and sent their projectiles over a distance of over one hundred kilometers, which was considered a record at that time.
However, calculating the damage caused to the French capital by this battery showed that its real effectiveness was insignificant. With an exceptional range, the accuracy of the guns was extremely low, and they could not fire at specific objects, but only at huge areas.
Only a small part of the shells hit residential buildings or other structures. The guns were mounted on railway platforms and required at least eighty men to operate each one. Taking into account, moreover, their high cost, it turned out that the costs of them largely exceeded the damage that they were capable of inflicting on the enemy.
The shame of the Treaty of Versailles
At the end of the war, the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, among other restrictions, prohibited Germany from producing guns whose caliber exceeded one hundred and fifty millimeters. It is for this reason that for the leadership of the Third Reich it was a matter of prestige, trampling on the articles of a treaty that was humiliating for them, to create a cannon capable of surprising the world. As a result, “Dora” appeared - an instrument of retribution for injured national pride.
Creating an Artillery Monster
The work on creating the project and producing this monster took five years. Super heavy railway gun"Dora" with her own technical parameters surpassed imagination and common sense. Despite the fact that a projectile fired from it with a caliber of eight hundred and thirteen millimeters flew only fifty kilometers, it was capable of penetrating seven meters of reinforced concrete, a meter of armor and thirty-meter thick earthen fortifications.
Problems associated with using the implement
However, these undoubtedly high figures lost their meaning if we take into account that the gun, with extremely low fire accuracy, required truly large-scale maintenance and operating costs. It is known, for example, that the position occupied by the Dora railway gun was at least four and a half kilometers. The entire installation was delivered disassembled, and its installation took up to one and a half months, which required two 110-ton cranes.
Such a gun consisted of five hundred people, but in addition to this, a guard battalion and a transport battalion were assigned to them. Two trains and another energy train were used to transport ammunition. In general, the personnel required to service one such gun was one and a half thousand people. To feed such a number of people, they even had their own field bakery. From all this it is clear that “Dora” is a weapon that requires incredible costs for its operation.
First attempt to use the weapon
For the first time, the Germans tried to use their new brainchild against the British to destroy what they had built in Gibraltar. But immediately a problem arose with transportation across Spain. In a country that has not yet recovered from civil war, there were no lifting bridges and roads necessary to transport such a monster. In addition, dictator Franco did his best to prevent this, not wanting to drag the country into a military clash with the Western allies at that moment.
Transfer of guns to the eastern front
In view of these circumstances, the Dora super-heavy gun was sent to the eastern front. In February 1942, it arrived in Crimea, where it was placed at the disposal of the army, which unsuccessfully tried to storm Sevastopol. Here is 813 mm siege cannon"Dora" was used to suppress Soviet coastal batteries equipped with 305 mm guns.
An inordinately large staff servicing the installation here at eastern front, it was necessary to increase additional security forces, since from the first days of arrival on the peninsula the cannon and its crew were attacked by partisans. As is known, railway artillery is very vulnerable to air strikes, so to cover the guns from air raids it was necessary to additionally use anti-aircraft division. It was also joined by a chemical unit whose task was to create smoke screens.
Preparing a combat position to begin shelling
The location for installing the gun was chosen with special care. It was identified during an air overflight of the territory by the commander of the heavy gun formation, General Zuckerort. He chose one of the mountains, in which a wide cut was made to equip a combat position. In order to ensure technical control The Krupp company sent its specialists to the combat area to develop and manufacture the gun.
The design features of the gun made it possible to move the barrel only in a vertical position, so to change the direction of fire (horizontally), the Dora gun was placed on a special platform, which moved along the arc of steeply curved railway tracks. To move it, two powerful diesel locomotives were used.
Installation work artillery installation and its preparations for firing were completed by the beginning of June 1942. To intensify the fire strike on the fortifications of Sevastopol, the Germans used, in addition to the Dora, two more self-propelled units"Charles". The caliber of their barrels was 60 cm. They were also powerful and destructive weapons.
Memories of event participants
Eyewitness accounts remain memorable day June 5, 1942. They talk about how two powerful locomotives rolled this monster weighing 1,350 tons along a rail arc. It had to be installed to the nearest centimeter, which was done by a team of machinists. For the first shot, a projectile weighing 7 tons was placed in the charging part of the gun.
A balloon rose into the air, the task of the crew was to adjust the fire. When the preparations were completed, the entire crew of the gun was withdrawn to shelters located at a distance of several hundred meters. From the same eyewitnesses it is known that the recoil from the shot was so strong that the rails on which the platform stood went five centimeters into the ground.
A useless piece of military art
Military historians disagree on the number of shots fired German gun"Dora" in Sevastopol. Based on the data of the Soviet command, there were forty-eight of them. This matches technical resource a trunk that cannot withstand more of them (then it needs to be replaced). German sources claim that the cannon fired at least eighty shots, after which, during the next raid by Soviet bombers, the power train was disabled.
In general, the Wehrmacht command was forced to admit that Hitler’s vaunted Dora gun did not live up to the hopes placed on it. Despite all the costs incurred, the effectiveness of the fire was minimal. Only one successful hit was recorded at an ammunition depot, located at a distance of twenty-seven kilometers. The remaining multi-ton shells fell without any benefit, leaving behind deep craters in the ground.
No damage was caused to the defensive structures, since they could only be destroyed as a result of direct hits. There is a statement about this gun from the chief of staff ground forces Wehrmacht, Colonel General He said that the largest cannon "Dora" is just a useless work of art. It is difficult to add anything to the judgment of this military specialist.
The Fuhrer's anger and new plans
Such disappointing results shown by the Dora gun during combat operations aroused the Fuhrer’s anger. He was committed to this project high hopes. According to his calculations, the weapon, despite the prohibitively high costs associated with its production, should have been delivered to mass production and thus introduce significant change into the balance of power on the fronts. In addition, the serial production of a weapon of this scale was supposed to indicate the industrial potential of Germany.
After the failure in Crimea, Krupp designers tried to improve their brainchild. It was supposed to be a completely different Dora heavy artillery mount. The gun was supposed to be made ultra-long-range, and it was supposed to be used on Western Front. It was planned to make fundamental changes to its design, allowing, according to the authors’ plans, to fire three-stage rockets. But such plans, fortunately, were not destined to come true.
During the war, in addition to the Dora cannon, the Germans released another super heavy weapon eighty centimeters caliber. It was named after the head of the Krupp company, Gustav Krupp von Bollen - “Fat Gustav”. This gun, which cost Germany ten million marks, turned out to be as unusable as the Dora. The weapon had almost the same numerous disadvantages and very limited advantages. At the end of the war, both installations were blown up by the Germans.
The Dora and Gustav guns are giant guns.
The Dora super-heavy railway-mounted artillery gun was developed in the late 1930s by the German company Krupp. This weapon was designed to destroy fortifications on the borders of Germany with Belgium and France (Maginot Line). In 1942, "Dora" was used to storm Sevastopol, and in 1944 to suppress the uprising in Warsaw.
The development of German artillery after World War I was limited Treaty of Versailles. According to the provisions of this treaty, Germany was prohibited from having any anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, as well as guns whose caliber exceeded 150 mm. Thus, the creation of large-caliber and powerful artillery was a matter of honor and prestige, the leaders of Nazi Germany believed.
Based on this, in 1936, when Hitler visited one of the Krupp factories, he categorically demanded that the company's management design a super-powerful weapon that would be capable of destroying the French Maginot Line and Belgian border forts, for example, Eben-Emal. According to the requirements of the Wehrmacht, a cannon shell must be capable of penetrating 7 m thick concrete, 1 m thick armor, 30 meters hard ground, and the maximum range of the gun should be 25-45 km. and have a vertical guidance angle of +65 degrees.
The group of designers of the Krupp concern, which began creating a new super-powerful gun according to the proposed tactical and technical requirements, was headed by Professor E. Muller, who had extensive experience in this issue. The development of the project was completed in 1937, and in the same year the Krupp concern was given an order for production new gun caliber 800mm. Construction of the first gun was completed in 1941. The gun, in honor of E. Muller’s wife, was given the name “Dora”. The second gun, which was named “Fat Gustav” in honor of the management of the company Gustav von Bohlen and Halbach Krupp, was built in mid-1941. In addition, a third 520 mm caliber gun was designed. and a trunk length of 48 meters. It was called "Long Gustav". But this weapon was not completed.
In 1941, 120 km. west of Berlin, at the Rügenwalde-Hillersleben training ground, guns were tested. Adolf Hitler himself, his comrade-in-arms Albert Speer, as well as other high army officials were present at the tests. Hitler was pleased with the test results.
Although the guns did not have some mechanisms, they met the requirements that were specified in the technical specifications. All tests were completed by the end of the 42nd year. The gun was delivered to the troops. By the same time, the company's factories had produced over 100 800mm caliber shells.
The locking of the barrel bolt, as well as the delivery of projectiles, were carried out by hydraulic mechanisms. The gun was equipped with two lifts: for cartridges and for shells. The first part of the barrel was with a conical thread, the second with a cylindrical thread.
The gun was mounted on a 40-axle conveyor, which was located on a double railway track. The distance between the tracks was 6 meters. In addition, another railway track was laid on the sides of the gun for installation cranes. Gross weight guns was 1350 tons. To fire, the gun needed an area up to 5 km long. The time spent preparing the gun for firing consisted of choosing a position (could reach 6 weeks) and assembling the gun itself (about 3 days).
Transportation of implements and maintenance personnel.
The gun was transported by rail. So, “Dora” was delivered to Sevastopol by 5 trains in 106 cars:
1st train: service (672nd artillery division, about 500 people), 43 cars;
2nd train, auxiliary equipment and assembly crane, 16 cars;
3rd train: cannon parts and workshop, 17 cars;
4th train: loading mechanisms and barrel, 20 cars;
5th train: ammunition, 10 cars.
Combat use.
In World War II, Dora took part only twice.
The first time the gun was used was to capture Sevastopol in 1942. During this campaign, only one case was recorded of a successful hit by a Dora shell, which caused an explosion of an ammunition depot located at a depth of 27 meters. The remaining Dora shots penetrated the ground to a depth of 12 meters. After the explosion of the shell, a drop-shaped shape with a diameter of about 3 meters was formed in the ground, which did not cause much harm to the defenders of the city. In Sevastopol, the gun fired 48 shells.
After Sevastopol, "Dora" was sent to Leningrad, and from there to Essen for repairs.
The second time Dora was used was in 1944 to suppress the Warsaw Uprising. In total, the gun fired more than 30 shells into Warsaw.
The end of Dora and Gustav.
On April 22, 1945, the advanced units of the Allied army were 36 km away. from the city of Auerbach (Bavaria) they discovered the remains of the Dora and Gustav guns blown up by the Germans. Subsequently, everything that remained from these giants of the 2nd World War was sent for melting down.
"Dora" is a beautiful work of art, but useless
Photo: the biggest german gun Dora
In 1936, during the Fuhrer’s visit to the Krupp factories, he demanded that the company’s management create artillery system, with which one could crush French forts on the Maginot Line and Belgian fortifications. Krupp experts calculated: in order to break through concrete floors seven meters thick and a steel slab one meter thick, you will need armor-piercing projectile weighing about seven tons, which suggested the caliber of the future artillery system to be at least 800 mm.
“Wife” weighing 400 tons
The Krupp design team, which began developing a new weapon, was headed by Professor Eric Mulle. By his wife's name future gun called "Dora". Calculations showed that in order to fire from a distance of 35-45 km and not fall under the return fire of enemy artillery, the projectile had to have a large initial speed. And for this, the gun must have a long barrel and, according to the calculations of Krupp engineers, weigh at least 400 tons!
Work on the monster weapon began in 1937. But due to the difficulties encountered in creating artillery system, capable of firing the first shot, succeeded only in September 1941. The Maginot Line and the Belgian forts had already been captured by German troops. Nevertheless, work on “Dora” continued. The miracle gun was completely ready for battle in January 1942. Its construction cost the German treasury a monstrous sum - 10 million Reichsmarks.
How was it structured?
Like everyone else like her artillery installations, “Dora” consisted of two parts - the gun itself and the railway transporter. The length of the gun barrel was 32 calibers - 32.48 m, of which the length of its rifled part - 36.2 calibers - 28.9 m. The barrel was locked using a wedge bolt with a hydraulic drive. The Dora was loaded using a separate cartridge case.
The survivability of the barrel was estimated at one hundred shots, however, as practice has shown, after fifteen shots the barrel bore began to wear out. The weight of the gun was 400 tons.
Because of huge size and the mass of the gun, the Krupp designers had to construct a unique railway transporter that occupied two parallel rail tracks at once. Thus, the result was a giant conveyor with forty axles and eighty wheels, forty wheels per track.
After assembling the conveyor, a lower machine with a cradle and a recoil system was installed on it. Following this, the gun barrel was mounted and the loading platform was assembled. At the rear of the platform, two electrically driven lifts were installed to supply shells and charges from the railway track to the platforms. Mechanism vertical aiming used an electro-hydraulic drive and provided pointing of the gun in the vertical plane in the angle range from 0 to 65 degrees. A horizontal aiming was carried out due to the fact that the railway tracks were made in the form of curves of a certain radius. At the same time, shooting was carried out only strictly parallel to these paths - any deviation threatened to overturn the installation under the influence enormous power rollback In combat position, the length of the installation was 43 m, width 7 m, height 11.6 m.
The time to prepare a gun for firing consisted of the time to equip the firing position (from three to six weeks) and the time to assemble the gun mount (three days). To equip the firing position, an area measuring 4.5x4.5 km and 250 people was required personnel. Taking into account the electrical unit, the mass of the Dora artillery mount was 1350 tons.
March to Sevastopol
In February 1942, the Chief of Staff of the Ground Forces, General Halder, ordered the Dora supercannon to be sent under Sevastopol and transfer it to the disposal of the commander of the 11th German army General Manstein. Near Sevastopol, “Dora” was delivered in 106 carriages on five trains. The service personnel were transported in 43 carriages of the first train, and the kitchen and camouflage equipment were also located there. The installation crane and auxiliary equipment were transported in 16 cars of the second train. Parts of the gun itself and the workshop were transported in 17 carriages of the third train. The barrel and loading mechanisms were transported in 20 cars of the fourth train. The last fifth train, consisting of 10 wagons, transported shells and powder charges; an artificial climate was maintained in its wagons. constant temperature 15°C.
Direct maintenance of the gun was assigned to the special 672nd artillery battalion"E" numbered about five hundred people under the command of Colonel of Artillery Bova and consisted of several units, including headquarters and fire batteries. The headquarters battery included computer groups that carried out all the calculations necessary for aiming at the target, as well as a platoon of artillery observers, in which, in addition to conventional means(theodolites, stereo tubes), and infrared technology, new for that time, was used.
The gun's crew also included a transport battalion, a commandant's office, a camouflage company and a field bakery. In addition, the personnel included a field post office and a marching brothel. Plus, two dozen engineers from the Krupp concern were assigned to the division. For engineering training a thousand sappers and one and a half thousand were allocated to positions near Sevastopol local residents, forcibly mobilized for earthworks. The protection of the Dora position was entrusted to a guard company of three hundred people, as well as large group field gendarmes and special group with guard dogs.
In addition, a reinforced military chemical unit of 500 people was assigned to the Dora support group, designed to set up a smoke screen for camouflage from the air, and a reinforced air defense artillery battalion with 88-mm anti-aircraft guns and a battery of 20-mm anti-aircraft guns. From the air, fighters from the 8th Air Corps of General Wolfram von Richthofen patrolled over the Dora's firing positions.
The total number of personnel involved in servicing the supergun was four thousand people.
A lot of noise - and nothing?
On April 25, 1942, trains with the artillery mount dismantled into pieces arrived in Crimea in compliance with all precautions. The position for "Dora" was chosen 25 kilometers from Sevastopol and two kilometers from railway station Bakhchisaray. During the preparation of the position for “Dora,” a kilometer-long railway line was laid and “whiskers” were laid, which provided a horizontal firing angle of 45 degrees. Work on the construction of the firing position was carried out over four weeks.
On June 5, 1942, at dawn, the gun was brought to fighting position, and from the cellar car the armor-piercing projectile was lifted onto the charging table, and from it into the breech of the barrel.
At 05:35 in the morning the first shot of the miracle weapon was fired, from which dishes flew off the shelves in the dining car, standing three kilometers from the Dora’s firing position, and in Bakhchisarai glass flew out into residential buildings. After 45 seconds, German observers cutting edge recorded the explosion of a huge shell in the area of the field ammunition depot of the 96th rifle division. The subsequent seven Dora shots were fired according to the old coastal battery No. 16 south of the village of Lyubimovka. Six more shots were fired that day at anti-aircraft battery Black Sea Fleet in the area of the Mekenzievy Gory station. The last shot of "Dora" that day sounded around eight o'clock in the evening.
On June 6, the supercannon fired sixteen shells, and on June 7, “Dora” fired seven shots at the arsenal adits in Sukharnaya Balka. In total, Dora fired 48 shells near Sevastopol. What is the result of this shooting?
Artillery observers were unable to detect the fall of seven shells. According to some reports, they went overboard and fell into the sea. And only five shells from the giant cannon hit their targets. General Manstein, who eventually took Sevastopol and received the field marshal’s baton for this, wrote in his memoirs: “ It was a miracle artillery equipment. The trunk had a length of about 30 m, and the carriage reached the height of a three-story building. It took about 60 trains to deliver this monster along specially laid tracks to firing position. Two divisions were constantly on standby to cover him. anti-aircraft artillery. In general, these expenses undoubtedly did not correspond to the achieved effect. The gun, with one shot, destroyed a large ammunition depot on the northern shore of Severnaya Bay, hidden in the rocks at a depth of 30 m.”.
In other cases, Dora shells penetrated the ground to a depth of 12 meters. After the explosion of the shell, a drop-shaped crater with a diameter of about 3 meters was formed in the ground, which did not cause much harm to the city’s defenders.
As a summary, you can cite the words spoken by the boss General Staff Wehrmacht Colonel General Halder, who, by the way, was himself an artilleryman: “A real work of art, but useless.”
An inglorious end
After the “tour” near Sevastopol, “Dora” was sent to Leningrad. True, she arrived there without her most important part - without the trunk. Due to its complete wear and tear, it was sent for repairs to Essen, but in the meantime the carriage and all other equipment of the gun mount remained at the Taytsy station. They were also going to bring there the second supercannon, built at the factories of the Krupp concern and given the name “Fat Gustav” in honor of the head of the concern Gustav von Bohlen and Halbach Krupp. But soon the advance of the Red Army breaking the blockade forced the Germans to remove their superguns from the frontline zone.
Once again "Dora" took part in hostilities in September-October 1944. Then the artillery mount was brought near Warsaw, where it fired about thirty of its shells at the rebellious capital of Poland. These superguns were never fired anywhere else. True, in 1944, Hitler ordered the use of the Dora to shell the British Isles from French territory. For this purpose, special three-stage rockets. But by that time, the Allied troops had advanced far into France, and the idea of firing a supercannon at London became irrelevant...
In the spring of 1945, during the offensive of the Anglo-American allies, forward patrols discovered in the forest near the Bavarian city of Auerbach, at a dead end on the railway tracks, platforms loaded with some kind of metal structures, and pieces of metal twisted by explosions lying nearby. These were the remains of Hitler's two superguns. After studying and carefully photographing, the remains of “Dora” and “Gustav” were sent to scrap metal.
If we consider that 78 shells were fired at the enemy from the monster Dora cannon, and the Gustav did not participate in hostilities at all, then the Dora project can be considered the most costly mistake in artillery development planning.
Gun "Dora"
Weight in combat position: 1350 tons.
Weight in stowed position: 317 t.
Conveyor length: 41,300 mm.
Caliber: 807 mm.
Barrel length: 40 calibers.
Initial projectile speed: 1500 m/sec.
Elevation angle: up to 65°.
Rate of fire: 1 shot/20 min.
Firing range: high-explosive projectile - up to 47 km, armor-piercing projectile - 38 km.
Dora gun characteristics and device
Dora gun characteristics and device
1. Barrel
2. Carriage
3. Rail transport
4. Guards for personnel
5. Recoil system
6. Breech with wedge breech
7. Electric motor of the vertical guidance mechanism
8. Projectile rammer
9. Charging platform
10. Electric projectile lift
Super shells for the super gun
"Dora" fired 7-ton concrete-piercing and 4.8-ton high explosive shells, containing, respectively, 250 kg. and 700 kg. explosives. Concrete-piercing projectile pierced the armor thickness up to 1 meter, concrete - up to 8 meters, hard ground- up to 32 meters.