The Dora and Gustav guns are giant guns. (8 photos)

820 m/s high explosive; 720 m/s concrete-piercing Sighting range, m: up to 39 km Maximum
range, m: 48 km high explosive; 38 km concrete-breaking Mass of explosive, kg: 700 kg high explosive; 250 kg concrete crusher Images on Wikimedia Commons: Dora

Shell for the Dora gun. In the background - soviet tank T-34-85

"Dora"- a unique super-heavy railway artillery gun of the German army. Developed by Krupp (Germany) in the late 1930s. Intended to destroy the fortifications of the Maginot Line and fortifications on the border of Germany and Belgium. The gun was used during the storming of Sevastopol in 1942 and the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in September-October 1944.

Story

... And the famous Dora cannon of 800 mm caliber. It was designed to destroy the most powerful structures of the Maginot Line, but it was not necessary to use it there for this purpose. It was a miracle of artillery technology. 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. To cover it, two divisions of anti-aircraft artillery were constantly at the ready. In general, these expenses undoubtedly did not correspond to the achieved effect. Nevertheless, this 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.

No information about the presence of "Dora" was found in Soviet documents about the defense of Sevastopol.

By that time, about 300 shots had been fired from the Dora’s barrel, taking into account field tests, and the barrel, due to severe wear, was sent for repairs to Essen. The carriage and all the equipment, as mentioned above, were transported to the Taitsy station area, where the repaired barrel was later delivered. They also planned to transport a second Gustav gun of the same type there. The advance of the Red Army deprived the Germans of the opportunity to use heavy-duty weapons. With the beginning of the breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad, the guns were urgently evacuated to the rear.

According to Russian historians, the Dora was used again during the Warsaw Uprising in September-October 1944. About 30 shells were fired at Warsaw. After the bloody suppression of the uprising, the guns were evacuated deep into Germany. At the end of the war, there were plans to use a heavy-duty weapon to fire from occupied French territory into London. For this purpose, three-stage rockets H.326.

On April 22, 1945, during the offensive in Bavaria, the 3rd American army forward patrols of its units, while passing through a forest 36 km north of the city of Auerbach, discovered the remains of a huge and complex metal structure, heavily damaged by an explosion, in a railway dead-end. In an old tunnel nearby, scouts found two monstrous gun barrels. The commander of the army unit, Colonel Porter, organized the collection of the scattered parts and, after a thorough examination by specialists and interrogation of prisoners of war, came to the conclusion that they were parts of two heavy-duty artillery pieces and belonged to the Dora and Gustav guns. After the investigation, the Americans sent the remains of the guns for melting down.

According to eyewitnesses of the Dora shooting near Sevastopol, first the city’s defenders heard the explosion of a shell, a few moments after this the whistle of a flying shell became audible, and only then came the sound of a distant shot.

Characteristics

Characteristic	Meaning	Notes
Caliber	807 mm	Initially it was 807 mm, but increased after firing due to ultra-high pressure and friction, according to some data to 810 mm, according to other data - to 813 mm
Projectile weight	7100 kg
Barrel length	32 m	Composite barrel
Minimum firing range	25 km
Maximum firing range	40 km
Full length of the gun	50 m	Without train platform
Total weight	1350 tons
Barrel survivability	300 shots
Rate of fire	2 shots per hour
Projectile speed	from 1500 m/s to 960 m/s	Pre-peak and post-peak phases (relative to vertical)
Penetration ability	steel armor 1 m, concrete partition - 4 m	The thickness of the protective coating is indicated

In culture

There is a weapon similar to “Dora” in the game “Petroleum. Utopia", in the game files it is designated as "big_gun". It plays an important role in the game's plot - this weapon was intended to destroy the infected city if no other way to cope with the infection was found.
A weapon similar to “Dora” and “Gustav” is in the game “Lost Planet 2”.
Something reminiscent of Dora (apparently in its concept of planetary defense weapons) are the Ordinatus gun platforms in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
In the game Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, on one of the game maps Rail gun, the confrontation takes place near a giant rail gun, which is an exact copy"Dora". German troops have the task of delivering ammunition and firing it, the Allied troops are tasked with interfering with the Germans and disabling the control of the gun.
In the game Medal of Honor Part I there was a similar weapon called “Gretta”.
This weapon was also used in the addon for the game Commandos - Beyond the call of duty.
Last of three stories in the anime Memories of the Future - “Cannon City” - is dedicated to shooting from cyclopean cannons.
The security weapons platforms of the Olympus metropolis in the 2004 Appleseed anime are similar to both German superguns and AT-TE walkers from the Star Wars universe.

Links and notes

Literature

"Second world war- Day by Day 1939-1945", ("Campaigns of World War II - Day by Day 1939-1945") 2003 Amber Books Ltd. translation by A. Kolin, Y. Kolina.
Manstein, E. von “Lost Victories” [trans. from German]/ Erich von Manstein. - M.: AST: AST MOSCOW: KHRANITEL, 2007. - 828, p.: 16 p. ill.

“How the German sword was forged - Industrial potential of the Third Reich” (“Die Deutsche industrie im kriege, 1939-1945”) 2006 “Yauza”, “Eksmo”, translation by G. Smirnov, V. Shastitko.

Additional sources

German super-heavy artillery systems near Sevastopol
"Dora" (French)
80 cm cannon "Dora" (English)
Nikolay Semyon. About some little-known pages in the history of the defense of Sevastopol

Artillery of the Third Reich period World War II
Tank guns	2 cm KwK 30 · 3.7 cm KwK 36 · 3.7 cm KwK 38(t) 5 cm KwK 38 · 5 cm KwK 39 · 7.5 cm KwK 37 · 7.5 cm KwK 40 · 7.5 cm KwK 42 · 8.8 cm KwK 36 · 8.8 cm KwK 43
Anti-tank artillery	2.8 cm sPzB 41 · 3.7 cm PaK 36 · 4.2 cm PaK 41 · 4.7 cm PaK(t) · 5 cm PaK 38 · 7.5 cm PaK 97/38 · 7.5 cm PaK 40 · 7.5 cm PaK 41 · 7.5 cm PaK 44 · 7.62 cm PaK 36(r) 8 cm PAW 600 · 8.8 cm PaK 43 · 12.8 cm PaK 44
Infantry and mountain guns	7.5 cm leIG 18/leGebIG 18/IG L/13 · 7.5 cm IG 37 · 7.5 cm IG 42 · 15 cm sIG 33 7.5 cm Geb K 15 · 7.5 cm GebG 36 · 10.5 cm GebH 40
Recoilless rifles	7.5 cm LG 40 · 10.5 cm LG 40 · 10.5 cm LG 42
Field, middle and heavy artillery	7.5 cm FK 16 nA 7.5 cm FK 18 7.5 cm FK 38 · 7.5 cm FK 7M85 · 10.5 cm leFH 16 · 10.5 cm leFH 18 · 10.5 cm leFH 18M · 10.5 cm leFH 18/40 · 10 cm K 17 · 10.5 cm sK 18 · 10.5 cm sK 18/40 · 15 cm sFH 13 · 15 cm sFH 18 · 15 cm K 18 · 17 cm K 18 · 21 cm Mrs 18
Railway artillery	15cm K(E) 17cm K(E) 20.3 cm K (E) · 21 cm K 12 (E) · 24 cm Th K (E) · 24 cm ThBr K (E) · 28 cm kzBr K (E) · 28 cm lgBr K (E) · 28 cm sBr K (E) · 28 cm BR NK (E) · · "Adolf" · "Siegfried" · "Leopold" · "Gustav" · "Dora"
Self-propelled guns	7.5 cm PaK 39 · 7.5 cm PaK 40 · 7.5 cm PaK 42 · 8.8 cm PaK 43 · 12.8 cm PaK 44
Anti-aircraft guns	2 cm FlaK 30/38/Flakvierling · 3.7 cm FlaK 18/36/37 · 3.7 cm FlaK 43/Flakzwilling 43 · 8.8 cm FlaK 18/36/37/41 · 10.5 cm FlaK 38/39 · 12.8 cm FlaK 40
Rocket artillery	Nebelwerfer 21 cm Nebelwerfer 42 · 28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41 · 30 cm Raketenwerfer 56 · Wurfrahmen 40
Super heavy and siege artillery	35.5 cm Haubitze M1 · Gerät 040 “Karl” · Gamma Morser

Artillery guns
Story	Bakshtiken ·

The largest gun ever built was the Gustav Gun, built in Essen, Germany in 1941 by Friedrich A.G. Krupp. To preserve the tradition of naming heavy guns after family members, the Gustav Gun was named in honor of the ill head of the Krupp family, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach.

A strategic weapon of its time, the Gustav Gun was built on the direct orders of Hitler specifically to destroy the defensive forts of the Maginot Line on the French border. Carrying out the order, Krupp developed giant guns rail-mounted, weighing 1,344 tons and caliber 800 mm (31.5"), which were served by a crew of 500 people under the command of a major general.

Two types of projectiles were produced for the cannon, using 3,000 pounds of smokeless powder to ignite: conventional artillery shell, filled with 10,584 pounds of high explosive (HE) and a concrete-piercing projectile containing 16,540 pounds, respectively. The Gustav Gun shell craters measured 30 m wide and 30 m deep, and the concrete-piercing shells were capable of breaking through (before exploding) reinforced concrete walls 264 feet (79.2 m) thick! The maximum flight range of high explosive shells was 23 miles, and of concrete-piercing shells - 29 miles. Initial speed the projectile was approximately 2700 ft/sec. (or 810 m/sec).

Three guns were ordered in 1939. Alfred Krupp personally received Hitler and Albert Speer (Minister of Armaments) at the Hugenwald test site during the official acceptance tests of the Gustav Gun in the spring of 1941.

In keeping with company tradition, Krupp refrained from charging for the first gun, and 7 million German marks were paid for the second gun - Dora (named after Dora, the wife of the chief engineer).

France capitulated in 1940 without the help of a super-gun, so new targets had to be found for the Gustav. Plans to use the Gustav Gun against the British fortress of Gibraltar were scrapped after General Franco opposed the decision to fire from Spanish territory. Therefore, in April 1942, the Gustav Gun was installed opposite the heavily fortified port city of Sevastopol in the Soviet Union. Having come under fire from Gustav and other heavy artillery, the “forts” named after. Stalin, Lenin and Maxim Gorky were allegedly destroyed and destroyed (there is a different opinion on this matter). One of Gustav's shots destroyed an entire ammunition dump, 100 feet (30 m) below North Bay; another capsized a large ship in port, exploding next to it. During the siege, 300 shells were fired from the Gustav, as a result of which the first original barrel was worn out. The Dora gun was installed west of Stalingrad in mid-August, but quickly removed in September to avoid its capture. The Gustav then appeared near Warsaw in Poland, where it fired 30 shells into the Warsaw Ghetto during the 1944 uprising (see Supplement).

The Dora was blown up by German engineers in April 1945 near Oberlichtnau in Germany to avoid the gun being captured by the Russian army. The partially assembled third gun was scrapped directly from the factory by the British Army when it occupied Essen. An intact Gustav was captured by the US Army near Metzendorf, Germany in June 1945. Soon after, it was cut up for scrap. Thus, the history of the Gustav Gun type was put to an end.

Addition: In fact, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943 occurred a year before Warsaw Uprising 1944. In neither the first nor the second case, the Gustav Gun was used. To bomb the city, the Nazis then used Thor, a 2-ton mortar of the Mörser Karl Gerät 040 type with a caliber of 60 cm.

Hitler had certain ideas - from the mass murder of Jews to the conquest of Europe. And he tried in every possible way to show his greatness. The Nazis even built what would have been the world's largest hotel, but the project had to be canceled because there were more pressing issues, such as the invasion of France.

In the 1930s, France built a series of massive fortifications and obstacles called the Maginot Line to protect the country from invasion from the east. These fortifications were among the strongest at the time, with deep underground bunkers, modern retractable turrets, infantry shelters, barricades, artillery and anti-tank guns, etc. The Wehrmacht was unable to penetrate these formidable defenses. So Hitler went to the ammunition manufacturer Krupp to solve the problem.

11 PHOTOS

1. Krupp engineer Erich Müller calculated that to penetrate seven meters of reinforced concrete or one full meter of steel armored plate they would need artillery with massive dimensions.
2. The gun must have an internal diameter of more than 80 cm and a length of more than 30 meters if it were to fire projectiles weighing 7 tons each from a distance of more than 40 kilometers.
3. The gun itself will weigh 1300 tons, and it will have to be moved around railways. When these figures were presented to Hitler, he approved them, and the creation huge weapons started in 1937.
4. Two years later the super gun was ready. Alfred Krupp personally invited Hitler to the Rügenwald test site in early 1941 to evaluate the weapon's power. Alfried Krupp named the gun Schwerer Gustav, or "Fat Gustav", in honor of his father Gustav Krupp.
5. Schwerer Gustav was an absolute monster. Because he was so big and heavy, he could not move on his own. Instead, the cannon was broken into several pieces and transported on 25 freight cars to the deployment site, where it was assembled on site—a task that required 250 men to labor for nearly three days.
6. Laying paths and digging embankments took weeks of work and required 2,500 to 4,000 people working around the clock. 7. Schwerer Gustav moved along many parallel rails, which limited his mobility. Despite the huge firepower, Schwerer Gustav had no means to defend himself. This was decided by Flack's two battalions, which guarded the weapons from possible air attack.
8. For all the time and money spent on building the gun, it did little on the battlefield and did absolutely nothing against the French for whom it was originally intended. 9. Germany had already invaded France in 1940 before the gun was ready. They did this by simply bypassing the Maginot Line.
10. Schwerer Gustav was instead deployed to the Eastern Front at Sevastopol in Russia during its siege in 1942. It took 4,000 men and five weeks to get the gun ready to fire.
11. Over the next four weeks, Gustav fired 48 shells, smashing distant forts and destroying an underwater ammunition depot located 30 meters under the sea, protected by at least 10 meters of concrete protection. The gun was then moved to Leningrad, but the attack was cancelled. Krupp built another weapon with the same dimensions. It was named Dora after the wife of the company's chief engineer. Dora was deployed west of Stalingrad in mid-August 1942, but was hastily withdrawn in September to avoid capture. When the Germans began their long retreat home, they took Dora and Gustav with them. In 1945, the Germans blew up Dora and Gustav.

Dora was developed in the late 1930s at the Krupp plant in Essen. The main task of the super-powerful weapon is to destroy the forts of the French Maginot Line during a siege. At that time these were the strongest fortifications that existed in the world.

"Dora" could fire projectiles weighing 7 tons at a distance of up to 47 kilometers. When fully assembled, Dora weighed about 1,350 tons. The Germans developed this powerful weapon as they prepared for the Battle of France. But when fighting began in 1940, the biggest gun of World War II was not yet ready. In any case, Blitzkrieg tactics allowed the Germans to capture Belgium and France in just 40 days, bypassing the Maginot Line defenses. This forced the French to surrender with minimal resistance and the fortifications did not have to be stormed.

"Dora" was deployed later, during the war in the East, in the Soviet Union. It was used during the siege of Sevastopol for shelling coastal batteries who heroically defended the city. Preparing the gun from the traveling position for firing took a week and a half. In addition to the direct calculation of 500 people, a security battalion, a transport battalion, two trains for the supply of ammunition, an anti-aircraft battalion, as well as its own military police and a field bakery.

The German gun, the height of a four-story building and 42 meters long, fired up to 14 times a day with concrete-piercing and high explosive shells. To push out the largest projectile in the world, a charge of 2 tons of explosives was needed.

It is believed that in June 1942, "Dora" fired 48 shots at Sevastopol. But due to the large distance to the target, only a few hits were obtained. In addition, if the heavy ingots did not hit the concrete armor, they would go 20-30 meters into the ground, where their explosion would not cause much damage. The supergun showed completely different results than the Germans, who poured a lot of money into this ambitious miracle weapon, had hoped for.

When the barrel expired, the gun was taken to the rear. After the renovation it was planned to use it for besieged Leningrad, but this was prevented by the liberation of the city by our troops. Then the supergun was taken through Poland to Bavaria, where in April 1945 it was blown up so that it would not become a trophy for the Americans.

In the XIX-XX centuries. there were only two weapons, with large caliber(90 cm for both): British Mallet mortar and American Little David. But "Dora" and the same type "Gustav" (which did not take part in the hostilities) were the largest caliber artillery that took part in the battles. Also these are the biggest self-propelled units ever built. However, these 800 mm guns went down in history as “a completely useless work of art.”

The Dora super-heavy railway-mounted artillery gun was developed in the late 1930s by the German company Krupp. This weapon was intended to destroy fortifications on the borders of Germany with Belgium and France (Maginot Line). In 1942, "Dora" was used to storm Sevastopol, and in 1944 to suppress the uprising in Warsaw.

The development of German artillery after World War I was limited by the Treaty of Versailles. According to the provisions of this treaty, Germany was prohibited from having any anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, as well as guns whose caliber exceeded 150 mm. Thus, the creation of large-caliber and powerful artillery was a matter of honor and prestige, the leaders of Nazi Germany believed.

Based on this, in 1936, when Hitler visited one of the Krupp factories, he categorically demanded that the company's management design a super-powerful weapon that would be capable of destroying the French Maginot Line and Belgian border forts, for example, Eben-Emal. According to the requirements of the Wehrmacht, a cannon shell must be capable of penetrating 7 m thick concrete, 1 m thick armor, 30 m hard ground, and the maximum range of the gun should be 25-45 km. and have a vertical guidance angle of +65 degrees.

The group of designers of the Krupp concern, which began creating a new super-powerful gun according to the proposed tactical and technical requirements, was headed by Professor E. Muller, who had extensive experience in this issue. The development of the project was completed in 1937, and in the same year the Krupp concern was given an order for the production of a new 800mm caliber gun. Construction of the first gun was completed in 1941. The gun, in honor of E. Muller’s wife, was given the name “Dora”. The second gun, which was named “Fat Gustav” in honor of the management of the company Gustav von Bohlen and Halbach Krupp, was built in mid-1941. In addition, a third 520 mm caliber gun was designed. and a trunk length of 48 meters. It was called "Long Gustav". But this weapon was not completed.

In 1941, 120 km. west of Berlin, at the Rügenwalde-Hillersleben training ground, guns were tested. The tests were attended by Adolf Hitler himself, his comrade-in-arms Albert Speer, as well as other high army ranks. Hitler was pleased with the test results.

Although the guns did not have some mechanisms, they met the requirements that were specified in the technical specifications. All tests were completed by the end of the 42nd year. The gun was delivered to the troops. By this time, the company's factories had produced over 100 800 mm caliber shells.

Some design features of the gun.

The locking of the barrel bolt, as well as the delivery of projectiles, were carried out by hydraulic mechanisms. The gun was equipped with two lifts: for cartridges and for shells. The first part of the barrel was with a conical thread, the second with a cylindrical thread.

The gun was mounted on a 40-axle conveyor, which was located on a double railway track. The distance between the tracks was 6 meters. In addition, another railway track was laid on the sides of the gun for installation cranes. The total weight of the gun was 1350 tons. To fire, the gun needed an area up to 5 km long. The time spent preparing the gun for firing consisted of choosing a position (could reach 6 weeks) and assembling the gun itself (about 3 days).

Transportation of implements and maintenance personnel.

The gun was transported by rail. So, “Dora” was delivered to Sevastopol by 5 trains in 106 cars:

1st train: service (672nd artillery division, about 500 people), 43 cars;

2nd train, auxiliary equipment and erection crane, 16 cars;

3rd train: cannon parts and workshop, 17 cars;

4th train: loading mechanisms and barrel, 20 cars;

5th train: ammunition, 10 cars.

Combat use.

In World War II, Dora took part only twice.

The first time the gun was used was to capture Sevastopol in 1942. During this campaign, only one case was recorded of a successful hit by a Dora shell, which caused an explosion of an ammunition depot located at a depth of 27 meters. The remaining Dora shots penetrated the ground to a depth of 12 meters. After the explosion of the shell, a drop-shaped shape with a diameter of about 3 meters was formed in the ground, which did not cause much harm to the defenders of the city. In Sevastopol, the gun fired 48 shells.

After Sevastopol, "Dora" was sent to Leningrad, and from there to Essen for repairs.

The second time Dora was used was in 1944 to suppress the Warsaw Uprising. In total, the gun fired more than 30 shells into Warsaw.

The end of Dora and Gustav.

On April 22, 1945, the advanced units of the Allied army were 36 km away. from the city of Auerbach (Bavaria) they discovered the remains of the Dora and Gustav guns blown up by the Germans. Subsequently, everything that was left of these giants of the 2nd World War was sent for melting down.

Remains of the Dora and Gustav guns blown up by the Germans