The largest guns in history - from the “Basilica” of a Hungarian engineer with the coolest surname Urban (or is it a name?) to Krupp’s “Dora” with a barrel length of 32.5 m!
1. "Basilica"
It's also an Ottoman cannon. It was cast in 1453 by the Hungarian engineer Urban to order Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. In that memorable year the Turks laid siege to the capital Byzantine Empire Constantinople and still could not get inside the impregnable city.
For three months Urban patiently cast his creation in bronze and finally presented the resulting monster to the Sultan. A 32-ton giant with a length of 10 m and a barrel diameter of 90 cm could launch a 550-kilogram cannonball approximately 2 km.
To transport the Basilica from place to place, 60 oxen were harnessed to it. In general, 700 people had to service the sultan cannon, including 50 carpenters and 200 workers who made special wooden walkways for moving and installing the gun. Just recharging with a new core took a whole hour!
The life of the Basilica was short but bright. On the second day of firing at Constantinople, the barrel cracked. But the job was already done. By this time, the cannon had managed to make a well-aimed shot and make a hole in protective wall. The Turks entered the capital of Byzantium.
After another month and a half, the cannon fired its last shot and finally broke apart. (In the picture you see the Dardanelles cannon, an analogue of the “Basilica”, cast in 1464.) Its creator was already dead by this time. Historians disagree on how he died. According to one version, Urban was killed by a fragment of an exploding siege cannon (smaller, but again cast by him). According to another version, after the end of the siege, Sultan Mehmed executed the master, having learned that Urban had offered his help to the Byzantines. The current international situation tells us to lean towards the second version, which once again proves the treacherous nature of the Turks.
2. Tsar Cannon
Well, where would we be without her! Every resident of Russia over the age of seven has a rough idea of what this thing is. Therefore, we will limit ourselves to only the briefest information.
The Tsar Cannon was cast in bronze by cannon and bell maker Andrei Chokhov in 1586. Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, the third son of Ivan the Terrible, was then sitting on the throne.
The length of the cannon is 5.34 m, the diameter of the barrel is 120 cm, the weight is 39 tons. We are all accustomed to seeing this cannon lying on a beautiful carriage decorated with ornaments, with cannonballs resting next to it. However, the carriage and cannonballs were manufactured only in 1835. Moreover, the Tsar Cannon cannot and could not fire such cannonballs.
Until the current nickname was assigned to the gun, it was called the “Russian Shotgun.” And this is closer to the truth, since the cannon was supposed to fire buckshot (“shot” - stone cannonballs with a total weight of up to 800 kg). She should have, but she never shot.
Although, according to legend, the cannon did fire one salvo, shooting out the ashes of False Dmitry, but this does not correspond to the facts. When the Tsar Cannon was sent for restoration in the eighties, the experts who studied it came to the conclusion that the weapon was never completed. There was no pilot hole in the cannon, which no one had bothered to drill for five centuries.
However, this did not stop the cannon from showing off in the heart of the capital and demonstrating the power of Russian weapons to overseas ambassadors with its impressive appearance.
3. "Big Bertha"
The legendary mortar, produced in 1914 at the factories of the ancient Krupp foundry dynasty, received its nickname in honor of Bertha Krupp, who was at that time the sole owner of the concern. Judging by the surviving photographs, Bertha was indeed quite a large woman.
The 420-mm mortar could fire one shot every 8 minutes and send a 900-kilogram projectile 14 km. The landmine exploded, leaving behind a crater with a diameter of 10 m and a depth of 4 m. The flying fragments killed at a distance of up to 2 km. The walls of the French and Belgian garrisons were not prepared for this. Allied forces fighting on the Western Front dubbed Bertha the “Fort Killer.” It took the Germans no more than two days to capture another fortress.
In total, twelve Berthas were produced during the First World War; to date, not a single one has survived. Those that did not explode themselves were destroyed during the fighting. The mortar that lasted the longest was captured by the American army at the end of the war and was exhibited until 1944 in the military museum of Aberdeen (Maryland), until it was sent for melting down.
4. Parisian gun
On March 21, 1918, an explosion occurred in Paris. Behind him is another, a third, a fourth. Explosions occurred at fifteen-minute intervals, and in just one day there were 21 of them... The Parisians were in panic. The sky above the city remained deserted: no enemy planes, no zeppelins.
By evening, after studying the fragments, it became clear that these were not aerial bombs, but artillery shells. Have the Germans really reached the very walls of Paris, or even settled somewhere inside the city?
Only a few days later, the French aviator Didier Dora, flying over, discovered the place from which they were shooting at Paris. The gun was hidden 120 kilometers from the city. The Kaiser Wilhelm Trumpet, an ultra-long-range weapon, another product of the Krupp concern, was firing at Paris.
The barrel of the 210 mm gun had a length of 28 m (plus a 6-meter extension). The colossal weapon, weighing 256 tons, was placed on a special railway platform. The firing range of a 120-kilogram projectile was 130 km, and the trajectory height reached 45 km. It was precisely because the projectile moved in the stratosphere and experienced less air resistance that a unique range was achieved. The projectile reached the target in three minutes.
The gun, noticed by the big-eyed pilot, was hiding in the forest. Around it there were several batteries of small-caliber guns, which created a background noise that made it difficult to establish the exact location of the Kaiser Trumpet.
For all its external horror, the weapon was rather stupid. The 138-ton barrel sagged from its own weight and needed support with additional cables. And once every three days the barrel had to be completely changed, since it could not withstand more than 65 shots, the volleys wore it down too quickly. Therefore, for each new barrel there was a special set of numbered shells - each next one was slightly thicker (that is, slightly larger in caliber) than the previous one. All this affected the accuracy of shooting.
In total, about 360 shots were fired across Paris. In this case, 250 people were killed. Most Parisians (60) died when they hit (accidentally, of course) the Church of Saint-Gervais during a service. And although there were not many dead, all of Paris was frightened and depressed by the power of German weapons.
When the situation at the front changed, the cannon was immediately evacuated back to Germany and destroyed so that its secret would not get to the Entente troops.
When manufacturing ship guns on ship models, their correct equipment plays an important role. A skillfully made gun, simply glued to the deck, will look unfinished; even a layman’s eye will notice that such a gun will roll freely on the deck when rocking, and in a storm it will generally turn into a deadly projectile, threatening not only the crew, but also the ship. This is only the most obvious side; in general, guns often had quite a significant weight, so all kinds of hoists were simply necessary for rolling the gun, loading it, and pointing it at the target. Let's try to understand the structure of various additional parts of tools, hoists and cables used at different times in different countries.
The gun was aimed at the target using the simplest sighting devices- a wedge or screw that raises or lowers the breech of the gun. Horizontal aiming was carried out by turning the gun using levers. The firing distance did not exceed k mid-19th century 400-1000 m.
Fig. 1 Design of a ship's cannon
1 - vingrad; 2 - ignition hole; 3 - ignition shelf; 4 - belt near the treasury; 5 - trunnions; 6 - muzzle wreath; legvant; 7 - muzzle rim; 8 - barrel; 9 - rim of the barrel belt; 11 - turning of the first “reinforcement”; 12 - wheel axle; 13 - wheels; 14 - iron dowels or cotter pins; 15 - monitor frame; 16 - side walls-cheeks; 17 - carriage cushion; 18 - cape for the trunnion; 19 - square bolts; 20 - butts for attaching cannon hoists; 21 - through hole in the carriage for the passage of trousers; 22 - eyelets for wiring the trouser; 23 - lifting wedge cushion; 24 - lifting wedge
The gun, ready to fire, was fixed with wedges. The gunpowder was ignited with a wick through the ignition hole. When firing a bomb, the bomb fuse was first lit. After the shot, the gun barrel was cleaned with a bannik - a brush made of lamb skin. The entire process of preparing the gun for firing, along with aiming at the target, took 8-15 minutes. The gun's servants depended on its caliber and could reach 3-4 people. for small guns or 15-18 people. at big guns. The low rate of fire and accuracy of fire (the ship was constantly rocking on the waves) forced to install on the ship as much as possible more guns and fire in volleys at one target. In general, it was very difficult to sink a wooden ship or frigate using such means. Therefore, artillery battle tactics boiled down to destroying masts and sails on an enemy ship. Then, if the enemy did not surrender, his ship was set on fire with firecrackers and bombs. To prevent the crew from putting out the fire, they fired grapeshot on the upper deck. Sooner or later the fire reached the gunpowder reserves. If it was necessary to capture an enemy ship, then a boarding party was landed on it, which destroyed the crew of the enemy ship in hand-to-hand combat.
The following parts were distinguished in the cannon: the inner part of the gun tube - a channel; the front part is the barrel; “reinforcements” - cylinders placed on a pipe; cylindrical tides on which the gun rotated in a vertical plane - axles; the part of the pipe from the trunnions to the barrel is the barrel; the rear part of the gun is the treasury or breech; the tide to the treasury is vingrad; a hole in the pipe next to the treasury into which gunpowder was poured to ignite the charge - a pilot hole, etc. These and other parts of the gun are shown in Fig. 1, where you can see the relationships between the individual parts.
Carriages, or “carts,” were made of oak. They consisted of two side walls - cheeks, which decreased stepwise in height towards the rear of the gun. A horizontal board - a frame - was attached between the cheeks, and the wheel axles were attached to it. The wheels were also made of oak and shod with iron. In accordance with the transverse loss of the deck, the diameter of the front wheels was slightly larger than the rear ones, so the gun lay horizontally on the carriage. In the front part of the frame between the cheeks there was a vertical beam - the “carriage cushion”. Her top part had a semicircular cutout to facilitate lifting the barrel. Two semicircular sockets were cut into the cheeks for installing the trunnions of the gun. On top of the trunnions were held iron capes of a semicircular shape. The individual parts of the carriage were fastened together with iron bolts and cotter pins. Additionally, eyelets were installed on the carriages for attaching hoists.
Ancient guns on ships were moved during battle for loading and aiming, and the rest of the time, due to the motion, they had to be thoroughly secured using special equipment.
Rice. 2. Cannon and retractable hoists, trousers.
1 - trousers (French version); 2 - trousers (English version); 3 - cannon hoists; 4 - sliding hoists.
The trouser was a powerful cable that passed through the side walls of the carriage, the ends of which were attached to the eyelets on the sides of the cannon ports. Served to hold the gun during rollback. On English ships, the trouser did not pass through the carriage, but through the eyelets on the side walls of the carriage.
Cannon hoists - consisted of two blocks with hooks, which were fastened in eyelets on the cheeks of the carriage and on the sides of the cannon ports. With their help, the gun was rolled up to the port and rolled away from it. To do this, two hoists were wound on both sides of the gun (Fig. 2).
Retractable hoists are one or two hoists, based in the same way as cannon hoists, and used to pull the gun inside the ship. Typically, guns were secured to the ship using cables, and during the battle they were pulled out of the gun ports. Sometimes this was done while at anchor, in order to give the ship a ceremonial appearance.
To secure the gun, it was pulled into the ship and the breech was lowered so that the muzzle touched the upper jamb of the port. The trouser was wound under the front axle of the carriage, and the barrel was secured with a cable that covered it and was secured to the eye in the middle of the upper jamb.
Rice. 3. A tool secured with cables.
1 - carriage; 2 - trunk; 3 - muzzle mount; 4 - breech sling; 5 - trousers; 6 - cannon hoists; 7 - sliding hoists; 8 - cable tightening the trousers and cannon hoists; 9 - battery fastening cable; 10 - wedges.
The Vingrad guns were also covered with a sling, into the fire of which the retractable hoists were driven. The second hook of the hoist was fastened in the eye on the jamb. Then the cannon hoists were stuffed and, having tightened them, they grabbed the trousers using the thin end. For safety, wedges were placed under the wheels of the carriage; in addition, all the guns of one battery were fastened to each other with a cable that passed over the lower “step” of the carriage through the eyes on the deck and the hooks on the sides of the gun ports (Fig. 3).
One of the main differences in the English and French gun mounting schemes is the trouser wiring. Guns of various sizes could have different quantity hoist. For example, on lighter guns, instead of a pair of retractable hoists, they often used one attached to an eyelet standing in the center of the carriage (Fig. 7). On Russian ships a scheme similar to the English one was used. This is how it is described in Glotov’s book “Explanations on the ship’s armament”:
The guns on the machines are placed on the decks in the ports, attached to the sides with hoists and trousers (thick resin ropes; made from stay cables, thickness from 8 to 5 ½ inches, depending on the caliber of the gun, and 2 ½ lengths of the gun; hoists from ordinary cables with a thickness of 1/3 of the trousers. The trousers are attached to the eyelets fixed in the sides, and, passing through the eyelets in the cannon machine, they hold the cannon during recoil and help in strengthening it to the side), crowbars and gunshots lie under the machines, banniki, pins , fawns over the cannons. Some of the cannonballs and buckshot are placed in the so-called fenders made on the sides of the cannons (Fenders are rings made of ropes, they are used to ensure that the cannonballs placed in them do not roll out anywhere), or among the deck in nailed slats, or around the hatches; Some of the kernels are placed in boxes made in the hold around the bilge near the mainmast, where they supplement the weight with which the middle of the ship, more than its other parts, should be burdened. The caliber of the guns from the lower deck to the top gradually decreases and is generally commensurate with the size and strength of the vessel. On a 74-gun ship, 36-pounders are usually placed on the lower deck, 18 on the upper deck, and 8-pounders on the quarterdeck and forecastle. The weight of all these guns without mountings and shells is almost 1/2 of the total ship's load. IN Peaceful time 65 cores of 10 Drufhagels with buckshot and gunpowder for 56 combat shots are sent to the ship for each cannon, adding a few for musket shooting; but during the war this number increases by one and a half or two times. Artillery supplies, such as fuses, jackets, spare wheels, axles, crowbars, gun guns, banniks, breakers, etc., are placed in one of the cabins near the exit of the bow camera and in the gallery surrounding it, and near the passage to the lantern.
In Fig. Figure 3 shows one of the most complex schemes for attaching (mooring) guns in the stowed position. There are simpler, but less reliable techniques that have also been frequently used. Simple single mooring fig. 4 is quite sufficient in calm weather at sea, and is the easiest to perform. The running ends of the rolling hoists make one revolution per grape of the tool and fix them. For more detailed description For this and subsequent diagrams, please visit http://perso.wanadoo.fr/gerard.delacroix, for your attention the originals are in French.
Rice. 4. Simple single mooring.
The next most reliable, as well as most complex, was double mooring, Fig. 5. The end of the rolling hoists was used to make several turns around the grapes and the hook of the rolling hoists on the side, with the same end they pulled the resulting loops around the grapes and secured them.
Rice. 5. Double mooring.
Mooring the gun along the side (Fig. 6) was used in cases where the ship was used as a transport ship, or on small ships with a low deck, which strong winds flooded with a wave. The gun was placed along the side opposite the port and secured through eyelets on the sides and wheel axles.
Rice. 6. Mooring along the side.
Naval artillery developed simultaneously with land artillery. The guns were smooth-bore, they were cast from cast iron and copper. The cannons fired solid cast iron balls using black smoky powder. The guns were loaded from the muzzle, and the shot was fired by igniting the gunpowder in the priming hole. Shooting was carried out only at direct fire. The caliber of guns in Peter's times ranged from two to 30 pounds (Fig. 7)
Rice. 7. A typical artillery weapon from Peter’s time:
1 - carriage; 2 - gun barrel trunnions; 3 - eye for sliding hoists; 4 - coupling bolts
Rice. 8. Unicorn gun barrel
The unicorn's barrel was longer than that of an infantry howitzer, but shorter than that of a naval cannon. It was possible to conduct mounted and ground fire from it, using all types of projectiles: cannonballs, explosive grenades (bombs), incendiary shells and buckshot. The unicorn’s grapeshot effect was many times stronger than the grapeshot effect of a mortar, and the firing range of cannonballs and bombs was twice as strong further than a mortar of the same weight. The siege artillery had at its disposal 24- and 18-pounder cannons, as well as 1-pound unicorns. Unicorns proved themselves so well that they were soon adopted by the armies of many Western countries. They held out until the introduction of rifled artillery (mid-19th century).
Since 1787, guns of a new type were introduced into the fleet: 24- and 31-pound carronades (Fig. 9), and in early XIX V. - 68- and 96-pound. These were small-length, large-caliber cannons, the firing of which at close ranges produced large holes and destruction of the hull of the enemy ship. They were intended for close-range shooting, and were installed mainly on the upper deck - the quarterdeck and forecastle. The carriage of the carronades had a slightly different structure - the bow part of the carriage was bolted to the cushion, and the stern part had scaffolding located across the carriage, which made it possible to carry out horizontal aiming. For vertical aiming, a vertical screw was fitted on the carriage, with the help of which the rear part of the barrel was raised and lowered. In those same years, cast iron began to be replaced by bronze as a material for casting guns.
Rice. 9. Carronade
The latest achievement of Russian smooth-bore artillery was the 68-pounder (214 mm) bomb guns, which played an important role in the Battle of Sinop in 1853. Tests of the new gun were carried out in Nikolaev in 1839, and from 1841, at the insistence of Kornilov, they began to arm ships of the Black Sea Fleet. The first ship armed with 68-pound bomb guns was the 120-gun three-deck battleship "Twelve Apostles", launched in 1841, and then the battleships of the same type "Paris", " Grand Duke Constantine" and "Empress Maria".
Bomb guns (Fig. 10) differed from the so-called long guns in that their shells, having the same mass and the same projectile range, produced more significant damage due to the fact that they were hollow and filled with a bursting charge. Firepower battleship, armed with such weapons, tripled. Well-aimed bomb shells caused terrible destruction on enemy ships, they pierced the sides, knocked down masts and overturned enemy guns. Having pierced the side of the ship, they tore apart inside it, crushing everything around and causing fires. 15-20 minutes after the start of the Russian cannonade in the Battle of Sinop, most of the Turkish ships were already on fire.
Rice. 10. Bomb gun
Ordinary Turkish cannons of that time fired solid cannonballs that did not cause much harm to the enemy. For example, in 1827, in the victorious naval battle of Navarino, the Russian flagship Azov received 153 holes, including 7 underwater ones. This did not stop its commander, Captain 1st Rank M.P. Lazarev, from sinking the Turkish flagship, 3 frigates, a corvette and forcing an enemy 80-gun ship to wash ashore. And "Azov" was soon repaired and continued its glorious service in the ranks of its native fleet. Bomb guns very soon replaced cannons that fired solid cast-iron cannonballs.
By the middle of the 19th century. smoothbore artillery has reached its highest perfection. The external appearance of the guns varies depending on which factory and at what time they were cast. Guns of an earlier period had decorations in the form of friezes and belts decorated with intricate casting. Cannons of later manufacture did not have these decorations. Caliber of guns by the middle of the 19th century. reached 32-36 pounds, and bomb 68-96 pounds.
Approximate caliber sizes of some guns in metric system measures are as follows: 3-pound-61-mm, 6-pound-95-mm, 8-pound-104-mm, 12-pound-110-mm, 16-pound-118-mm, 18-pound-136-mm , 24-pound - 150-mm, 30-pound-164-mm, 36-pound-172-mm, 68-pound-214-mm.. Carronades were made 12-, 18-, 24-, 32-, 36- , 68- and 96-lb.
Gun ports are almost square holes cut into the sides of the ship (Fig. 11). Ports were made in the bow and stern of the ship. In the bow there are so-called ports for running guns, in the stern - for guns used in defense against the pursuing enemy. They usually housed guns removed from the nearest side ports and placed on the same deck.
Rice. 11. Cannon ports of a two-deck battleship from the late 18th century;
1-gondeck ports; 2 - forward-deck ports; 3 - shank half-ports: 4 - main-channel 5 - lower deadeyes; 6 - shrouds; 7 - velkhouts; 8 - side ladder
The covers of the gun ports, which tightly closed them, were made of thick boards covered with transverse, thinner boards (Fig. 12).
Rice. 12. Gun port covers;
1-port cover; 2-decoration of port covers with inlay; 3 - method of opening and closing port covers.
The lids were hung on hinges from above. They were opened from the inside using cables, the ends of which were embedded in eyelets on the top side of the lid, and closed using another cable attached to the eyelet on inside covers. On the upper deck in the bulwarks, the gun ports were made without covers and called half-ports. In Peter's times, the outer side of the port covers was often decorated with inlay in the form of a gilded wreath carved from wood.
The size of the ports and the distance between them depended on the diameter of the core. Thus, the width and height of the ports were 6.5 and 6 core diameters, respectively, and the distance between the axes of the ports was approximately 20-25 core diameters. The distances between the ports were dictated by the lower (largest caliber) guns, and the remaining ports were cut in a checkerboard pattern.
The distance between all the lower ports, plus the distance from the outer ports to the bow and stern, determined the length of the battery deck, and the latter determined the length of the ship and, accordingly, all its other dimensions. Hence the term “ship length along the nacelle” is sometimes found in the literature.
Now from history and theory, for clarity, let's move on to examples and photographs of various guns, and since we can distinguish two main installation schemes for gun hoists - English and French, first England:
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The last picture is a good example, the installation is on the model. Based on the scale of the model, some elements can be omitted; just like with rigging, excessive overloading of the model will only be a disadvantage. But in any case, leaving a gun without equipment, I think, is unsightly. At a minimum, it is worth making the trousers, regardless of the scale of the model, at least according to a simpler pattern without eyelets in the French style.
Dmitry Luchin
The article uses excerpts from Kurti’s books “Building Model Ships”,
Glotov "Explanations on the ship's armament"
as well as website materials
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/gerard.delacroix
http://www.grinda.navy.ru
It is not for nothing that artillery is called the main participant in the war. From the very beginning of its history, it became an important and integral part of any ground forces. Even despite high-tech developments in the field missile weapons And air aviation, the artillerymen have enough work to do, and this state of affairs will not change in the foreseeable future.
In the army, size mattered and always matters, regardless of the type of troops. Large bombers or massive tanks are not the most maneuverable, and sometimes not as effective tools attack or defense, but do not forget about the psychological effect they have on enemies.
So, we present to your attention a list of the largest guns in the entire history of mankind, which includes artillery pieces from different eras and times. All of them have survived to this day in one form or another, and instill fear in museum visitors, and not in enemies on the battlefield.
- Ottoman "Basilica".
- German "Dora".
- Russian Tsar Cannon.
- American gun "Little David".
- Soviet mortar "Oka".
- German "Big Bertha"
Let's look at each participant in more detail.
"Basilica"
Taking pride of place on our list is the Ottoman Basilica cannon. They began casting it at the beginning of the 15th century at the request of the ruler Mehmed II. The work fell on the shoulders of the famous Hungarian master Urban, and a few years later the world's largest cannon in the history of war appeared.
The bronze gun turned out to be colossal in size: the length of the warhead was 12 meters, the barrel diameter was 90 cm, and the weight exceeded the 30-ton mark. For that time, it was a heavy machine, and at least 30 tall bulls were required to move it.
Distinctive features of the gun
The crew of the gun was also impressive: 50 carpenters to make a platform at the shooting site and 200 people to aim at the target. The firing range of the world's largest cannon was about 2 kilometers, which at that time was an unthinkable distance for any weapon.
“Basilica” did not please its commanders for long, because literally after a few days of a difficult siege, the cannon cracked, and after a couple of days it stopped firing altogether. Nevertheless, the weapon served the Ottoman Empire and brought a lot of fear to the enemies, from which they could not recover for a long time.
"Dora"
This very heavy German gun is considered the largest cannon in the world during World War II. It all started in the 30s of the last century, when Krupp engineers began designing this colossus.
A gun with a caliber of 807 mm had to be mounted on a special platform that walked along railway. The maximum range for hitting targets fluctuated around 50 kilometers. German designers managed to produce only two guns, and one of them took part in the siege of Sevastopol.
The total weight of "Dora" fluctuated around 1.3 tons. With about a half-hour delay, the cannon fired one shot. Despite the fact that many military analysts and specialists had a lot of doubts about the combat effectiveness and practicality of such a monster, the gun really instilled panic and disoriented enemy troops.
Tsar Cannon
Bronze in the list of the largest artillery guns was given to our national pride - the Tsar Cannon. The weapon saw the light of day in 1586 thanks to the efforts of the weapons designer of those years, Andrei Chokhov.
The dimensions of the gun make an unforgettable impression on tourists: the length is 5.4 meters, the caliber of the combat weapon is 890 mm and the weight of more than 40 tons will frighten any enemy. The largest cannon in the world rightfully received the respectful treatment of the Tsar.
Above appearance the guns also tried. The cannon is decorated with complex and interesting patterns, and several inscriptions can be read along the perimeter. Military experts are confident that the Tsar Cannon opened fire on the enemy only once, despite the fact that this was not confirmed in historical documents. Our gun was included in the famous Guinness Book of Records and became the most visited attraction in the capital, along with the Lenin Mausoleum.
"Little David"
This gun from the United States is a legacy of World War II and is considered the world's largest cannon in terms of caliber diameter. “Little David” was developed as a tool for eliminating particularly powerful enemy structures on the Pacific coast.
But the gun was not destined to leave the range where it passed successful tests, so the gun inspired fear and respect only in photographs of the foreign press.
Before firing, the barrel was mounted on a special metal frame, which was buried a quarter into the ground. The cannon fired non-standard cone-shaped projectiles, the weight of which could reach one and a half tons. At the site of the explosion of such ammunition there was a deep depression 4 meters deep and 10-15 meters in circumference.
Mortar "Oka"
In fifth position on the list of the world's largest guns is another domestic development of the Soviet era - the Oka mortar. In the middle of the last century, the USSR already had nuclear weapons, but experienced some problems with delivering them to the target location. Therefore, before Soviet designers set the task of creating a mortar that could fire nuclear warheads.
As a result, they got a kind of monster with a caliber of 420 mm and a weight of almost 60 tons. The mortar's firing range varied within 50 kilometers, which, in principle, was sufficient for mobile tank equipment of those times.
Despite the theoretical success of the enterprise, mass production of Oka was abandoned. The reason for this was the monstrous recoil of the gun, which negated all mobility: for a normal shot it was necessary to properly dig in the mortar and build supports, and this required too much time.
"Big Bertha"
Another weapon of German designers, but already at the beginning of the last century, when the First World War raged World War. The gun was developed at the already mentioned Krupp plant in 1914. The gun received a main combat caliber of 420 mm, and each individual projectile weighed almost one ton. Having a firing range of 14 kilometers, such indicators were quite acceptable.
"Big Bertha" was designed to destroy particularly strong enemy fortifications. Initially, the gun was stationary, but after some time it was modified and made possible to use on a mobile platform. The first option weighed about 50 tons, and the second about 40. To transport the guns, steam tractors were used, which with great difficulty, but coped with their task.
At the landing site of the projectile, a deep depression with a diameter of up to 15 meters was formed, depending on the ammunition chosen. The gun's rate of fire was surprisingly high - one shot in eight minutes. The cannon was a real disaster and a headache for the allies. The machine not only inspired fear, but also demolished even the strongest walls and fortifications.
But despite its destructive power, "Big Bertha" was vulnerable to enemy artillery. The latter was more mobile and quicker of fire. During the assault on the Osowiec fortress, in eastern Poland, the Germans, although they pretty much battered the fort, lost two of their guns. While the Russian soldiers repelled the onslaught with great success, damaging only one standard artillery unit (the naval "Kane").
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During the Second World War, Fried.Krupp AG, in collaboration with many dozens or even hundreds of other German companies, manufactured two 800-mm railway artillery mounts, known as Dora and Schwerer Gus-tav 2. They are the largest artillery pieces throughout the history of mankind and are unlikely to ever lose this title.
The creation of these monsters was largely provoked by pre-war French propaganda, which colorfully described the power and inaccessibility of the Maginot Line defenses, built on the border between France and Germany. Since German Chancellor A. Hitler planned to cross this border sooner or later, he needed appropriate artillery systems to destroy the border fortifications.
In 1936, during one of his visits to Fried.Krupp AG, he inquired about what kind of weapon should be capable of destroying the control bunker on the Maginot line, the existence of which he had learned shortly before from reports in the French press.
Calculations soon presented to him showed that in order to pierce a reinforced concrete floor seven meters thick and a meter steel slab, an armor-piercing projectile weighing about seven tons was needed, which presupposed the presence of a barrel with a caliber of about 800 mm.
Since firing had to be carried out from a distance of 35,000-45,000 m, in order to avoid being hit by enemy artillery, the projectile had to have a very high initial velocity, which is impossible without a long barrel. An 800 mm caliber gun with a long barrel, according to the calculations of German engineers, could not weigh less than 1000 tons.
Knowing A. Hitler’s craving for gigantic projects, the management of Fried.Krupp AG were not surprised when, “at the urgent request of the Fuhrer,” the Wehrmacht Armament Directorate asked them to develop and manufacture two guns with the characteristics presented in the calculations, and to ensure the necessary mobility it was proposed place it on a railway conveyor.
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800 mm gun 80 cm K. (E) on a railway transporter |
Work to realize the Fuhrer's wishes began in 1937 and was carried out very intensively. But due to the difficulties that arose in creating the gun barrel in the first place, the first shots from it were fired at an artillery range only in September 1941, when German troops dealt with both France and its “impregnable” Maginot line.
However, work to create a super-powerful artillery installation continued, and in November 1941 the gun was no longer firing from a temporary carriage mounted at the training ground, but from a standard railway transporter. In January 1942, the creation of the 800-mm railway artillery mount was completed - it entered service with the specially formed 672nd artillery division.
The name Dora was given to the installation by the artillerymen of this division. It is believed that it came from the abbreviation of the expression douner und doria - “damn it!”, which was involuntarily exclaimed by everyone who saw this monster for the first time.
Like all railway artillery installations, Dora consisted of the gun itself and a railway transporter. The length of the gun barrel was 40.6 calibers (32.48 m!), the length of the rifled part of the barrel was about 36.2 calibers. The barrel bore was locked using a hydraulically driven wedge gate with a crank.
The survivability of the barrel was estimated at 100 shots, but in practice, after the first 15 shots, signs of wear began to appear. The mass of the gun was 400,000 kg.
In accordance with its intended purpose, an armor-piercing projectile weighing 7100 kg was developed for the gun.
It contained “only” 250.0 kg of explosives, but the thickness of its walls was 18 cm, and the massive head part was hardened.
This projectile was guaranteed to penetrate an eight-meter ceiling and a meter-long steel plate, after which the bottom fuse detonated the explosive charge, thus completing the destruction of the enemy bunker.
The initial velocity of the projectile was 720 m/s; thanks to the presence of a ballistic tip made of aluminum alloy, the firing range was 38,000 m.
High-explosive shells weighing 4800 kg were also fired at the cannon. Each such projectile contained 700 kg of explosives and was equipped with both a head and a bottom fuse, which made it possible to use it as an armor-piercing high-explosive projectile. When fired with a full charge, the projectile developed an initial speed of 820 m/s and could hit a target at a distance of 48,000 m.
The propellant charge consisted of a charge in a sleeve weighing 920 kg and two cartridge charges weighing 465 kg each. The gun's rate of fire was 3 shots per hour.
Due to the large size and mass of the gun, the designers had to design a unique railway transporter that occupied two parallel railway tracks at once.
On each track there was one of the parts of the conveyor, the design of which resembled the conveyor of a conventional railway artillery installation: a welded box-shaped main beam on two balancers and four five-axle railway bogies.
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Thus, each of these parts of the conveyor could move along the railway tracks independently, and their connection with transverse box beams was carried out only at the firing position.
After assembling the conveyor, which was essentially the lower machine of the gun, an upper machine with a cradle with a recoil system, which included two hydraulic recoil brakes and two knurling wheels, was installed on it.
Following this, the gun barrel was mounted and the loading platform was assembled. At the rear of the platform, two electrically driven lifts were installed to supply shells and charges from the railway track to the platform.
The lifting mechanism located on the machine was electrically driven. It provided guidance of the gun in the vertical plane in the angle range from 0° to +65°.
There were no mechanisms for horizontal aiming: railway tracks were built in the direction of fire, onto which the entire installation was then rolled. At the same time, shooting could only be carried out strictly parallel to these paths - any deviation threatened to overturn the installation under the influence of a huge recoil force.
Taking into account the unit for generating electricity for all electric drives of the installation, its mass was 135,000 kg.
A complex has been developed for transportation and maintenance of the Dora installation technical means, which included an energy train, a railway service train, a train with ammunition, handling equipment and several technical flights - in total up to 100 locomotives and cars with a staff of several hundred people. The total mass of the complex was 4925100 kg.
Formed for the combat use of the installation, the 672nd artillery division, numbering 500 people, consisted of several units, the main ones being the headquarters and fire batteries. The headquarters battery included computer groups that carried out all the calculations necessary for aiming at the target, as well as a platoon of artillery observers, which, in addition to the usual means (theodolites, stereo tubes), also used infrared technology that was new for that time.
In February 1942, the Dora railway artillery mount was placed at the disposal of the commander of the 11th Army, which was tasked with capturing Sevastopol.
A group of staff officers flew to Crimea in advance and chose a firing position for a cannon in the area of the village of Duvankoy. For engineering preparation of the position, 1,000 sappers and 1,500 workers were allocated, forcibly mobilized from among local residents.
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Projectile and charge in a case of an 800-mm gun K. (E) |
The position was guarded by a guard company of 300 soldiers, as well as a large group of military police and a special team with guard dogs.
In addition, there was a reinforced military chemical unit of 500 people, designed to provide a smoke screen for air camouflage purposes, and a reinforced air defense artillery battalion of 400 people. The total number of personnel involved in servicing the installation was more than 4,000 people.
Preparation of the firing position, located at a distance of about 20 km from the defensive structures of Sevastopol, ended in the first half of 1942. At the same time, a special access road with a length of 16 km had to be built from the main railway line. After the completion of the preparatory work, the main parts of the installation were delivered to the position and its assembly began, which lasted a week. During assembly, two cranes with 1000 hp diesel engines were used.
The combat use of the installation did not give the results that the Wehrmacht command had hoped for: only one successful hit was recorded, which caused the explosion of an ammunition depot located at a depth of 27 m. In other cases, the cannon shell, penetrating the ground, pierced a round barrel with a diameter of about 1 m and up to 12 m deep. At the base of the barrel, as a result of the explosion of a warhead, the soil was compacted and a drop-shaped cavity with a diameter of about 3 m was formed. Thus, defensive structures could be seriously damaged only if a projectile directly hit vital components, which was easier to do when firing from several guns of a smaller caliber.
After the capture of Sevastopol by German troops, the Dora installation was transported near Leningrad to the Taitsy station area. A similar Schwerer Gustav 2 installation was also delivered here, the production of which was completed in early 1943.
After the start Soviet troops Operations to break the blockade of Leningrad, both installations were evacuated to Bavaria, where in April 1945 they were blown up as American troops approached.
Thus, the most ambitious project in the history of German and world artillery was completed. However, if we consider that only 48 shots were fired at the enemy from both manufactured 800-mm railway artillery mounts, this project can also be considered the most monumental mistake in artillery development planning.
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It is noteworthy that the Dora and Schwerer Gustav 2 installations were carried out by Fried. Krupp AG did not limit itself to the creation of superguns.
In 1942, her project for the 520-mm Langer Gustav railway artillery mount appeared. The smoothbore gun of this installation had a length of 43 m (according to other sources - 48 m) and was supposed to fire active-rocket projectiles developed at the Peenemünde research center. Firing range - over 100 km. In 1943, Minister of Armaments A. Speer reported the Langer Gustav project to the Fuhrer and received the go-ahead for its implementation. However, after a detailed analysis, the project was rejected: due to the monstrous weight of the barrel, it was not possible to create a conveyor for it that could also withstand the loads that arise during a shot.
At the end of the war, at A. Hitler’s headquarters, the project of placing an 800-mm Dora gun on a tracked transporter was also seriously discussed. It is believed that the author of the idea for this project was the Fuhrer himself.
This monster was supposed to be driven by four diesel engines from submarines, and the protection of the crew and main mechanisms was provided by 250 mm armor.
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You don't need a lot of speed to get a steep trajectory.
But this does not mean that the projectile does not need a large reserve of energy when it leaves the barrel.
The more energy the projectile has, the more reliably the target will be hit.
How can we save energy by reducing the speed of the projectile?
The energy of a moving projectile depends not only on speed, but also on its weight. We reduced the projectile speed; This means we now need to increase the weight of the projectile.
How can you increase the weight of the projectile?
Well, at least by taking a larger caliber projectile. We first shortened the barrel, now we will increase its caliber. And we’ll make the walls of the barrel thinner. After all, howitzers have a smaller charge, which means there is less pressure in the barrel.
For the same reason, the walls of the projectile can be made thinner. It also does not need the same strength as cannon shells. And this will allow you to fit more into a howitzer shell explosive.
What will happen?
The howitzer will have a powerful, large-caliber projectile. He, however, will not have great speed. But this is not necessary; you need a steep trajectory. But a projectile of such a large caliber will carry more explosive material and will be more powerful when operating at the target.
We will get a howitzer of approximately the same weight as a cannon, but with a more powerful projectile.
So, our divisions are armed with a cannon and a howitzer, the weight of which on the move is almost the same - with the front end weighing a little more than 2 tons. But the caliber of the gun is 76 millimeters, its projectile weighs 6.5 kilograms and its initial speed is about 600 meters per second; the howitzer has a caliber of 122 millimeters and throws projectiles weighing 23.2 kilograms at a speed of no more than 335 meters per second (Fig. 140 and 141). The trajectory of a howitzer is, of course, much steeper than that of a gun,
These important properties of the howitzer explain the fact that in the armies of all states the number of howitzers is growing much faster than the number of guns.
Rice. 140. 76-mm divisional gun and its projectile
Any weapon can produce trajectories of varying steepness. To do this, you just need to change the angle of its elevation. But we already know that this method of obtaining a steeper trajectory is not always beneficial: at very large elevation angles, the trajectory will be very steep, but the projectile will fall close and go too high up. And we don’t need this at all.
Therefore, the steepness of the trajectory of a howitzer projectile and its flight range are also changed in another way: charges of different weights are fired from howitzers.
When you need to hit a close target, take a small charge: then the elevation angle will be needed more and the trajectory will be steeper. It is impossible to hit a distant target with such a small charge (Fig. 142).
To hit a more distant target, a charge is used more weight. The further away the target, the more charge they take. The howitzer charge is changed by removing powder packets from the cartridge case before loading. Therefore, howitzers are never loaded with a cartridge. They have, as they say, separate loading: first the projectile is inserted, and then the cartridge case with the charge.
So, a howitzer of the same caliber differs from a cannon in its shorter barrel length and smaller, and moreover variable, charge. All this gives her a steep trajectory. At the same time, a howitzer of the same weight as a cannon has a larger caliber and fires more powerful projectiles.
Therefore, a howitzer is needed not only as a weapon with a steep trajectory. It is also needed as a mobile weapon with a more powerful projectile.
Is it possible to make a weapon that would replace both a cannon and a howitzer?
There are such weapons. These are universal tools. They are called howitzer guns (Fig. 143). They usually have two barrels: one cannon and the other howitzer. In some systems, these trunks are always mounted on a carriage together. And in others, the barrels can be easily changed: as needed, one or another barrel - a cannon or a howitzer - is placed on the carriage. There are universal guns with one barrel, but they are less successful, since their projectiles are of the same power - both for flat and steep trajectories.