Shriya gustav heavy Gustav was the
largest and most powerful gun used in
world war ii commissioned by hitler to
destroy the French Maginot Line it was
actually only used extensively in the
siege of sevastopol dismantled by the
Germans before losing the war
this cannon was the heaviest piece of
mobile artillery ever built and had the
greatest caliber of any rifled weapon
used in war although it's 20,000 pound
shells could break through 7 meters of
reinforced concrete 500 people were
needed to fire it and about 4,000 were
needed to project and operate it on the
battlefield
in 1934 Adolf Hitler already knew he
would be invading France the French
however saw this coming early on and
started building the Maginot Line a row
of fortifications along the
franco-german border intended to divert
any upcoming invasion to Belgium which
would be protected by several divisions
of the French army that way they hope to
avoid replicating the damage and
destruction of World War one to French
territory the fortifications included
block houses rail lines and bunkers the
barrier was extensive and comprehensive
seemingly impenetrable due to this
Hitler was in need of a new powerful
weapon that could do what no other
existing weapon could
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yo velcome and Odysseus the German army
High Command reached out to the Essen
weapons producer Friedrich Krupp AG to
Commission a gun that could take down
the fort's along the Maginot Line in
1934 the main requirement was that the
shells needed to go through a metre of
steel armor plate or seven meters of
reinforced concrete from a significant
distance to prevent compromising said
weapon Krupp engineer Eric Muller was
put in charge of the project and his
estimates led him to the conclusion that
this new weapon needed to be bigger and
stronger than anything built before
mother's calculations establish that his
team needed to create an 80 centimeter
caliber cannon capable of firing a 7-ton
projectile from a 30 metre long barrel
he expected the weapon to weigh over a
thousand tons which meant moving and
handling it would be a challenge the
Crypt team proposed twin sets of railway
tracks to facilitate the movement of the
cannon similar to smaller railway guns
the mount itself would only move the
barrel up or down targeting the weapon
would mean moving it along a curve in
the railway line they made plans for
different calibers between 85
centimetres and one metre presented in
proposal to the Oberkommando desirous
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although traditional German weapons
manufacturing practices meant that Krupp
offered to make the first of these guns
for free with a price tag only added if
more were required the okh made no
official commitment to obtaining it
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the project was on standby until Hitler
visited Essen in March of 1936 and asked
about the feasibility of building the
massive cannon after talks with Krupp
they began working on the design of an
80 centimeter calibre model the plans
were formalized and development began in
early 1937
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production on the Sridhar Gustav
convinced halfway through 1937
although 1940 was set as a completion
date logistical issues with producing
the massive sheets of steel needed
pushed the date back the test model was
ready in late 1939 which Krupp sent to
hilah's Laban for testing during the
test the guns were able to penetrate the
metre of armor plate and the seven
meters of concrete with a single shot
from high elevation testing was
completed in 1940 at which time the
carriage had undergone several
modifications Hitler and Alfred Krupp
met at rügen Valda proving ground in
1941 for confirmation of the Shapira
Gustav's capabilities the Oberkommando
desirous placed an order for two of
these cannons the first commissioned gun
was fired for the first time on
September 10th from a makeshift carriage
it was then tested in Poland using the
70 100 kilogram shell at a distance of
120 mm 80 feet from the target the Spiro
Gustav was an impressive weapon the
barrel was more than a hundred feet long
longer than any other gun Daryl at the
time and its body was bigger than any
allied or access tank the gun was
mounted on a chasis with eight bogies
that had to be transported along two
parallel railway tracks bogies gave the
gun a total of 80 wheels the shells
themselves were taller than two soldiers
stacked on top of each other and weighed
in intimidating 20,000 pounds while this
was necessary to pierce the barriers of
the Maginot Line it meant that multiple
soldiers had to be involved in loading
the spear of Gustav the first gun was
free for the German army
the second one commissioned along with
it had a price tag of seven million
Reichsmark the huge new German cannon
was not ready by the time Hitler needed
to break the Maginot Line
so his army had to take France without
using it despite his previous belief
that an extraordinary weapon would be
needed for that conflict the Germans
took over France with relative ease
because the German troops overwhelmed
the defensive troops even though the
original goal of the Sphero Gustav had
been accomplished without it Hitler
still wanted his new toy to be used in
the battlefield he saw the siege of
sevastopol as an opportunity to use it
and display its grandeur before his
enemies the heavy artillery unit yz6 72
was sent to crimea along with the
railway gun train carrying the weapon
itself was 25 cars in early march the
train reached the isthmus of Perekop
where it waited until April while the
special railway for the gun was built in
April the Sphero Gustav was placed on
the new tracks going from simferopol to
Sevastopol
the gun was successfully used at the
siege its first time in combat it took
five weeks to get into firing position
with input and assistance from 4,000
people it began shooting on June 5th and
500 soldiers participating in the firing
process by the time Sevastopol fell on
July 4th the city had been destroyed the
severe Gustav had fired 48 rounds it
shot at several valuable targets
including a munitions depot 98 feet
underground that collapsed due to the
shot the barrel ended up in a precarious
state due to its continuous use since
testing it was sent back to Essen and
the gun received a spare barrel that had
been kept in the Train soon after the
battle was won the huge railway cannon
was dismantled so it could be
transported the German army had it sent
to the north of the Eastern Front so it
could be used against Leningrad in the
planned attack the Sphero gustav spent
the winter near the soviet city before
it could be used again the attack was
called off
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three additional versions were either
built or planned after the design of the
spherical stuff the second gun produced
and the only other one used in battle
was named Dora
after Erik mother's wife it cost seven
million Reichsmark equivalent to 24
million u.s. dollars in 2015 Dora was
deployed to the west of Stalingrad
pathways were August in 1942 but was not
ready for combat
until September 13th since the Soviets
were about to encircle the Germans soon
after the German troops decided to
retreat taking the powerful weapon with
them the lawn or Gustav was a
second-generation cannon that was
destroyed by British bombings over Essen
while it was under construction the gun
would have had a 52 centimeter caliber
and a 43 metre long barrel it shells
weighed 1500 pounds and could shoot from
118 miles away this meant that the
Germans could have shot at London all
the way from Calais in France the third
cannon was designed as part of a 1500
ton self-propelled tank the Lund crux FP
1500 monster was supposed to carry an 80
centimeter calibre gun two heavy
howitzers an mg 151 autocannons to
target aircraft while some reports
claimed that the project was canceled by
Albert Speer before a prototype was made
others have claimed the lack of evidence
pointing at the development of this tank
was just an urban myth if it were real
and it had been built the tank would
have been 500 tons heavier than the
heaviest tank ever built
the Panzer 8 Mouse
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after only limited use in the
battlefield the German army realized
just how complicated it was to operate
the store Gustav one of the main
problems was the huge number of soldiers
needed to fire each round of ammo this
meant that all those soldiers would be
focused on single shots rather than
playing multiple roles in the front two
thousand people were needed to fire the
Gustav cannon the majority of them
providing air cover rather than
operating it
additionally assembling the five part of
the cannon would take around four days
transporting the guns similarly required
multiple days and several troops to
avoid having the huge railway weapon
being hit by a plane
since movement was limited to specially
designed tracks difficult terrain made
it impossible for transport and the
rails made it easy for allies to predict
German positions another major issue
with spherical stop was the rate of fire
since calibrating the cannon required
several hours it could only shoot about
fourteen rounds per day the last nail in
the sparrow Gustav's coffin was the high
cost of producing its shells which had
to be deprioritized with the deeply
invaded Germany and high demand for
tanks the Third Reich's army eventually
decided to retire Sphero staff for the
last days of the war
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by April 14th 1945 the Soviet Union's
Vienna offensive had been successful and
it was evident that American troops
would soon be taking over the country
that same day the leadership in charge
Fuhrer Gustav decided to dismantle the
cannon to prevent the Allied forces from
capturing and using it the weapons ruins
were found on April 22nd in a forest
area near Auerbach and Chemnitz after
being studied by Soviet weapon
specialists it was sent to Mirza Berg
and subsequently lost Dora was destroyed
on April 19th and the ruins were
discovered by American troops today part
of those ruins are housed in The Dresden
Military History Museum of the
Bundeswehr
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