 Preparing to fire the gun Schwerer Gustav and Dora were the names under which the German 80 cm K (E) railway guns were known. They were developed in the late 1930s by Krupp in order to destroy large, heavily fortified targets. They weighed nearly 1344 tons, and could fire a shell that weighed more than 7 tons at distances up to 37 km. Designed in preparation for World War 2, they were intended to be used against the Maginot Line but instead of a frontal assault the Wehrmacht outflanked the line during the Battle of France. One of the guns was used in Russia at the siege of Sevastopol during Operation Barbarossa. It was destroyed near the end of the war to avoid capture. Image of the Schwerer Gustav gun used by the Nazis in World War II. From http://www. ...
Image of the Schwerer Gustav gun used by the Nazis in World War II. From http://www. ...
A railway gun (also called railroad gun, and formerly called a railgun during World War I and World War II) is a large artillery piece, designed to be placed on rail tracks. ...
This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ...
The Krupp family, a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. ...
The word ton or tonne is derived from the Old English tunne, and ultimately from the Old French tonne, and referred originally to a large cask with a capacity of 252 wine gallons, which holds approximately 2100 pounds of water. ...
Combatants Allies: Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France/Free France, United States, Canada, China, India, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, South Africa, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Burma Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian...
The Maginot Line (IPA: [maʒino], named after French minister of defense André Maginot) was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, machine gun posts and other defenses which France constructed along its borders with Germany and with Italy in the wake of World War I. Generally the term...
German cavalry and motorized units entering Poland from East Prussia during the Polish Campaign of 1939 Wehrmacht (Defence force) was the name of the armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. ...
Combatants Allies (France, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) Germany, Italy Commanders Maurice Gamelin, Maxime Weygand (French) Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R.H. Umberto di Savoia (Army...
There have been two Sieges of Sevastopol, a Russian city on the Crimean peninsula: Siege of Sevastopol (1854) - during the Crimean War Siege of Sevastopol (1942) - during the Second World War This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
Combatants Axis Powers Soviet Union Commanders Supreme commander: Adolf Hitler Supreme commander: Josef Stalin Strength ~ 3. ...
In the history of artillery, only the American 36-inch Little David had a larger caliber. Little David at the Aberdeen proving ground Little David was the nickname of an American 36 inch (914 mm) caliber mortar used for test firing bombs during World War II. Towards the end of the war it was modified to serve as a siege mortar, as it was expected that...
Development
In 1934 the German High Command (OKH) gave to the firm of Krupp of Essen, Germany the problem of designing a gun to destroy the fortresses of the French Maginot Line which was then nearing completion. The gun had to be able to punch through 7 meters of reinforced concrete and an armoured plate 1 meter thick, and do this from a range that kept it out of reach of enemy 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 100 cm. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1964x2412, 208 KB) Summary An 80 cm shell from the massive German Schwerer Gustav railway gun from the Second World War. ...
ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1964x2412, 208 KB) Summary An 80 cm shell from the massive German Schwerer Gustav railway gun from the Second World War. ...
The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank first produced in 1940. ...
Imperial War Museum, Lambeth, London The original location of the Imperial War Museum was the Crystal Palace, located at the top of Sydenham Hill. ...
For other uses, see London (disambiguation). ...
The Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) was Germanys Army High Command from 1936 to 1945. ...
The Krupp family, a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. ...
Essen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ...
The Maginot Line (IPA: [maʒino], named after French minister of defense André Maginot) was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, machine gun posts and other defenses which France constructed along its borders with Germany and with Italy in the wake of World War I. Generally the term...
Reinforced concrete at Sainte Jeanne dArc Church (Nice, France): architect Jacques Dror, 1926–1933 Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete in some countries, is concrete in which reinforcement bars (rebars) or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the material that would otherwise be brittle. ...
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. 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ...
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 almost vertically, the gun was able to penetrate the specified 7 meters of concrete and 1 meter of armour plate [1]. After the tests were completed in mid-1940 the gun and carriage were removed and probably scrapped. Alfried Krupp personally hosted Hitler and Albert Speer (Minister of Armaments) at the Rügenwald Proving Ground during the formal acceptance trials of the Gustav Gun in the spring of 1941. 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...
1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ...
The Krupp family is a prominent 400-year-old German family from Essen, famous for their steel production and manufacture of ammunition and armaments. ...
Hitler redirects here. ...
Albert Speer (March 19, 1905 – September 1, 1981) was born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer in Mannheim, Germany, the second of three sons. ...
For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1941 calendar). ...
The outcome of the tests resulted in orders for two guns. 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 kg armor-piercing (AP) shell out to a range of 37,210 meters. September 10 is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years). ...
For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1941 calendar). ...
In combat the gun was mounted on a specially designed chassis, supported by two bogies on two parallel sets of railway tracks. Each of the bogies had 20 axles, giving a total of 40 axles (80 wheels). Krupp christened the gun Schwerer Gustav (Heavy Gustav) after the senior director of the firm, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, Taffi, (August 7, 1870 - January 16, 1950) ran the German Freidrich Krupp AG heavy industry conglomerate from 1909 until 1941. ...
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 m. This rocket projectile would have enabled the bombardment of England. Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population –mid-2004...
In keeping with the tradition of the Krupp company, no charge was made for the first gun. However, they did charge 7 million Reichsmarks for the second gun Dora, named after the senior engineer's wife. A 100 Reichsmark banknote from Germany of 1935 (http://www. ...
History Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 1827 KB) Please see the file description page for further information. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 1827 KB) Please see the file description page for further information. ...
Polish Army (Polish Wojsko Polskie) is the name applied to the military forces of Poland. ...
Warsaw (Polish: , (?), in full The Capital City of Warsaw, Polish: Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa) is the capital of Poland and its largest city. ...
Schwerer Gustav In February 1942 Heavy Artillery Unit (E) 672 reorganised and went on the march, and Schwerer Gustav began its long ride to the Crimea. The train carrying the gun was 25 cars long, a total length of 1.6 km. The gun reached the Perekop isthmus in early March 1942, where it was held until early April. A special railway spur was built to the Simferopol-Sevastopol railway 10 miles (16 km) north of the target, at the end of which four semi-circular tracks where built specially for the Gustav. The siege of Sevastopol was to be the gun's first combat test. Positioning of the gun began in early May, and by 5 June the gun was ready to fire. The following targets were engaged: Simferopol (Ukrainian, Сімферополь; Russian, Симферополь; Greek, ΣυμφεÏόπολις; Tatar, Aqmescit) is the capital city of Crimea, in Ukraine. ...
Sevastopol (Russian and Ukrainian: СеваÑтополь; Crimean Tatar: ), formerly known as Sebastopol, is a port city in Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of Crimean peninsula. ...
There have been two Sieges of Sevastopol, a Russian city on the Crimean peninsula: Siege of Sevastopol (1854) - during the Crimean War Siege of Sevastopol (1942) - during the Second World War This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
June 5 is the 156th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (157th in leap years), with 209 days remaining. ...
- 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 many of the boats in the bay were damaged.
- 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 4th the city of Sevastopol lay in ruins, 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. June 5 is the 156th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (157th in leap years), with 209 days remaining. ...
June 6 is the 157th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (158th in leap years), with 208 days remaining. ...
June 7 is the 158th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (159th in leap years), with 207 days remaining. ...
June 11 is the 162nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (163rd in leap years), with 203 days remaining. ...
June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining. ...
Sevastopol (Russian and Ukrainian: СеваÑтополь; Crimean Tatar: ), formerly known as Sebastopol, is a port city in Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of Crimean peninsula. ...
Essen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ...
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. Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland...
When the German retreat began the gun was moved back to the west where it fired 30 rounds into the Warsaw Ghetto during the 1944 uprising. The Ghetto Heroes Memorial The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany in General Government during the Holocaust in World War II. In the three years of its existence, starvation, disease and deportations to concentration camps and extermination camps dropped the population of the...
Combatants Poland Germany Commanders Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, Antoni Chruściel, Tadeusz Pełczyński Erich von dem Bach, Rainer Stahel, Heinz Reinefarth, Bronislav Kaminski Strength 50,000 troops 25,000 troops Casualties 18,000 killed, 12,000 wounded, 15,000 taken prisoner 250,000 civilians killed 10,000 killed...
The gun then appears to have been destroyed to prevent its capture sometime before April 22nd 1945, when its ruins were discovered in a forest 15 km (9 miles) north of Auerbach about 50 km (31 miles) southwest of Chemnitz. There are many entities that have the name Auerbach: // Places In Austria Auerbach (Austria), a town in the State of Upper Austria in Germany Auerbach in der Oberpfalz , in the Amberg-Sulzbach district Auerbach (Vogtland), in the Vogtlandkreis district Auerbach (Erzgebirge) (postal code: 09392, lat: 50. ...
Chemnitz (Sorbian/Lusatian Kamjenica, formerly called Karl-Marx-Stadt) is a city in Saxony, Germany. ...
Dora Dora was the second gun to be produced. It was deployed briefly against Stalingrad, where the gun arrived at its emplacement 15 km (9 miles) to the west of the city sometime in mid-August 1942. It was ready to fire on September 13th. However it was quickly withdrawn 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. Stalingrad is the former name of two cities: Volgograd, Russia Karviná-Nové Město, near Ostrava, Czech Republic Other uses: The Battle of Stalingrad (a major turning-point of World War II and arguably the bloodiest battle in human history) Stalingrad (German film set during the above battle) Stalingrad (metro station...
Soviet redirects here. ...
Langer Gustav The Langer Gustav was a long cannon with 52 cm caliber and a 43-m barrel. It was intended to fire super-long-range rocket projectiles weighing 680 kg to a range of 190 km. 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. For other uses, see London (disambiguation). ...
The Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ...
P-1500 "Monster" Although it never left the early planning stages, there was a plan to build a 1500 ton tracked self-propelled Dora, the P-1500—armed with one 800 mm, two 150 mm guns and powered by 4 U-boat diesel engines. It was dubbed "Monster" by Albert Speer. [2] The P-1500 Monster, was in the very early stages of design when it was canceled. ...
U-boat is also a nickname for some diesel locomotives built by GE; see List of GE locomotives October 1939. ...
Albert Speer (March 19, 1905 – September 1, 1981) was born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer in Mannheim, Germany, the second of three sons. ...
General characteristics (Schwerer Gustav) - Weight of gun and mounting: 1,350 t
- Length of gun: 47.3 m
- Height of gun: 11.6 m
- Width of gun: 7.1 m
- Barrel length: 32.48 m
- Propulsion 2 x Oil Electric D311 691 kW locomotives (DRG class V188)
- Maximum elevation: 48° (or 65°; sources differ, may refer to different mountings)
- Weight of propellant charge: 2,500 lb (1134 kg) in 3 increments
- Rate of fire: 1 round every 30 to 45 minutes or typically 14 rounds a day
- Accuracy: 20 % (10 out of 48) of shells fell within 60 m of target point. Worst error was 1 shell landing 740 m from the target point. Assuming normal distribution, this gives an CEP of 190 m.
- Crew: 250 to assemble the gun in 3 days (54 hours), 2,500 to lay track and dig embankments, which would take 3 - 6 weeks depending on the geography of the land. 2 Flak battalions to protect the gun from air attack.
The normal distribution, also called Gaussian distribution, is an extremely important probability distribution in many fields. ...
In the military science of ballistics, Circular Error Probability or circular error probable (CEP) is a simple measure of a weapon systems precision. ...
FLAK was a punk rock side project of members of the band Machinae Supremacy in 2001. ...
Symbol of the Austrian 14th Armoured Battalion in NATO code In military terminology, a battalion consists of two to six companies typically commanded by a lieutenant colonel. ...
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 a aluminium alloy ballistic nose cone. The old steel cable of a colliery winding tower Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. ...
General Name, Symbol, Number aluminium, Al, 13 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 13, 3, p Appearance silvery Atomic mass 26. ...
A ballistic body is a body which is free to move, behave, and be modified in appearance, contour, or texture by ambient conditions, substances, or forces, as by the pressure of gases in a gun, by rifling in a barrel, by gravity, by temperature, or by air particles. ...
- 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: 264 ft (80 m) of reinforced concrete was claimed, but this seems extremely unlikely. In testing it was demonstrated to penetrate 7 metres of concrete at maximum elevation (beyond that available during combat) with a special charge [3].
Reinforced concrete at Sainte Jeanne dArc Church (Nice, France): architect Jacques Dror, 1926–1933 Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete in some countries, is concrete in which reinforcement bars (rebars) or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the material that would otherwise be brittle. ...
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.
Trivia - Dora is featured in Harry Turtledove's Worldwar alternate-history series, in which aliens invade Earth in the midst of World War II. It scores two key hits on landed spaceships, destroying most of the invading force's nuclear arsenal before being taken out by an air strike. The description of the operation of Dora is technically accurate.
- In the cyberpunk manga Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro, a working replica of the Schwerer Gustav made from ancient technical data is used - to no avail - by 26th-century resistance forces against the technologically-superior orbitally-suspended city of Tiphares.
Harry Turtledove at Worldcon 2005 in Glasgow Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949), is a historian and prolific novelist who has written historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction works. ...
Worldwar is a series of four alternate history science fiction novels by Harry Turtledove. ...
Combatants Allies: Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France/Free France, United States, Canada, China, India, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, South Africa, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Burma Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian...
Battle Angel Alita, called GUNNM (銃夢, Gun-Mu) in Japan, is a manga (or graphic novel) series created by Yukito Kishiro in 1991. ...
Yukito Kishiro (木城ゆã㨠Kishiro Yukito) is a Japanese manga author. ...
References
External links - Internet archive copy of panzerlexikon.de video of Dora loading and firing
- Internet archive copy of panzerlexikon.de video of Dora
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