Gun short story:
The Schwerer Gustav was the largest artillery gun ever made. Before the second World War had started, Hitler required a
devastating weapon for the invasion of France that could destroy the Maginot Line
penetrating at several layers of concrete and steel
The Schwerer Gustav was designed in 1934 by the German Arms manufacturer, Krupp. This giant railway gun weighed
1350 tons and had an overall length of 47 point three meters or
155 feet two inches it was mounted on a railway chassis running on specially constructed tracks and had to be
Disassembled and assembled to set up even a set of outer tracks were required for the cranes to achieve this
its barrel length was 32 and a half meters or
168 inches and could only move up or down at an elevation of 48 degrees with horizontal
targeting achieved by a curved tracks the weapon caliber was 80 centimeters or 31 inches and the heavy concrete piercing or
High-explosive shells weighed seven tons making them the largest and heaviest shells of any artillery piece in the world
The gun could fire over a range of 47 kilometers or 29 miles
After a number of shells were fired the barrel would wear away and need replacing
the artillery gun required a staggering number of crew
250 crewmen were required to assemble the gun which took three and a half days while 2,500 crewmen were needed to lay the tracks
Flak battalions were also a necessity to protect the gun from air attacks as it was highly visible due to its size
The Schwerer Gustav would be constructed throughout the 30s
But it would not enter service until
1941 there for missing the French invasion the gun would be transported to the Eastern Front and used at the siege of Sevastopol where
4,000 men were required to set it up in position
It fired 300 shells at several enemy positions including Soviet fortresses and ammunition magazines
After this the Schwerer Gustav was transported to Leningrad, but the attack was canceled
It is unknown whether there was a second gun constructed or whether it was a nickname by the German artillery crew but in 1942
Dora as it became known was operational at Stalingrad, but withdrawn by the Germans
During 1942 the Germans proposed to construct a new version of the gun mounted on a self-propelled platform that could move without
Railway tracks called the landcruiser P. 1500 monster, however the idea was eventually scrapped as
The war was coming to an end the Schwerer Gustav some sources say, was destroyed by the Germans to prevent capture on the 14th of
April 1945 and it's ruins studied by Soviet specialists
Overall the Schwerer Gustav was quite an impractical weapon demanding a large number of crew and setup to become operational
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