Gustav Guns

Built by Krupp, the same manufacturer that produced the legendary "Big Bertha" in WWI, there were 2 Gustavs guns (Gustav and Dora) completed for Hitler with the intention of reducing the French Marginot fortresses.

It saw its first action in the siege of Sevastipol, along with the Karl mortars. It was reported that during one firing mission, it destroyed a Russian underground ammo dump that was buried 100 feet beneath the Severnaya Bay!! Also, a near miss capsized a large ship in the harbor!!
It saw its 2nd and last action in 1944, during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The Dora was set up near Stalingrad in August 1942, but was withdrawn in September to avoid Russian capture. It was blown up by the Germans at the end of the war. The first gun: Gustav, was captured intact by the Americans, unfortunately, it was broken up for scrap. I wish they would have preserve these guns in the Aberdeen proving ground, next to the Anzio Annie.

Specifications of Gustavs:
1,344 ton railroad gun, 800mm (31.5 inches), use 3,000 lb charge to fire either the 10,584 lb HE shell or the 16,540 lb concrete-piercing projectile that can penetrate 264m of reinforced concrete before detonating.
Maximum range of 23 miles with HE and 29 miles with concrete piercing projective; muzzle velocity of 2700 ft/sec

 

i'm affraid you are wrong, according with ian v. hogg in his book abou german artelliery, the american forces found the incompleted remains of gustav and after some search they fond the remains of dora, they also found some parte of the 3rd monster in the krupp factory but they could not assamble a full gun with all the rest of the guns, so that is why they scrapped the incompleted guns

 

Thanks for the correction, I thought it was the British who found the incomplete 3rd gun when they captured the factory. Thus I mentioned that only 2 were completed. Too bad they can't piece those guns together, it would have been a bonus for future historians to study these dinosaurs in the museum.

 

on may 45 the 3rd us army found the remains of gustav in bavaria.
the remains of dora were found in the leipzing area
and the incompleted third monster was found in the essen factory and in the meppen proof ground

 

:-? :-?

the last pic of this monster was taken on March 19 43, when hitler visited and wittnesed 2 shots, after that nothing is known until their remians were founded

 

Are you sure about this one liang? That is moving from top to bottom of a 66-story building made of reinforced concrete.

 

Well it is an awfull big gun wich uses an awful big round, but 264m sounds almost too indcredible...... but then again i dont know much about this type of artilleri.......

KBO

 

It does have the look of something where the decimal point has gone AWOL.

 

"Christs" just look at the shell, its "HUGE"..........

 

Hello.
The HE shell 80 cm Sprgr:fuzed Hbgr Z 40K weight 4.800 kg,the explosive content was around 400kg) was able to bore 7 meters of concrete or 30 meters of movable ground.
For the concrete-piercing shell(80cm Gr Be fuzed Hbgr Z 40K weight 7.100kg,the explosive content was around 200kg)it was able to bore 264 feets of reinforced concrete and not 264 meters.

 

Thanks for clearing that up Patrice.....

264 meters sounded very extreem, 264feet sounds more like it.......

KBO

 

Still impressive...
And the size of that gun!
I've seen pictures before, but never with people on it. It just brings home the sheer scale.
Wow.

But sadly fairly useless after the initial advances.
It would have been useful in situations like Leningrad - maybe even Stalingrad...
Now there is an alternative history for you!

 

Oh come on! A gun that can fire only one shot per hour or less can never actually matter in a fight. It might have affected some morale, but at Stalingrad for example Soviet morale was already quite near to rock bottom so the difference the Gustav would have made is negligible.

On Anzio beach, it was the 28cm Leopold gun that made the most lasting impression on the suffering troops, but the smaller artillery made the landing area much more of a hell.

BTW: 264 feet is how many meters? 80 or so isn't it?

 

Yeah some people actually say that the Railguns actually helped the allies win the war.......

It took to long to make it fire and the barrell was worn up quickly... it was actually a waste of resources.... it would have been better to use those resources for tanks or something instead.......

Btw 264ft is 88m... so you were pretty close there Roel

KBO

 

Thanks KBO!

Railway guns belonged to the previous war, period. They could only be used for reducing heavy fortifications, and those were rare in the mobile warfare of WW2. When Blitzkrieg was invented there was no longer any need to face the Maginot line head on, so after approving Fall Gelb and Sichelschnitt Hitler should have called off or scrapped the big guns.

 

KBO, apparently you have longer feet than I, I calculated that 264ft to be 80.5 meters. Did you just divide that 264 with 3?

 

Oops i should have devided it with 2.6......right.... or is it 2.7..

Sorry my bag...

KBO

 

To be exact, it is 80.4672 meters - one meter is 3.048 feet.

I hope I'll soon get started on re-making Panzerworld, which will include a measurement converter

I don't understand why people are still counting in feet (or Farenheit, for that matter), though. I can think of no country which use this measurement today.

 

America use both feet and Farenheit.

 

I guess because the English drive on the wrong side of the road!

I am told by metric supporters that the system is more precise. I am told, or was told, by American aeronautical engineers, that our system is just as precise. If we want units in "tens" we will go to tenths of an inch.

I have no idea why we use different systems. I guess the same reason we have so many languages.

:lol: