Dora and Gustav gun. “Dora”: how the largest cannon of the Second World War fired at the cities of the USSR
At the end of 1783, President Russian Academy Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, the favorite of Empress Catherine II, gathered academicians of literature, including prominent writers Gavrila Derzhavin and Denis Fonvizin. The princess asked the learned men if they knew how to spell the word “Christmas tree.” After a short brainstorming Academicians decided that it should be written “yulka”. But to Dashkova’s next question, whether it is legal to represent one sound in two letters, the pundits could not find an answer. Approaching the board, the princess erased the “i” and “o”, writing the letter “e” instead. Since then, academicians began to use the letter “e” in correspondence with the princess. The letter came to the people only in 1797 through the efforts of Nikolai Karamzin, who used it in his almanac “Aonids”.
Ekaterina Dashkova was born in 1744 into a family of Moscow boyars. Her father Roman Vorontsov became fabulously rich during the time of Catherine I and even received the nickname “Roman - a big pocket.” Dashkova was one of the most educated women of her time, capable of arguing with philosophers and encyclopedists on equal terms. She was considered the closest friend of Catherine II. True, on the night when the queen overthrew her husband Peter III, Dashkova overslept. Ekaterina could not forgive Dashkova for this, and the friendship fell apart.
The letter “ё” became widely known thanks to the famous historian Karamzin. In the first book of his poetic almanac "Aonids" with the letter "ё" the words "dawn", "eagle", "moth" and "tears", as well as the verb "flowed", were printed. In this regard, Karamzin was considered the author of the letter “ё”... And of all thirty-three letters of the Russian alphabet, not a single one caused as much controversy as the letter “Ё”...
On November 29, 1783, in the house of the director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, one of the first meetings of the newly created Russian Academy took place, which was attended by G. R. Derzhavin, D. I. Fonvizin, I. I. Lepyokhin, Ya. B. Knyazhnin , Metropolitan Gabriel and others. The project of a complete explanatory Slavic-Russian dictionary, the later famous 6-volume “Dictionary of the Russian Academy”, was discussed.
The academicians were about to go home when Ekaterina Romanovna asked those present if anyone could write the word “Christmas tree”. The academics decided that the princess was joking, but she, having written the word “Iolka” she had spoken, asked: “Is it legal to represent one sound with two letters?” Noting that “these reprimands have already been introduced by custom, which, when it does not contradict common sense, should be followed in every possible way,” Dashkova proposed using the new letter “e” “to express words and reprimands, with this consent, beginning as matіoryy, іolka, іож , іol".
Dashkova’s arguments seemed convincing, and the feasibility of introducing a new letter was asked to be assessed by Metropolitan Gabriel of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, a member of the Academy of Sciences. On November 18, 1784, the letter “е” received official recognition.
After this, the letter E for 12 years occasionally appeared only in handwritten form and, in particular, in the letters of G.R. Derzhavin. Replicating it printing press took place in 1795 at the Moscow University Printing House with H. Riediger and H. A. Claudia during the publication of the book “And My Trinkets” by Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev, a poet, fabulist, chief prosecutor of the Senate, and then Minister of Justice. This printing house, in which, by the way, the newspaper “Moskovskie Vedomosti” was printed since 1788, was located on the site of the current Central Telegraph.
The first word printed with the letter E was the word “everything”. Then came the words: light, stump, immortal, cornflower. In 1796, in the same printing house, N. M. Karamzin in his first book “Aonid” with the letter E prints: dawn, eagle, moth, tears and the first verb with E “flowed”. Then in 1797 - the first annoying typo in a word with E. The proofreader did not notice, and the edition was published with “garnished” instead of “faceted”. And in 1798, G.R. Derzhavin used the first surname with the letter E - Potemkin. These are Yo’s first steps through the pages of books.
The spread of the letter “ё” in the 18th-19th centuries was also hampered by the then attitude towards the “yocking” pronunciation as bourgeois, the speech of the “vile rabble”, while the “church” “yocking” pronunciation was considered more cultured and noble.
Formally, the letter “ё”, like “y”, entered the alphabet (and received serial numbers) only in Soviet time.
The decree signed by the Soviet People's Commissar for Education A.V. Lunacharsky read: “Recognize the use of the letter e as desirable, but not obligatory.” And on December 24, 1942, by order people's commissar Education of the RSFSR Vladimir Petrovich Potemkin introduced the mandatory use of the letter “ё” in school practice, and from that time on. it is officially considered part of the Russian alphabet.
The next 14 years of artistic and scientific literature came out with almost complete use of the letter “ё”, but in 1956, on Khrushchev’s initiative, new, somewhat simplified spelling rules were introduced, and the letter “ё” again became optional.
Nowadays, the question of using “е” has become the subject of scientific battles, and the patriotic part of the Russian intelligentsia selflessly defends the obligatory nature of its use. In 2005, a monument was even erected to the letter “ё” in Ulyanovsk.
In accordance with the Letter of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated 05/03/2007 No. AF-159/03 “On the decisions of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language”, it is required to write the letter “ё” in cases where the word may be misread, for example, in names own, since ignoring the letter “е” in this case is a violation of the Federal Law “On state language Russian Federation».
According to the current rules of Russian spelling and punctuation, in ordinary printed texts the letter ё is used selectively. However, at the request of the author or editor, any book can be printed sequentially with the letter “е”.
Myths about the letter E
The problem with the letter e is this: the vast majority of those who talk about it or defend it know very little about it and about the language as a whole. This fact itself, naturally, negatively affects her reputation. Due to the fact that the quality of the argumentation of its supporters is close to zero, fighting it is a piece of cake. Arguments about the sacred seventh place in the alphabet can only work to prove the insanity of their supporter, but not in favor of using the letter e itself.
1. The letter e has always existed, but now enemies are fighting it
This is the most common myth, it is completely unclear where it came from. It seems that people say this because no one will check, but the reference to tradition looks convincing. In reality, the prevalence of the letter е has only grown throughout its history (except for a small deviation, when in the 1940s, it seems, there was a directive on its mandatory use, and then everyone gave up on it).
You need to understand that once upon a time there was not only the letter ё, but even such a sound. In the Church Slavonic language, those words that we pronounce with е are pronounced with е (“brothers and sisters!”), and in general the pair o - e (ѣ) stands in the series a - ya, ou - yu and y - and (ï) (see, for example, “Abridged practical Slavic grammar with systematic Slavic and Russian examples, collections and dictionaries”, Moscow, 1893). Yes, there is no letter e in Church Slavonic either.
The occasional appearance in print at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries of the symbol ё was a response to the appearance of a new sound in speech. But it received official status after the revolution. In a Russian language textbook published in 1911 we read: “E is written in words when this sound is pronounced like yo: ice, dark, light.” It’s not even written “like yo”, it’s written “like yo”. And in the alphabet there is no e: after e comes z. It’s not for me to judge, but I believe that the letter e at that time looked as outlandish in books as the ruble sign looks today.
Letter E - entrance to the store - in Moscow
2. Without it, it is impossible to distinguish between everything and everyone
This, of course, is not entirely a myth, but there is so much misunderstanding around this situation that it should be examined separately.
Let's start with the fact that all the words were written with in different letters and without any ё, so that their indistinguishability today must be blamed on the language reform, during which yati was abolished, and not at all on the practical unusability of ё. Wherein modern rules The Russian language requires writing two dots in cases of possible discrepancies, therefore the non-use of е where “everything” is read without it is a spelling error.
It is clear that the situation can also be the opposite, when you need to suggest that in a certain case it is e that is read. But this problem cannot be overcome by requiring the mandatory use of e.
Memorial sign to the letter E in Perm (on the territory of the Remputmash motor-locomotive repair plant)
3. Numerous examples of reading difficulties prove the need for
When fighting for the letter e, a set of pairs of words is constantly presented, most of which are some unimaginable crap. It feels like these words were specially invented to protect the letter e. What the hell is this bucket, what kind of fable is this? Before you started collecting examples, had you seen or heard these words somewhere?
And, I repeat, in cases where both words can be used equally, spelling rules require the use of ё.
For example, in “The Book about Letters” by Gordon, published by the ArtLebedev Publishing House, the word “learn” does not have dots over it, which is why it naturally reads “let’s find out.” This is a spelling error.
The very fact that to prove your point of view you need to collect examples bit by bit, most of which are completely unconvincing, it seems to me, only proves that the problem has been made up. There are no fewer examples with unspecified stress, but no one fights for the placement of stress.
Practical benefits it would be much more if the word zdorovo were written “zdarova”, because you want to read “zdorovo” with the emphasis on the first syllable. But for some reason no one is fighting for this!
4. Due to inconsistency in the use of е, the surname Montesquieu is misspelled
We also spell the surname Jackson “incorrectly”: in English it is pronounced much closer to Chaksn. The very idea of transmitting foreign language pronunciation in Russian letters is obviously a failure, but when it comes to defending the letter ё, as I already said, no one pays attention to the quality of the argumentation.
The topic of conveying foreign names and titles by means of Russian graphics generally lies beyond the topic of the letter e and is comprehensively covered in the corresponding reference book by R. Gilyarevsky and B. Starostin.
By the way, the sound at the end of Montesquieu is midway between e and e, so in this situation, even if the task is to accurately convey the sound, the choice of e is obvious. And “Pasteur” is completely nonsense; There is no smell of iotation or softening, so “Pastor” is much better suited for transmitting sounds.
5. Poor e is not a letter
The letter е is often sympathized with due to its unfair non-inclusion in the alphabet. The conclusion that it is not in the alphabet is apparently made from the fact that it is not used in house numbering and lists.
In fact, of course, it is in the alphabet, otherwise the rules of the Russian language could not possibly require its use in some cases. In lists, it is not used in the same way as th, due to its similarity with its neighbor. It's just inconvenient. In some cases, it is advisable to also exclude Z and O due to the similarity with the numbers 3 and 0. It’s just that, of all these letters, e is closest to the beginning of the alphabet, and therefore its “dropout” is noticeable most often.
By the way, in license plates Only 12 letters of the alphabet are used.
The situation in pre-revolutionary spelling was completely different: there was no letter e in the alphabet. It was just a symbol that some publishers used to show off. Here Zhenya in another note puts it in a quote from a book published in 1908. It wasn't in the book itself. Why was the quote distorted? In the pre-revolutionary text it looks completely ridiculous.
In any case, fighting for the letter e is the same nonsense as fighting against it. If you like it, write it; if you don’t like it, don’t write it. I like writing because I don't see any reason not to write it. And a Russian-speaking person must be able to read both ways.
compilation based on RuNet materials - Fox
A few facts
The letter E is in the sacred, “lucky” 7th place in the alphabet.
There are about 12,500 words in the Russian language with Ё. Of these, about 150 begin with Ё and about 300 end with Ё.
The frequency of occurrence of E is 1% of the text. That is, for every thousand characters of text there are an average of ten yoshkas.
In Russian surnames, Yo occurs in approximately two cases out of a hundred.
There are words in our language with two and even three letters E: “three-star”, “four-vector”, “Boryolekh” (a river in Yakutia), “Boryogesh” and “Kögelyon” ( male names in Altai).
More than 300 surnames differ only in the presence of E or E. For example, Lezhnev - Lezhnev, Demina - Demina.
In the Russian language there are 12 male and 5 female names, in full forms of which E is present. These are Aksyon, Artyom, Nefed, Parmen, Peter, Rorik, Savel, Seliverst, Semyon, Fedor, Yarem; Alena, Klena, Matryona, Thekla, Flena.
In Ulyanovsk, hometown"yofikator" Nikolai Karamzin, there is a monument to the letter E.
In Russia, there is an official Union of Eficators of Russia, which is engaged in the fight for the rights of “de-energized” words. Thanks to their vigorous activity to besiege the State Duma, now all Duma documents (including laws) are completely “eified.” Yo - at the suggestion of the Chairman of the Union Viktor Chumakov - appeared in the newspapers “Versiya”, “Slovo”, “Gudok”, “Arguments and Facts”, etc., in television credits and in books.
Russian programmers created a jetator - computer program, which automatically places dotted letters in the text. And the artists came up with the copyright - an icon for marking official publications.
On November 29 (November 18, old style), 1783, in the house of the director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, one of the first meetings of the newly created Russian Academy was held, which was attended by the poet Gabriel Derzhavin, playwrights Denis Fonvizin and Jacob Knyazhnin and others. The project of a complete explanatory Slavic-Russian dictionary, the later famous 6-volume Dictionary of the Russian Academy, was discussed.
Dashkova suggested that those present at the meeting introduce a new letter “ё” to represent the corresponding sound in writing, instead of the two letters “io”. For the “minor” letter in the Russian alphabet, they did not invent a new sign: they used the existing letter e, placing two dots above it - an umlaut. The princess's innovative idea was supported by a number of leading cultural figures of the time. Gabriel Derzhavin was the first to use the letter “ё” in personal correspondence. In November 1784, the new letter received official recognition.
The letter was replicated by a printing press in 1795 at the Moscow University Printing House with the publishers Ridiger and Claudius during the publication of the book “And My Trinkets” by Ivan Dmitriev. The first word printed with the letter "е" was the word "everything". Then came the words “light”, “stump”, “immortal”, “cornflower”. In 1796, in the same printing house, Nikolai Karamzin, in his first book “Aonid” with the letter “e”, printed the words “dawn”, “eagle”, “moth”, “tears” and the first verb - “flowed”. In 1798, Gabriel Derzhavin used his first surname with the letter “e” - Potemkin.
In 1904, the Spelling Commission was created at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, which included the largest linguists of that time. The commission's proposals, finally formulated in 1912, boiled down to simplifying graphics based on the phonemic principle (eliminating letters that did not denote any sounds, for example "ъ" at the end of words, and letters denoting the same sounds as other letters, "yat" ", "and decimal", "fita", "izhitsa"). In addition, the commission recognized the use of the letter “ё” as desirable, but not mandatory.
On January 5, 1918 (December 23, 1917, old style), a decree was published, signed by the Soviet People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, who introduced reformed spelling as mandatory and also recommended the use of the letter "ё".
In Soviet times, the letter "ё" was "officially recognized" in 1942, after the publication of the order "On the introduction of the mandatory use of the letter "ё" in school practice." A year later, a reference book on the use of the letter “ё” was published. In 1956, the Academy of Sciences and the Ministry higher education The USSR approved and then published the “Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation” with paragraphs on the use of the letter “ё”. However, in practice its use continued to be optional.
The Russian Federation regulates the use of the letter “ë” in title documents. In a letter from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated May 3, 2007, authorities issuing official state-issued documents to citizens are instructed to use the letter “ё” in proper names.
A letter from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated July 20, 2009 recommends using the letter “ё” in school textbooks.
Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Dmitry Livanov, the rules for using the letters “e” and “e” should be enshrined at the legislative level.
Now the letter “е” is contained in more than 12.5 thousand words, in no less than 2.5 thousand surnames of Russian citizens and former USSR, in thousands geographical names Russia and the world and in thousands of names and surnames of citizens of foreign countries.
In 2005, in Ulyanovsk the letter “ё” was established. The author of the monument, Ulyanovsk artist Alexander Zinin, depicted an exact enlarged copy of the letter that was used in the almanac "Aonids", where Nikolai Karamzin first published a poem with a new letter.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
From the first grade, everyone knows the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet. It's hard to imagine how to pronounce or write words without at least one of them. Still, there are those who like to ignore the modest but completely irreplaceable letter “е” when writing, which leads to an irreparably distorted meaning of the text.
The story of the birth of a small letter began in 1783 in the house of the enlightened Russian princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova. The meeting of the Academy of Russian Literature, which she heads, has just ended. Derzhavin and Fonvizin discussed there the project of publishing the “Dictionary of the Russian Academy” in 6 volumes. The project had the working title “Complete explanatory Slavic-Russian dictionary.”
When the debate died down, Ekaterina Romanovna asked those present to write the word “Christmas tree.” Everyone knew that the word was written as “iolka.” Therefore, pundits took the test as a joke. Then Dashkova asked a simple question. Its meaning made academicians think. Indeed, is it reasonable to use two letters to denote one sound when writing?
The princess's proposal to introduce a new letter “e” into the alphabet with two dots on top to indicate the sound “io” was appreciated by literature experts. Gabriel Romanovich Derzhavin immediately picked up brilliant idea and began to widely use the new letter in personal correspondence.
Pioneer of Russian printed publications, where the letter “е” took its rightful place, a book by Ivan Dmitriev appeared in 1795 under the amusing title “My Trinkets.” We owe the popularization of the new letter to the outstanding writer Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. In 1797, he published his poems, replacing the traditional two letters “io” in the word “sliosis” with one innovative “e”.
Karamzin's book was published in a significant circulation. His revolutionary step had a resonance in enlightened circles of society. And the Russian language has been enriched enormously, thanks to the priceless letter, which accurately and succinctly denotes the meaning of a great many words.
Until recently, it was Karamzin who was considered the parent of the letter “e”. In particular, Big Soviet Encyclopedia stated this with authority. Now historical justice has been restored. And if Princess Dashkova can be called the mother of the new letter, then Karamzin, by right, is her godfather.
In Russia, since 1942, the order of the People's Commissar of Education has been in force to this day, ordering the use of the letter “e” in schooling. Indeed, not using the letter “е” can lead to a distortion of the meaning of some phrases and expressions. So, famous phrase Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy from the novel “Peter the Great”: “Under such a Sovereign we will rest!”, published in last word with the letter “e” instead of “e” - what semantic coloring does it acquire?
To avoid mistakes in interpreting what is written, remember more often unique letter Russian alphabet. It will be clear to those reading the text when you mean “donkey”, when “donkey”, where you want to talk about “sky”, where about “palate”. You will always be understood correctly!
"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 by 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 guidance 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 electric unit mass artillery installation"Dora" was 1350 tons.
March to Sevastopol
In February 1942, the chief of staff 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. Assembly crane and auxiliary equipment 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 crew of the gun 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 the second supercannon, built at the factories of the Krupp concern and named after the head of the concern Gustav von Bohlen and Halbach Krupp. Fat Gustav" 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 for shelling from French territory British Isles. 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.