"Gustav Cannon" was very famous before the missile era. Its reputation was due to its large size. Both its size and destructive power were large enough at the time. With the addition of a transport vehicle, the Gustav cannon weighs 1344 tons. The whole cannon is 43 meters long, 7 meters wide and 12 meters high. Moreover, when operating the Gustav Cannon, at least 3,000 soldiers are required to cooperate with each other, and special rails are required to carry and move this "super beast". The barrel of the
Gustav cannon is nearly 1 meter wide and is equipped with two types of shells, one is a 4.8-ton high-performance explosive shell, and the other is a 7.5-ton-pound concrete piercing shell. . However, this "super weapon" also has a fatal flaw, that is, the target is too large, it is easy to be found by the aircraft, and after every 48 shells are fired, the barrel will be completely damaged. During World War II, Hitler issued an order to German engineers asking them to design a super cannonball that could penetrate one meter of steel, 7 meters of concrete, and 30 meters of soil. ".
Because, in order to defend Germany, France spent 9 years and a huge sum of 6 billion francs to build a 400-kilometer Maginot Line. There are about 5,800 permanent fortifications for various purposes in the entire defense line, all of which are reinforced concrete fortifications. The wall thickness is 3.5 meters, and the armor thickness of the armored tower is 300 mm.
After careful study by the senior German military, if the German army wants to break through the Maginot Line, it must use a large-caliber train gun.
Therefore, Krupp has been ordered to study large-caliber train guns since 1935. After 7 years of hard work by countless experts, we finally succeeded in researching the most terrifying train cannon in human history, the Gustav Cannon.
But the Gustav cannon is so big that ordinary trains can't move at all. In order to tow this huge gun, Krupp also specially manufactured two huge locomotives with a power of 1050 horsepower.
Due to the relatively long research and development time, when the first Gustav cannon was produced, the French battle was over. Because the Germans did not attack the Maginot line, but used a large number of armored troops to break through from the Aden area, and then occupied the entire territory of France.
The appearance of the Gustav cannon at this time seems to have been untimely, but fortunately, the Führer Hitler still attached great importance to it.
In the spring of 1942, the Dora artillery was assembled and the final firing test was scheduled for March 19th. On the same day, Hitler took a special train from Berlin to the Rugenwald shooting range to watch the test firing. Hitler liked the Gustav Cannon very much. Although the Maginot Line had been destroyed at this time, it did not mean that Europe had no strong and indestructible fortresses.
The power of the Gustav cannon
1 In 941, the German army invaded the Soviet Union and the Soviet-German War broke out. In order to defeat the Soviet Union, Hitler ordered preparations for the Battle of Stalingrad. But to ensure the victory of the Battle of Stalingrad, the fortress of Setosdopol on the Crimea peninsula flanking Stalingrad must be destroyed.
Setosdopol Fortress was built as a strong fortress group as early as the Tsarist Russia. By the time of the Soviet Union, the entire Sevastopol had become an extremely strong fortress group, and its defensive ability was no less powerful than the Maginot Line.
The entire fortress area is covered by permanent concrete armor plates, connected by underground passages and small railways. All fortress turrets are installed sinking, theoretically it is impossible to carry out ground attacks on the defense zone.
and the basic ammunition of the fortress is stored in the main ammunition depot of "Kurabe" which is 30 meters deep underground, which can resist any attack from any existing German artillery and air force.
German troops did suffer a big loss in front of the Sevastopol Fortress. In six months, they mobilized seven divisions and carried out two large-scale attacks, but they failed to shake this. The defense of the city.
In desperation, the German army had to ask for help from the rear, demanding the deployment of heavy artillery.
Then Hitler sent the Gustav Cannon. After the
artillery is erected, the whole gun is 43 meters long, 7 meters wide, 12 meters high, and has 4 floors. The special shells are also surprisingly large, 7 meters long and stand tall. One of them weighs 7.5 tons and contains 2000 kg of explosives.
In the early morning of June 5, 1942, the Gustav train gun slowly fired 48 giant artillery shells, maintaining the Sevastopol fortress, known as the "Great Wall of Steel" for nearly a century, and completely disappeared from the earth.
One of the shells penetrated 30 meters above the Kurabe main ammunition depot, including a 10-meter concrete wall, and detonated the ammunition depot. With the help of the Gustav Cannon, the German army took the city for the third time in only one month and captured 100,000 Soviet troops, completely occupying the southern part of the Soviet Union.
But in the subsequent wars, the Germans gradually lost the initiative on the battlefield, and Gustav never participated in the battle. The gun was once transported back for overhaul and rifling, and then sent to the Leningrad front.
However, the German commander believed that the Gustav cannon was not practical and could only be used in special operations without paying much attention. Because the Gustav Cannon is too bulky and the speed is slow and the duration is short,
is actually the biggest threat to the Gustav Cannon or the enemy’s aircraft, because his target is too big to be concealed. . The structure of the train gun is sophisticated, and it has no defensive capability. One or two heavy bombs can damage it and render it unusable.
Simply put, Gustav can only be used if he has absolute air supremacy. If he only has a part of the air supremacy, he cannot risk using the cannon.
When the Gustav cannon was transported to the front line Leningrad again, it happened to be counterattacked by the Soviets, and the Gustav cannon had to be transported back to the country again.
As a result, the German army began to lose the initiative on the battlefield, and air dominance was naturally not guaranteed. At that time, the Gustav series of giant artillery could not move in time, and the target was extremely large. Once it was bombed by a Soviet aircraft, it was easily destroyed, so it was never used.
Until April 22, 1945, the Gustav cannon was destroyed by the Germans, and Hitler obviously did not want it to fall into the hands of the former Soviets. The era of the
train cannon ended with the end of World War II, and the next is the era of missiles.
