A Monster Gun for the Maginot Line
Work on the giant weapon begun as far back as 1934, when German army ordnance enquired of Krupp's the weight and speed required of a projectile to demolish the massive defences of the Maginot line which the French were then in the process of completing. Preliminary blueprints for an 80cm siege gun were compiled by Krupp's ballistic experts, but nothing more was heard from the authorities about it even during Hitler's visit to the works at Essen, in March 1936, during which he enquired into the giant guns feasibility, nothing was commissioned. It wasn't until October, 1939, that Hitler, in preparing his plans for attacking Russia, initiated orders for the production of the 80cm guns.
After orders in 1939 were given to develop and produce the gun, Krupp built a test model (late 1939) and sent it to the proving ground of Hillersleben. Once the test programs for the gun were completed (mid 1940) and the results sent back to the Heereswaffenamt (ordnance office) office in Berlin, the gun and its carriage were removed and presumably scrapped. The test results were favourable and contracts were let to Krupp at Essen for the manufacture of two of the guns in late 1940-41, and a third in 1944. This last one was found unfinished in its shop at Krupp, when the American forces took Essen.
Krupp was thoroughly equipped to turn out munitions. Among its facilities were open hearth and electric steel furnaces, foundries, forge and press shops, armour plate rolling mills, plate and spring shops, testing laboratories, low pressure vessel shops, and a large number of machine shops devoted to specific tasks. These buildings and the others were listed numerically in classes: e.g., machine shop 10, 11, 12, etc.; foundry 3, 4, 5, etc.; armour plate mill 1, 2, etc.
It was in machine shops 20, 21 (heavy gun shop and machine shop respectively), that the tube for the 80cm gun was made. The shells for this gun were made in draw and press shop 1; its carriage was made in machine and erecting shop number 1 (for gun mounts and gun carriages).
In machine shops 20 and 21, there were large gun lathes and milling machines for production of heavy gun tubes. In draw and press shop 1, there were three piercing presses from 250 to 1,500 tons, three draw benches from 500 to 2,510 tons some turning lathes, five furnaces, and one 800 ton vertical drawing press. The power plant which was part of this shop provided the air, water, and electric power for the draw and press shop. Railroad tire shop 3 was also used in producing big shells. In this shop were 25 miscellaneous lathes, grinders, one shell bander, 12 car wheel lathes (not used), and six vertical mills. These two shops turned out the 80cm shells for the Gustav Geschutz (gun) and the Dora. In the machine and erecting shop 1 were 90 miscellaneous lathes, planers, milling machines, horizontal boring mills, grinders, and drill presses. This shop machined and assembled the parts for the 80cm gun railway carriage.
Gustav & Dora
The two 80 centimetre guns which Krupp produced in 1941-1942 were the largest guns in the world. They were identical railway pieces but were different from conventional single track railway guns in that a 4 track system was needed for emplacement. The first gun produced was named Gustav Geschutz, after Gustav Krupp; the second one produced was named the Dora, for the wife of Gustav Krupp. Each gun was put under the command of a major general, and crews were selected and trained in the operations of the gun
As the German forces pushed closer and closer to the Crimea, plans were drawn up for the occupation of that peninsula. Included in these plans were the heavy siege artillery to be used against the fortifications at Sevastopol -and Kerch, the two strongholds in the Crimea.
Sometime in February of 1941, the Gustav Geschutz, one of the siege guns to be used at Sevastopol, started its long ride from Germany to the Crimean front. The train, 25 cars long, included gondolas, special flat cars, accessory cars, ammunition cars, and two cranes for emplacing the gun. the probable route taken was through southern Poland to the Ukraine, using the rail links between captured cities. Along the way in the Ukraine the gun was transported on the new German railway built from the Ukraine to the Crimean Isthmus.
The Setting Up of Gustav
The gun reached the Perekof isthmus around the early part of March, 1942. Here it was held with the other siege artillery and ammunition, which were accumulating, until early in April when the siege artillery was moved into Crimea, to the north of Simferopol ( southern. As the German forces closed in on Sevastopol, the siege artillery was moved into position. A railway spur was built to the Simferopol-Sevastopol railway, ten miles north of the target area. At the end of this spur the four semicircular tracks for the Gustav Geschutz were built. The train was moved down the Simferopol - Sevastopol line and onto this spur. The emplacement of the Gustav was then begun. By June 5 the gun was ready to fire. On June 6 all of the siege guns began the bombardement of Fort Stalin.
On June 18 the breach in the ridge line in the north was enlarged. A heavy bombardment was launched against fort Maxim Gorki. There was an internal explosion and the fort was quickly captured. On June 19 Sevastopol itself was brought under fire from the siege artillery. Since there was only a slight increase in range, the siege guns did not have to move their positions. On june 21 the cape fort fell. Now the entire ridge was in German hands. Sevastopol was being subjected day and night to intensive artillery fire. Under the shells of the 80 centimetre gun and the 60 centimetre mortar (thor) and other guns, the city was beginning to disintegrate. On this day the Russians abandoned their positions north of the Chernaya river to set up a defence line along its south bank.
When the fight was over on July 4, Sevastopol was a vast pile of rubble. More than 30,000 tons of artillery ammunition was used in the siege. Three hundred rounds were fired by the Gustav Geschutz alone. One of its gun tubes was worn out, and was sent back to the Krupp works where a liner was added. This tube came back to the Crimean front, where its parent gun was using the spare tube.
The Whereabouts of Gustav & Dora
When the German armies began their long retreat, Dora was taken from its emplacement and transported west to prevent its capture by the Russians. When in April, 1945, the U.S. army was advancing the Germans destroyed it with demolition charges and dispersed the parts.
In early June, 1945, an ordnance intelligence team, upon discovering parts of the Dora in the railway yards near Chemnitz, could only photograph the guns' wreckage, as the Russians had already occupied the city, and had posted guards around the area of the wreckage.
One of the first Americans to see and examine the Gustav Geschutz was Colonel Porter, then commander of the 416th field artillery group. On April 22, he was passing along a little used road through a forest ten miles north of Auerbach (about 30 miles southwest of Chemnitz), on his way to assist in the attack on Regensburg, when he came to a small dirt road which led through the forest to the village of Metzenhof (or Metzendorf). There he met an American soldier who said that there were some big guns back in the woods. He followed the indicated route for about a half a mile until he came to a single track railway along which were the remnants of fourteen cars of the Gustav Geschutz. In this train, near Metzenhof, he found the Gustav's two gun tubes, one cradle, the right bottom carriage half, and other parts and accessories for the gun. One tube was intact (the spare tube), but the rest of the parts had been hurriedly damaged by the fleeing Germans.
He continued on his way south, to the Regensberg area where the 416th field artillery group participated in the capture of the city.
Later in June, when colonel porter moved his group headquarters back to Auerbach, he again investigated the railway spur near Metzenhof. This time he found the other parts of the gun scattered along some fifty miles of railway track. In a further check down the track, on a siding at the village of Vorra, Colonel Porter found the Gustav's breech ring, the bronze recoil jacket, the left bottom carriage half, the trunnion bearings, and the second gasoline-electric generator. Investigating further, he found, in a railway tunnel twenty-five miles south toward Weiden, the remainder of the twenty-five car train for the gun. The parts on these cars had been damaged also. it was apparent that the Germans had hurriedly sabotaged the gun, for there were still demolition charges on the various gun parts.
When colonel porter went to Paris, he informed ordnance intelligence of his discovery. With the knowledge of the damaged gun plus that supplemented by a captured German officer (who had been with the Gustav Geschutz in the Crimea), Colonel Porter wrote reports for the British and French ordnance offices. When he came back to the United States, he wrote another report which has been published in military and scientific magazines.
Specifications
weight of gun: 1,344 tons
length overall of gun: 164 feet (49.98 m)
height overall of gun: 35 feet (10.66 m)
weight of projectile with windshield: 16,540 lbs
diameter of projectile: 31.5 inches (80 cm)
weight of explosive charge: 2,400 lbs. of RDX
length overall of projectile: 11 feet 6 inches (3.50 m)
weight of propellant charge: 2,500 lbs. in 3 increments
muzzle velocity of gun: 2,500 ft per sec
maximum range: 51,000 yards. 30 miles
maximum elevation: 48 degrees