Schwerer Gustav and Dora :
Role of cannons during world world-2:
- A destructive feature of the World War II artillery is the cannons .Usage of these canons in 20th century began with the Big Bertha (also known as the “Fat Bertha”) during World War I. Big Bertha proved its effectiveness against older fortifications by destroying several Belgian and French forts.
- However, these cannons were almost helpless against newer constructions built of concrete reinforced by steel.
Evalution of these useless powerful monsters machines :
- Now let’s take a look over the largest cannons ever used in battle. These are the 800 mm Schwerer Gustav and Dora, railway guns developed by the Krupp family company who also developed the Big Bertha cannons in WWI.
- They were designed in the 1930s in order to destroy the strongest defensive facilities of their time – the Maginot Line in France.
- This defensive line was built by the French people along the frontier with Germany and consisted of different obstacles, concrete bunkers and fortifications, and weapons installations. For that purpose cannons should be able to destroy 1 meter thick layer of steel or 7 meter wide wall of reinforced concrete.
- When the war began, the Wehrmacht invaded France by passing through Belgium, thus escaping the Maginot Line and conquering France without necessity of destroying the defensive line.
- Schwerer Gustav was 1350 tons heavy and was capable of firing 7 tons heavy projectiles at a distance of 47 km.
- The gun was destroyed in order to avoid capturing. The Schwerer Gustav
- cousin – Dora, was intended to be used at the siege of Stalingrad. The menace of Soviet capturing forced German army to withdraw Dora from the siege. and later Dora was also destroyed before the end of the war.
- The project was called Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster and had to be powered by 4 submarine diesel engines. It was planned to be armed with Schwerer Gustav as main cannon and two smaller, 150 mm howitzers. The armament would have also included several 15 mm machine guns for air defense. The project was cancelled in 1943 and it remained on the drawing table only.
- Above are some snaps of these monster machines which remained as in papers
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