Vehicle 4 – Schwerer Gustav and Dora

Vehicle 4: Schwerer Gustav and Dora

No quote, sorry.

Nationality: Germany (Third Reich)
Year of Production: 1941
Number built: 2-3
Weight: 1,350 tons.
Length: 47.3 metres, 84 metres potentially.
Width: 7.1 metres
Height: 11.6 metres
Crew: 250 to assemble gun, 2500 to lay track and digemplacements.
Engine: None.
Armament: 1x 800mm cannon, firing 7.1 ton to 11 ton shell.

Background: After World War One, France had started work on the Maginot Line, a massive line of fortifications along the French/German border that would prevent any attacks launched by Germany, or at least significantly slow them down.

In response to this, the German High Command commissioned a company called Krupp, a large German munitions, well, company, to design a gun powerful enough to crack the Maginot Line. More specifically, seven metres of reinforced concrete, or a full metre of steel plate. Oh, and the gun had to fire at beyond the range of French artillery, to prevent it being blown to bits.

That was in 1934. In 1936, the leader of Germany asked about the viability of such a gun, and no commitment was given by him, however, design work began on the 800mm version.

Unfortunately, in 1937, it was discovered that they couldn't quite get the gun done by Spring 1940, however, the test gun was completed in 1939, and sent to the firing range for testing with the 7.1 ton shell ripping through the desired amount of concrete and steel. As testing finished in 1940, the Gustav Gun was formerly accepted by the German leader, who was so awe struck by the weapon that he ordered that the 11 ton shell only be fired under his command. As such, the 11 ton shell was never fired.

Ammunition for the two guns, Schwerer Gustav (Heavy Gustav), and Dora (named after the senior engineer's wife) consisted of a concrete (and logically, armour)-piercing shell, and a high explosive shell. A rocket launcher variant was planned, with a 150 km range, which would have required the barrel to be lengthened to 84 metres, thereby compensating for every man on the continent, but was never used or completed.

Gustav went into modern day Ukraine, on a train of 25 cars, and had to be held while additional track was laid so it could traverse. After that, it only took a further month to get the railway gun ready to fire, at a port city called Sevastopol.

By the 4th of July, Gustav had roared out 48 rounds, and had ruined the original barrel, but among other targets, it had destroyed a storage facility called White Cliff, located 30 metres under the sea, protected by 10 metres of concrete. It only took nine shells to ruin the ammunition dump.

After that, Gustav was sent to Leningrad, or St Petersburg, where it did nothing, spending the winters of 1942 and 1943 there. After that period of excitement, it was sent back to Germany to be refurbished, and then destroyed before May 1945.

Dora did even less, being sent to Stalingrad, before being withdrawn.

A variant, an alternate rocket artillery model, Langer Gustav, was damaged during construction and abandoned, while the P1500 project is something I'll touch on in another article.

Why should I be afraid of it? And what was it for?

No quote, sorry.

The two guns were designed, and developed, for one simple reason. To rip the hell out of France's Maginot Line. 7 metres of concrete is not a small amount, and these guns cracked that amount with one hit, from a range of 38 to 48 kilometres, depending on ammunition.

They're huge, unwieldy, and need track specially built to carry them, being unable to rotate by themselves. They also came with 2 Flak batteries as escort, as protection from aircraft, and potentially vehicles as well.

As of 2011, they are the largest guns in the world to have been used in combat, and are only beaten by Mallet's mortar and Little David in terms of calibre.

They could rip apart a fortress, and to even think, my limited knowledge, of what would happen to a tank, is horrifying. And this is a weapon so powerful that the largest shell, the 11 ton version, was never used. Thankfully.

Sources:
Schwerer Gustav – Wikipedia
List of the largest cannon by calibre - Wikipedia