The guns "Dora" and "Gustav" are giants' guns.
Superheavy artillery piece on the railway track "Dora" was developed in the late 30s of the last century by the German company "Krupp". This weapon was designed to destroy fortifications on the borders of Germany with Belgium, 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 the 1st World War was limited by the Treaty of Versailles. According to the provisions of this treaty, Germany was forbidden to have 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, such as Eben-Enamel. According to the requirements of the Wehrmacht, a cannon projectile must be able to penetrate 7 m thick concrete, 1 m 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.
A group of designers of the Krupp concern, which was engaged in the creation of a new heavy-duty gun according to the proposed tactical and technical requirements, was headed by Professor E. Muller, who had vast experience in this matter. The development of the project was completed in 1937, and in the same year the Krupp concern was given an order for the production new gun caliber 800mm. The construction of the first gun was completed in 1941. The gun, in honor of the wife of E. Muller, was given the name "Dora". The second gun, which was named “Fat Gustav” in honor of the leadership of the firm of Gustav von Bohlen and Halbach Krupp, was built in mid-1941. In addition, a third 520 mm caliber gun was designed. and a barrel 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 colleague 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 terms of reference. All tests were completed by the end of the 42nd year. The gun was delivered to the troops. By the same time, over 100 800mm caliber shells had been manufactured at the company's factories.
The locking of the barrel bolt, as well as the sending of shells, were carried out by hydraulic mechanisms. The gun was equipped with two lifts: for shells and for shells. The first part of the barrel was with a conical thread, the second with a cylindrical one.
The gun was mounted on a 40-axle conveyor, which was located on a dual railway track. The distance between the tracks was 6 meters. In addition, one more railway track for mounting cranes was laid along the sides of the gun. The total weight of the gun was 1350 tons. For firing, the gun needed a section up to 5 km long. The time it took to prepare the cannon for firing consisted of choosing a position (it could take up to 6 weeks) and assembling the gun itself (about 3 days).
Transportation of tools and maintenance personnel.
The transportation of the gun was carried out by railway transport. So, near Sevastopol "Dora" was delivered by 5 trains in 106 wagons:
1st train: service staff (672nd artillery division, about 500 people), 43 cars;
2nd train, auxiliary equipment and assembly crane, 16 cars;
3rd train: cannon parts and workshop, 17 wagons;
4th train: loading mechanisms and barrel, 20 wagons;
5th train: ammunition, 10 wagons.
Combat use.
In the Second World War, "Dora" took part only twice.
The first time the gun was used to capture Sevastopol in 1942. During this campaign, only one case of a successful hit by a Dora shell was recorded, 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 projectile, a drop-like 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, 48 shells were fired by the gun.
After Sevastopol, "Dora" was sent to Leningrad, and from there to Essen for repairs.
The second time "Dora" was used in 1944 to suppress the Warsaw Uprising. In total, more than 30 shells were fired by the gun in Warsaw.
End of Dora and Gustav.
04/22/1945, the advanced units of the Allied army, 36 km. from the city of Auerbach (Bavaria), they discovered the remains of the Dora and Gustav guns blown up by the Germans. Subsequently, all that was left of these giants of the 2nd World War was sent for remelting.
The largest weapon ever made was Gustav Gun, built in Essen, Germany, in 1941 by the firm of Friedrich Krupp A.G. To preserve the tradition of naming heavy guns after family members, the Gustav Gun was named after the ailing head of the Krupp family, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach.
A strategic weapon of its time, the Gustav Gun was built on Hitler's direct orders specifically to destroy the defensive forts of the Maginot Line on the French border. Fulfilling the order, Krupp developed giant guns on a railway track weighing 1344 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 shells were produced for the gun, using 3,000 pounds of smokeless powder to ignite: artillery shell, stuffed with 10,584 pounds of high explosive (HE) and a concrete-piercing projectile containing 16,540 pounds, respectively. The Gustav Gun's shell craters were 30m wide and 30m deep, and the concrete-piercing shells were capable of penetrating (before exploding) reinforced concrete walls 264 feet (79.2 m) thick! Maximum range the flight of shells with high explosive was 23 miles, concrete-piercing shells - 29 miles. The muzzle velocity of the projectile was approximately 2700 fps. (or 810 m/s).
Three guns were ordered in 1939. Alfred Krupp personally received Hitler and Albert Speer (Minister of Armaments) at the test site in Hudenwald (Hugenwald) 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 DM 7 million was paid for the second gun, the Dora (named after Dora, wife of the chief engineer).
France capitulated in 1940 without the help of a super-gun, so Gustav had to look for new targets. Plans to use the Gustav Gun against the British fortress of Gibraltar were scrapped after General Franco spoke out against the decision to fire from Spanish territory. Therefore, in April 1942, 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" of them. Stalin, Lenin and Maxim Gorky were allegedly destroyed and destroyed (there is a different opinion on this). One of Gustav's shots destroyed an entire ammunition depot, 100 feet (30 m) below North Bay; another capsized a large ship in port, bursting near it. During the siege, 300 shells were fired from Gustav, as a result of which the first original barrel was worn out. The Dora gun was set up west of Stalingrad in mid-August, but quickly removed in September to avoid capture. Gustav then appeared near Warsaw in Poland, where it fired 30 rounds at the Warsaw Ghetto during the 1944 uprising (see Addendum).
Dora was blown up by German engineers in April 1945 near Oberlichtnau in Germany to avoid being captured by the Russian army. The incompletely assembled third gun, right at the factory, was scrapped by the British army when it occupied Essen. The intact Gustav was captured by the US Army near Metzendorf in Germany in June 1945. Shortly thereafter, 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 of 1943 took place a year before the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Neither in the first nor in the second case Gustav Gun was not used. For the bombing of the city, the Nazis then used Thor - a 2-ton mortar of the Mörser Karl Gerät 040 type, caliber 60 cm.
The queen of all Hitler's railway gun mounts. The construction of the huge gun, named at birth "Gustav", was inspired by Hitler, who once asked what kind of gun was needed to destroy the fortifications of the Maginot Line with his shells.
The Krupp engineers began this work in 1937, but it took three years for the first barrel to be prepared for firing tests, and another two years for the entire installation to be assembled. But it was already 1942, the Maginot Line was far behind German lines. But there were other goals: the first - British attacks in Gibraltar, but the Spanish dictator Franco refused to join Hitler's operation. Leningrad, shelled since the end of 1941, became the second target.
Sevastopol, the Soviet naval base on the Black Sea, was under siege, so the commander of the 11th by the German army Colonel General von Manstein was in a hurry. Supported by powerful air raids, Manstein wanted to have a railway siege train, including self-propelled howitzer"Thor" (Thor).
By sea, 25 Gustav platforms were delivered to Manstein to support the siege. The installation of the gun mount was carried out using two 110-ton cranes. The laying of the rails and installation of the equipment took a total of six weeks. Finally, on June 5, Gustav fired his first shots. Goals - coastal batteries who also defended the Russian fortress. The Fieseler Fi-156 Storch spotter reported on the place where the projectile fell.
Eight shots were fired to suppress the fortress. The gun used two types of shells: 7-ton armor-piercing projectile, designed to destroy concrete fortifications, and a 5-ton high-explosive projectile high power.
The next day, Gustav's deadly attention was focused on Fort Molotov. It took seven shots to destroy the fort. Then the time came for the shelling of targets of particular complexity: an underground (and underwater) ammunition depot in adits near Sevastopol, overlooking the Sevastopol bays. 9 projectiles were fired, flying about 25 km through the air before diving under water to a depth of 30 m and breaking through the concrete floor, to then explode inside.
"Gustav" continued its shelling all week as siege weapon von Manstein, systematically processing each Russian position. However, the defenders of the fortress had already left and died fighting in the labyrinths of tunnels that connected the forts. One by one, they died from the explosions of the charges brought in their backpacks, or from the fire of flamethrowers. On July 1, the handful of surviving defenders capitulated.
"Gustav" was dismantled and returned to Germany. The siege train was supposed to be used in the summer of 1943 to shell Leningrad, and then to support the offensive near Kursk. Operation Citadel soon failed, and Soviet army went on the offensive. "Gustav" never appeared assembled again. The composition with parts of the 800-mm gun was discovered in 1945, but nothing survived, except for a few shells.
Assembly of 800 mm guns - difficult task. First, it was necessary to mount 1 km. double rail tracks laid in a specially dug trench. Then two massive gantry cranes were mounted to mount the gun. Full cycle The job took 3-6 weeks.
Specifications "Gustav" 800 mm guns ("Aiseban")
Caliber: 800 mm.
Length: 42.976 m.
Barrel length: 32.48 m.
Weight: 1350 tons
Maximum shaft elevation: 65°
Ammunition: 4800 kg high-explosive or 7100 kg armor-piercing projectile
Muzzle velocity: 820 m/s (high-explosive), 710 m/s (armor-piercing)
Maximum range: 47 km for a 4.8-ton projectile, 38 km for a 7-ton projectile.
Calculation: 1500 people when assembling and 500 people when firing.
Conveyor
The 800-mm gun was mounted on 4 huge railway platforms, moving along parallel tracks in pairs. Each pair, fastened together, formed a double support.
Design
The gun was assembled on a fairly standard space-farm structure, apart from its size, which made it impossible to place it on a single rail track. This is the main reason that the gun was designed to be mounted and fired from double rail tracks.
Artillery unit
The barrel of the gun was mounted on a huge frame suspended between the two main transport sections.
Loading the gun
A long working platform extended far back beyond the breech of the gun. Winches at the end of the platform delivered shells and charges to the gun.
Powerful winches were used to service the 800 mm cannon, the left one in the photo was for lifting the projectile, and the right one was for setting the charge.
The projectile moved tightly into the barrel. To assemble the gun, 1,500 people were required, the calculation consisted of 500 people.
Hitler had certain ideas - from mass murder Jews before the conquest of Europe. And he tried his best 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 this formidable defense. So Hitler went to the munitions manufacturer Krupp to solve the problem.
11 PHOTOS
1. Krupp engineer Erich Müller calculated that to punch through seven meters of reinforced concrete or one full meter of steel armor 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 was to fire projectiles weighing 7 tons each from a distance of more than 40 kilometers. 
3. The gun itself will weigh 1300 tons and will have to be moved around railways. When these figures were presented to Hitler, he approved them, and the creation huge weapon started in 1937. 
4. Two years later, the super gun was ready. Alfred Krupp personally invited Hitler to test site in Rügenwald in early 1941 to assess the power of the gun. Alfried Krupp named the gun Schwerer Gustav, or "Fat Gustav", after his father Gustav Krupp. 
5. Schwerer Gustav was an absolute monster. Because he was so big and heavy, he couldn't move on his own. Instead, the cannon was broken into several pieces and transported by 25 freight cars to the deployment site, where it was assembled on site, a task that required 250 men toil for almost three days. 
6. Laying the paths and digging the embankments took weeks of work and required 2,500 to 4,000 people working around the clock. 
7. Schwerer Gustav moved on many parallel rails that limited his mobility. Despite the huge firepower, Schwerer Gustav did not have the means to defend himself. This was decided by the two battalions of Flac, who guarded the weapons against possible air attack. 
8. For all the time and money spent on building the gun, it made little action on the battlefield and decided absolutely nothing against the French for whom it was originally intended. 
9. Germany had already invaded France in 1940 before the cannon 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 prepare the gun for firing. 
11. Over the next four weeks, Gustav fired 48 shells, destroying the outlying forts and destroying an underwater ammunition depot located 30 meters under the sea, with a concrete defense of at least 10 meters. Then the cannon was moved near Leningrad, but the attack was cancelled. Krupp built other weapons with similar 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. As the Germans began their long retreat home, they took Dora and Gustav with them. In 1945, the Germans blew up Dora and Gustav.
The idea of creating a super-powerful gun belongs to Hitler. Having visited the Krupp factories in 1936, the Fuhrer ordered the construction work to begin artillery system, capable of penetrating multimeter shelters made of concrete of the French Maginot Line and Belgian fortifications. The calculations of Krupp specialists were reduced to ton-meters: only a seven-ton projectile of an 800-mm gun could penetrate the seven-meter concrete wall of the shelter.
The unparalleled artillery system was created by a design team led by Professor Eric Mülle. Mulle's wife's name was Dora. The same name was given to the superweapon. This artillery system was supposed to shoot from a distance of 35-45 kilometers, but for this, the Dora should have had a super-long barrel and a mass of at least 400 tons. They conjured over the Dora for more than four years, spending an astronomical amount of 10,000,000 Reichsmarks at that time. The fortifications that Hitler spoke about when ordering the creation of a supergun, the Germans at that time, without waiting for the Dora, had already taken.
The barrel length of the Dora exceeded 32 meters, and the mass of the gun itself, without the railway platform on which it was installed, was 400 tons. Her concrete-piercing projectile weighed 7 tons, high-explosive - 4.8 tons. After fifteen shots, the barrel was already beginning to wear out, although it was originally calculated on a hundred. "Dora" in the complex was a rather bulky and clumsy structure - being mounted on a special 80-wheeled railway transporter, the complex artillery system moved immediately along two parallel track tracks. The system was serviced by about 3 thousand people in total. More than a month was being prepared for the Dora shot.
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