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From the history of artillery, it is known that the largest calibers before the start of the First World War were only in the navy, they were the main armament of dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts, it was on them that 305-381 mm guns with a firing range of up to 35 km were installed.

Dora's ancestor - the Colossal cannon

However, the Germans decided to shoot much further than 35 km, at a distance of 100 km or more. The essence of their idea was that, by giving the projectile a high initial velocity, to make it fly most of the way in the stratosphere, where the air resistance was much less than at the surface of the Earth. F. Rauzenberger was engaged in the development of the weapon at the well-known company "Krupp".

The design feature of the new German super-gun was that a composite 21-cm pipe with a rifled channel and a smooth muzzle was mounted in the reamed barrel of a 38-cm naval gun (in Germany, then calibers were designated in centimeters). The combination of a barrel of the same caliber with a chamber from a larger caliber made it possible to use a propelling powder charge, which weighed one and a half times more than the projectile itself (196.5 kg of powder per 120 kg of a projectile). The guns of those years rarely had a barrel length of more than 40 calibers, but here it reached 150 calibers. True, in order to exclude the curvature of the barrel under its own weight, it was necessary to hold it with cables, and after the shot, wait two or three minutes until the vibrations stopped.

The installation was transported by rail, and at the position was placed on a concrete base with a ring rail, which provided horizontal guidance. In order for the projectile to enter the stratosphere at an angle of the greatest range - 45 ° and leave the dense layers of the atmosphere faster, the barrel was given an elevation angle of more than 50 °.

As a result, the projectile flew about 100 km in the stratosphere, almost reaching its upper boundary - 40 km. The flight time for 120 km reached three minutes, and in ballistic calculations, the artillerymen even had to take into account the rotation of the Earth.

As the barrel tube was “shot”, shells of a slightly larger diameter were used. Barrel survivability was no more than 50 shots, after which it needed to be changed. The "shot" pipes were reamed to a caliber of 24 cm and put back into operation. Such a projectile flew a little less, at a distance of up to 114 km.

The cannon created by the Germans, in Germany itself was known under the name as the "Colossal", but it was also called the "weapon of Kaiser Wilhelm", and the "Parisian cannon", and - erroneously - "Big Bertha" (this nickname actually bore 420- mm mortar).

Since the experience of servicing long-range guns at that time was only with the naval ones, the Colossal crew consisted of coastal defense gunners.

The weight of the "Kaiser" projectile was 94 kilograms, and the weight of the powder charge was 180 kilograms, the combat range was 130 kilometers, and the maximum trajectory height was 40 kilometers. The gun crew - 80 people (all sailors under the command of a whole admiral).

The shell flew to the city of Paris for 170 seconds. The gun itself weighed 256 tons and had a very small caliber of 210 millimeters for such a size.

In just 44 days, the Colossal cannon fired 303 shells across Paris, of which 183 fell within the city. In total, 256 people were killed and 620 were wounded from the shelling of the "colossal Kaisers", most of them civilians, several hundred or thousands of Parisians left the city.

Thus, the material losses from the shelling by the "Kaisers" did not in any way correspond to the costs of their direct pre-combat training and the conduct of the shelling itself. The destructive force of the shells was scanty, while the barrel of the gun itself had to be changed often, and the accuracy of firing was only suitable for shelling objects such as Paris, and then the destruction in general was small: the most dramatic episode of the summer shelling was a direct hit into the church where the service was held. then over 60 people died at once.
The only advantage of this weapon was its huge firing range - over 100 km, which is very far, at such ranges a not quite modern warhead delivers its warhead, but, nevertheless, the OTR of the "Scud" type.

The further fate of these artillery giants is not exactly known, so according to one source in 1918, the two remaining "Kaisers" were taken to Germany, where they were dismantled. According to others, after the start of a powerful offensive by the Entente troops in August 1918, the Germans allegedly destroyed the remaining "Kaisers" so that they would not fall into the hands of the enemy.

Superweapon "Dora"

The next German artillery giant was the cannon under the official name “Schwerer Gustav”, informally affectionately nicknamed “Dora” by the German artillerymen, allegedly in honor of the chief designer's wife. It was truly the first super-weapon of the Second World War.

Three years before the start of the Second World War, in 1936, the Krupp company began developing its new, super-powerful cannon, specially designed to combat the fortifications of the French Maginot Line.

It was no longer the old antediluvian "Colossal", but a new cannon, whose firing range, although it was less than 50 km, but its shells had to penetrate armor up to 1 m thick, and concrete up to 7 m and explode in their thickness.

Supervised the development of a new German monster E. Müller (who had the nickname Müller-cannon).

Implement specifications

Dora's parameters are impressive:
Caliber - 813 mm.
Barrel length - 32 m.
The weight of the shells ranged from 5 to 7.5 tons (depending on the type).
The minimum firing range is 25 km, the maximum is 40.
According to other sources, the firing range was 45 kilometers for explosive shells and 37 kilometers for armor-piercing.
The total length of the gun is 50 m.
The total weight is 1448 tons.
Barrel survivability - 300 shots.
Rate of fire - 3 shots per hour
The minimum interval between shots was 15 minutes.

To service this giant, 1,500 people were required. The diameter of the craters after the explosion of the Dora shell was 10 meters (and the same amount in depth). The cannon was also capable of piercing about 9 meters of reinforced concrete.

Work on the gun dragged on for as much as 5 years, and therefore by the time the first 80 cm gun was assembled in 1941, the Maginot line, like the fortifications of Belgium and Czechoslovakia, had long been in German hands.

As a result, in February 1942, the Doru was sent to the Crimea at the disposal of the 11th Army, where its main task was to shell the famous Soviet 305-mm coastal batteries No. 30 and No. 35 and the fortifications of besieged Sevastopol, which had already repelled two assaults by that time.

The preparation and maintenance of this artillery monster was of a truly large-scale nature. It is known that only the high-explosive projectile "Dora" weighing 4.8 tons carried 700 kg of explosives, the concrete-piercing shell weighing 7.1 tons - 250 kg, large charges for them weighed 2 and 1.85 tons, respectively.

A cradle for the trunk was mounted between two supports, each of which occupied one railway track and rested on four five-axle platforms. Two hoists were used to supply shells and charges. The gun was transported, of course, disassembled. To install it, the railway line was forked, laying four curved parallel lines for horizontal guidance. The tool supports were driven onto the two inner branches. Two 110-ton bridge cranes were moving along the outer tracks, which were necessary for assembling the tool.

The position of the gun itself occupied an area of ​​4120-4370 m long. In general, the preparation of the position and the assembly of the gun lasted from one and a half to six and a half weeks.

Directly the calculation of the gun was about 500 people, in addition to the gun, a whole guard battalion, a transport battalion, two trains for the supply of ammunition, a separate power train were always attached, and to feed all this army there was a field bakery and even a commandant's office with its field gendarmes.

Thus, the number of personnel for only one installation increased to 1420 people. An entire colonel commanded the crew of such a weapon.

In Crimea, the number of Dora's crew grew to over 1,500, since the artillery monster was additionally assigned a military police group to protect it from attacks by sabotage groups and partisans, a chemical unit for setting up smoke screens and a reinforced anti-aircraft battalion, since vulnerability from aviation was one of the main problems of railway artillery. As a result, Dora's lair was reliably covered both on the ground and from the air.

A group of engineers was sent from Krupp with the installation.

Combat use

General Zuckerort, who commanded the heavy cannon unit, personally chose the position for Dora during the aerial overflights of the surroundings.

According to the plan of the Germans, the cannon was to be hidden in the mountain, for which a special cut was made in it. Since the position of the gun barrel changed only vertically, to change the direction of firing horizontally, Dora was mounted on a railway platform, standing on 80 wheels, moving along a steeply curved arc of a railway track with four tracks.

The position was finally equipped by June 1942, 20 km from Sevastopol. The assembled "Doura" was transported by two diesel locomotives with a capacity of 1050 hp. each. Additionally, against the fortifications of Sevastopol, the Germans also used two 60-cm self-propelled mortars of the "Karl" type.

From the history of the defense of Sevastopol it is known that from 5 to 17 June "Dora" fired a total of 48 shots. Together with field trials, this exhausted the resource of the barrel, and the gun was taken to the rear.

However, in his memoirs, Manstein claimed that Dora had fired much more, almost 80 shells at the Soviet fortress. The German hulk was soon spotted by Soviet pilots, who bombed its position with an assault, as a result of which the energy train was damaged.

In general, the use of "Dora" did not give the results that the Wehrmacht command hoped for: so, only one successful hit was recorded, which caused an explosion of a Soviet ammunition depot located at a depth of 27 m.

In other cases, a cannon projectile, penetrating into the ground, pierced a round barrel with a diameter of about 1 meter and a depth of 12 m.As a result of the explosion of a warhead, the ground at its base was compacted, a drop-shaped deep funnel with a diameter of about 3 m was formed. The defensive structures could only be damaged subject to direct hit.

Historians still argue about the effectiveness of the shooting itself, the combat use of Dora, but almost everyone agrees that, as in the case of the “Parisian cannon,” the Dora did not in any way correspond to its colossal size and installation cost. Their opinion is confirmed by the words of the one whose troops directly used this weapon during the assault on Sevastopol:

Erich von MANSTEIN:

“… On June 5, at 5.35 am, the Dora launcher launched the first concrete-piercing shell in the northern part of Sevastopol. The next 8 shells flew to the area of ​​battery No. 30. Columns of smoke from the explosions rose to a height of 160 m, but not a single hit in the armored turrets was achieved, the firing accuracy of the monster gun from a distance of almost 30 km was, as expected, very low ... 7 more shells "Dora" that day fired at the so-called "Fort Stalin", only one of them hit the target.

The next day, the gun fired at the Molotov Fort 7 times, and then destroyed a large ammunition depot on the northern coast of Severnaya Bay, hidden in an adit at a depth of 27 m. This, incidentally, displeased the Fuhrer, who believed that Dora should be used exclusively against heavily fortified fortifications. Within three days, the 672nd division used up 38 shells, and 10 remained. Already during the assault, 5 of them were fired at Fort Siberia on 11 June - 3 hit the target, the rest were fired on 17 June. Only on the 25th was a new ammunition delivered to the position - 5 high-explosive shells. Four were used for test shooting and only one was released towards the city ... "

Later, after the capture of Sevastopol, "Doru" was sent to Leningrad, to the area of ​​the Taitsy station. And when the operation to break the blockade of the city began, the Germans hastily evacuated their supergun to Bavaria. In April 1945, as the Americans approached, the gun blew up.

The most accurate assessment of this miracle of military technology was given by the chief of the General Staff of the ground forces of fascist Germany, Colonel-General Franz Halder:

"A real work of art, however, is useless."

In the future, it is known that the German designers tried to modernize and make the "Dora" ultra-long-range, for use now on the western front.

To this end, they resorted to a scheme similar to the so-called Damblyan project, this is when they intended to launch a three-stage rocket from the barrel of the gun. But the project did not go beyond the project. As well as the combination of a 52-cm smooth barrel for the same installation and an active-rocket projectile with a flight range of 100 km.

During the Second World War, the Germans also manufactured a second 80-cm installation, known as "Heavy Gustav" - in honor of Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Galbach.

By the end of the war, "Krupp" was able to make units for the third installation, but the Germans did not have time to assemble it. Separate parts of the 80-cm gun were captured by Soviet troops, who picked up all this stuff and sent it to the USSR for study.

Probably, all these "Doras" and "Gustavs" completed their combat path, somewhere there, in Soviet open-hearth furnaces, when the victors reforged all these weapons of war and intimidation into ordinary plowshares.

And, nevertheless, it must be admitted that in a purely technical sense, the 80-cm railway artillery installation was a good design work and a convincing demonstration of German industrial power.

The Germans named the giant cannon of the Second World War by the female name "Dora". This artillery system with a caliber of 80 centimeters was so huge that it moved only by rail. She has traveled half of Europe and left a controversial opinion about herself.

The Douro was developed in the late 1930s at the Krupp facility in Essen. The main task of the super-powerful weapon is to destroy the forts of the French Maginot line during the siege. At that time, these were the most powerful fortifications that existed in the world.



"Dora" could fire projectiles weighing 7 tons at a distance of up to 47 kilometers. When fully assembled, the 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 largest cannon of World War II was not yet ready. In any case, the Blitzkrieg tactics allowed the Germans to capture Belgium and France in just 40 days, bypassing the Maginot defensive line. This forced the French to surrender with minimal resistance and did not have to storm the fortifications.

Dora was deployed later, during the war in the East, in the Soviet Union. It was used during the siege of Sevastopol to shell the coastal batteries that 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 guard 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 were involved.




The German gun, as high as 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, heavy blanks, if they did not hit the concrete armor, went into the ground for 20-30 meters, where their explosion did not cause much damage. The supergun showed not at all the results that the Germans hoped for, who "threw in" a lot of money into this ambitious miracle weapon.

When the resource of the barrel went out, the gun was taken to the rear. It was planned to use it after repairs near besieged Leningrad, but this was prevented by the unblocking of the city by our troops. Then the supergun was taken through Poland to Bavaria, where it was blown up in April 1945 so that it would not become a trophy of the Americans.

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

The largest weapon ever built was the Gustav Gun, built in Essen, Germany in 1941 by the firm of Friedrich Krupp A.G. To preserve the tradition of naming family members to heavy guns, 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 direct orders from Hitler specifically to destroy the defensive forts of the Maginot Line on the French border. In compliance with the order, Krupp developed giant rail-mounted cannons weighing 1,344 tons and caliber 800 mm (31.5 "), which were serviced by a crew of 500 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: a conventional artillery projectile filled with 10,584 pounds of high explosive (HE) and a concrete-piercing projectile containing 16,540 pounds, respectively. The craters from the Gustav Gun shells were 30 m wide and 30 m deep, and the concrete-piercing shells were capable of penetrating (before exploding) reinforced concrete walls 264 feet (79.2 m) thick! The maximum flight range of projectiles with high explosives was 23 miles, concrete-piercing shells - 29 miles. The muzzle velocity of the projectile was approximately 2700 ft / s. (or 810 m / s).


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




In keeping with company tradition, Krupp refrained from charging fees for the first gun, and DM 7 million was paid for the second gun, the Dora (named after Dora, the chief engineer’s wife).


France surrendered in 1940 without the help of a super-cannon, so new targets had to be found for Gustav. 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 soil. 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" to them. Stalin, Lenin and Maxim Gorky were allegedly destroyed and destroyed (there is a different opinion on this). One of Gustav's rounds destroyed an entire ammunition depot, 100 feet (30 m) below North Bay; another overturned a large ship in port, exploding next to it. During the siege, 300 shells were fired from Gustav, as a result of which the first original barrel was worn out. The Dora cannon was installed west of Stalingrad in mid-August, but was quickly withdrawn 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 Appendix).


Dora was blown up by German engineers in April 1945 near Oberlichtnau in Germany to avoid the cannon being captured by the Russian army. The incompletely assembled third gun was turned into scrap by the British army right at the factory when it occupied Essen. The intact Gustav was captured by the US Army near Metzendorf in Germany in June 1945. Shortly thereafter, he was cut into scrap metal. Thus, the history of the Gustav Gun was brought to an end.

Addition: In fact, the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising took place a year before the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. In neither the first nor the second case, the Gustav Gun was not used. For bombing the city, the Nazis then used Thor - a 2-ton Mörser Karl Gerät 040 mortar of 60 cm caliber.




The Dora and Gustav cannons are the guns of the giants.

The Dora super-heavy rail-mounted artillery piece was developed by the German company Krupp in the late 1930s. This weapon was intended 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 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, the caliber of which 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-Emal. According to the requirements of the Wehrmacht, a cannon projectile should be able to penetrate concrete 7 m thick, armor 1 m, solid ground 30 meters, 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 was engaged in the creation of a new super-powerful gun according to the proposed tactical and technical requirements, was headed by Professor E. Mueller, 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 of a new 800mm cannon. The construction of the first gun was completed in 1941. The weapon, in honor of E. Mueller's wife, was named "Dora". The second gun, which was named "Fat Gustav" in honor of the leadership of the firm of Gustav von Bohlen and Galbach Krupp, was built in mid-1941. In addition, a third 520 mm 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. to the west of Berlin, at the Rügenwalde-Hillersleben test site, the guns were tested. The tests were attended by Adolf Hitler himself, his colleague Albert Speer, as well as other high army officials. 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 42nd year. The gun was delivered to the troops. By the same time, over 100 800mm rounds were manufactured at the company's factories.

The locking of the barrel bolt, as well as the sending of the shells, were carried out by hydraulic mechanisms. The cannon was equipped with two lifters: for shells and for shells. The first part of the barrel was tapered, the second was cylindrical.

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, one more railway track was laid on the sides of the gun for assembly cranes. The total mass of the gun was 1350 tons. To fire, the gun needed a section up to 5 km long. The time it took to prepare the gun for firing consisted of choosing a position (could reach 6 weeks) and assembling the gun itself (about 3 days).

Tool transportation and service personnel.

The gun was transported by rail. So, near Sevastopol "Dora" was delivered by 5 trains in 106 wagons:

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

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

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

4th train: loaders and barrel, 20 cars;

5th train: ammunition, 10 cars.

Combat use.

Dora took part in World War II only twice.

The gun was first used 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 in an ammunition depot located at a depth of 27 meters. The rest of Dora's shots penetrated the ground to a depth of 12 meters. After the explosion of the shell, 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, the gun fired 48 shells.

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

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

End of Dora and Gustav.

04/22/1945, the forward units of the Allied army in 36 km. from the city of Auerbach (Bavaria) found the remains of the guns "Dora" and "Gustav" blown up by the Germans. Subsequently, all that remained of these giants of World War II was sent to be melted down.

Hitler and the Generals examine fat Gustav in 1941.

In 1936, Adolf Hitler was faced with the problem of overcoming the French Maginot defense line, a 400-kilometer defense line consisting of fortified bunkers, defensive structures, machine-gun nests and artillery points.

Thanks to this, the Maginot line of defense, in addition to its considerable length, provided a defense depth of 100 kilometers. After visiting the Friedrich Krupp A.G. engineering plant in 1936, Hitler ordered the development of a weapon capable of destroying permanent fortifications, which was to help overcome the Maginot Line. In 1937, Krupp engineers completed the development of this weapon, and in 1941 two copies of the weapon were created, the 800-mm Dora and Fat Gustav cannons.

The "Fat Gustav" cannon weighed 1,344 tons and required the dismantling of some parts to move it along the railroad tracks. The gun was as high as a four-story house, 6 meters wide and 42 meters long. The "Fat Gustav" gun was serviced by a team of 500 people under the command of a high-ranking army officer. It took the team almost three days to get the gun ready for firing.


The projectile diameter of the "Tolstoy Gustav" cannon was 800 mm. To push the projectile out of the barrel, a charge of smokeless powder weighing 1360 kilograms was used. The ammunition for the cannon was of two types:
a high-explosive projectile weighing 4,800 kilograms, stuffed with a powerful explosive, and an all-metal projectile weighing 7,500 kilograms to destroy concrete.

The flight speed of the projectiles fired from the barrel of the Tolstoy Gustav cannon was 800 meters per second.

The angle of elevation of the barrel of the Tolstoy Gustav cannon is 48 degrees, thanks to which it can hit a target with a high-explosive projectile at a distance of 45 kilometers. A projectile designed to destroy concrete could hit a target at a distance of 37 kilometers. Having exploded, the high-explosive shell of the "Fat Gustav" cannon left a crater 10 meters deep, and a concrete-piercing shell could penetrate about 80 meters of reinforced concrete structures.

It was completed by the end of 1940 and the first test shots were fired at the beginning of 1941 at the Rugenwalde test site. On this occasion, Hitler and Albert Speer arrived on a visit, Reich Minister of Armaments and Ammunition.

Interesting Facts:


  • In German, the gun was called Schwerer Gustav.


  • The construction of "Tolstoy Gustav" was often described as a waste of time and money, which in part was true, although the defenders of Sevastopol may have had a different opinion. On the other hand, if the Maginot Line could not be bypassed and it was possible to shoot at Gibraltar, then the weapon could play an important role in the war. But there are too many woulds.


  • During the siege of Sevastopol, the cannon shots were directed by the data of the reconnaissance aircraft. The first cannon hit was a group of coastal guns, destroyed by a total of 8 volleys. 6 volleys were fired at Fort Stalin with the same effect. 7 shots were fired at the Molotov fort and 9 at the Northern Bay, where a successful hit by a heavy shell pierced the fort in depth, to the ammunition depots, which destroyed it entirely.

Based on materials from the Soviet and foreign press.