|
IPTC: Caption
|
The 800mm (31.5 inch) Schwere Gustav Kanone Eisenbahgeschutz (Heavy Gustav Cannon Railway Gun) nicknamed "Dora" prepares to fire on Soviet positions at Sevastopol. Designed by Dr. Erich Mueller at Friedrich Krupp Aktiengesellschaft Gun Works in Essen. The need for an 800mm artillery piece was questioned by some German officers, who were silenced when Reichsklanzler (Reichchancellor) Adolf Hitler personally ordered it into production in 1939. The Schwere Gustav was part of a rearmament program that included the 600mm (23.6 inch) "Karl" Morsers (Mortars) and the Krupp K5 280mm (11 inch) railway guns for use against the Maginot Line. None of the German heavy guns were ready by the time of the Battle of France. Krupp built two of the 800mm guns; they were named after Krupp's director, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (August 7, 1870 - January 16, 1950). "Dora" was the gun's security code name. The gun had two types of shells. The armor/concrete-piercing shell weighed 7.1 tons (7,100 kilograms) and could pierce 22.9 feet (7 meters) of reinforced concrete or 3.3 feet (1 meter) of rolled steel armor. The high-explosive shell weighed 4.8 tons (4,800 kilograms) and left a 30 foot (10 meter) wide crater. Dora was test-fired on November 25, 1941, and Schwere Artillerie Abteilung (E) 672 was formed under Diplom-Ingenieur Oberst-Leutnant (Certified Engineer Lieutenant Colonel) Robert Bohm. Oberleutnant Geschutzfuhrer Knoll was the gun captain. (E) 672 rolled forward to the Crimea on four trains, complete with anti-aircraft gun cars. Some 450 men crewed the gun, and on site in Bachtschissarai, 2,500 laborers cut through a mountain and laid the four parallel rail tracks that Dora needed to be mobile. With anti-aircraft crews and guards, 5,000 men were attached to the gun. Two giant cranes, shipped by Krupp from Essen, helped assemble the gun and then served her with ammunition. The curve of the tracks seen here would allow the gun to be placed by three diesel-electric locomoti
|
IPTC: Copyright Notice
|
Caption ©2007 MFA Productions LLC
Image in the Public Domain
|
