PDA

View Full Version : Condensed History: The Schwerer Gustav



FightingSteel1
Apr-18-2016, 04:41
A little bit of a more obscure topic today, but one I hope everyone finds interesting:

The Schwerer Gustav

In the race to come out the victors in WWII, the engineering of new weapons by the main playing countries exploded past the previous, natural technology progression of the 1930's. War drives technology, and perhaps no other time in human history has that technology advanced then 1939-1945. This story is about one of those weapons, but unlike a futuristic marvel like the jet engine or Atomic bomb, this is a little more archaic. The German's loved unique and grandiose weapons, and the Schwerer Gustav exemplifies this as much as any.

Origins

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp55/vipe155/CondensedHistory/gustav.jpg
The massive gun - photo credit unknown

The Schwerer Gustav began life in 1934, following a German High Command inquiry for an artillery piece capable of destroying the Maginot Line. The Maginot Line was a defensive front built by the French along it's border with Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium. The line was intended to aid France in another engagement like WWI with its European neighbors. The design specification called for a weapon able to fire through one meter of steel plate, or seven meters of concrete fortification from beyond enemy artillery range.

The famous steel producer Krupp drew up a concept, and provided for 70cm, 80/85cm and 100cm caliber model possibilities. Such a weapon would weigh in excess of 1000 tons, and need to be moved by rail to support it's massive size. The weapon seemed to be simply a propaganda idea until Adolf Hitler visited Krupp's facilities and inquired as to the feasibility of the gun. He was assured that it could be built (but with many technical challenges) and the project was approved. The main stipulation was that the gun be finished by Spring of 1940 for a possible invasion of France.

Work on forging the gun barrel began in 1937. The complications in forging a weapon of that size were massive, and the project proceeded very slowly. These setbacks would consume so much time that the invasion of France in 1940 had come and gone without the gun being completed. The German Army simply outflanked the Maginot Line and sped past the heralded fortifications, and the original purpose of the Schwerer Gustav was gone.

Completion

Finally the gun barrel was done at the end of 1940. It was put on a makeshift mount and transferred to the Hillersleben firing range. Schwerer Gustav first fired its massive shells at the range, and easily met the design specifications of destroying seven meters of concrete or one meter of steel plate. Once these initial tests were completed, a huge carriage was finished to mount the gun to.

This carriage would straddle two parallel sets of railroad tracks when assembled. It consisted of 8 five axle bogies, giving the mount a total of 40 axles/80 wheels. The gun couldn't be transported in one piece, so the barrel, mount and carriage were made to be broken down into pieces. The barrel, breech block/rings and cradle were five separate parts (the barrel itself was two halves). The decks, railing and other support surrounding the gun were broken down in two halves lengthwise, while the tracking axles would travel whole by rail.
Officially, the Schwerer Gustav was completely finished and tested in November 1941 at the Rugenward firing range on the Baltic Coast. Trials were carried out that saw the gun firing at a range of 31,000 meters with success. Later Alfried Krupp personally hosted Adolf Hitler at the proving grounds, where the gun was formally fired and accepted by the German Army. Krupp donated and accepted no payment for the project as his personal contribution to the war effort.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp55/vipe155/CondensedHistory/Gun1.jpg
Hitler and other commanders visit the guns completion ceremony - photo credit Imperial War Museum

Deployment

Finally, after the protracted development and construction phase, Schwerer Gustav was finally deployed in battle. The gun was to be sent to the Crimea, where it would assist the siege of Sevastopol. Everything was loaded onto a special train in February 1942 (it was nearly 1.5km/1 mile long) and it began the long journey to the front. The gun did not reach it's deployment area until March. After sitting throughout the month of April, construction began on a suitable spur to the nearby railroad lines to assemble the weapon.

The Germans set up the gun around 16km/10 miles away from it's intended targets. A double tracked railroad spur was built, with semi-circular tracks at the ends to allow the gun to traverse for aiming (the gun was able to be positioned up and down, but not moved much side to side). In a further demonstration of how much work using the weapon was, more track had to be placed around the weapon for large cranes that were needed to assemble the barrel and supporting parts.

Next post for Part 2: Deployment

FightingSteel1
Apr-18-2016, 04:41
Siege of Sevastopol

Once the gun was finished being assembled in May, it's first combat test would come in the beginning of June 1942. On June 5th, Schwerer Gustav fired a total of 14 rounds at two targets. The gun sent 8 shells to some coastal batteries around 25,000 meters away and another 6 shells at Fort Stalin. Fort Stalin was an 19th century installation that was partially buried into surrounding hills. The coastal batteries were decimated, and the damage to the Fort enough to severely limit its usefulness.

The next day, the gun was fired again at a fort, this time Fort Molotov. Seven shells were fired, with devastating damage, but this was not the “marquee” action of the day for the weapon. Schwerer Gustav was also aimed at “Ammunition Mountain.” This ammunition magazine/gun stockpile was located undersea at Severnaya Bay. The site was 30m underwater with around 10m thick walls.

The Schwerer Gustav fired nine shells the magazines direction, and one shell went through the water, through the concrete walls, and detonated inside the magazine. The shot was unbelieveable, and is a testament to the extreme power of the gun. The stockpile was ruined in a massive ammunition fueled explosion. Also, an unlucky ship moving through Severnaya Bay nearby was also hit by a shell, sinking it.

For three more days the gun was fired at Soviet targets. It helped support an infantry attack in one area, and hit two other forts in other action. The damage the gun propagated was devastating. Overall 48 shells were fired, which totalled 30,000 tons of ammunition.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp55/vipe155/CondensedHistory/firing2.jpg
Firing on Sevastopol - image credit German War Archive

Leningrad

The gun had worn out it's original barrel between testing and action in Sevastopol. The barrel was removed and sent home to Krupp's facilities to be relined, while a spare barrel was fitted in it's place. The gun then moved Northward towards Leningrad. A base for the gun was set up around 30km from the city center. After the lengthy operation to assemble the weapon and prepare it for action against the city, the attack on Leningrad was cancelled, owing to the diminishing fortunes of the German Army by this stage of the war on the Eastern Front. Still, the gun was far enough from battle that it sat idle for the rest of 1942 into 1943.

Uncertain Facts

Details of the Schwerer Gustav's use after the aborted Leningrad operation are surprisingly hard to come by. The gun was moved back to Germany in 1943. Many publications and online research suggest the weapon was deployed to Warsaw as a fear weapon against the uprising in the city. I find no concrete evidence to support this being fact.

Another uncertain piece of information in this weapon's history is the mention of a second version of the gun named Dora. Several sources state that a second gun was built and at one time was moved to Stalingrad to aid the famous battle in that city. Those sources state that gun was ready to be used in September 1942, but didn't fire and was broken down and moved home with the rest of the retreating German forces. Then Dora was to have disappeared before pieces of the destroyed weapon were found in 1945. For certain no 80cm shells fell at Stalingrad, but whether there was ever a gun produced that could haved fired those shells is unclear. Due to the massive undertaking the construction of Schwerer Gustav presented, and it's unwieldy (at best) operation, I personally doubt Dora ever existed.

Other Proposals

An interesting topic as well is a couple of proposed weapons in excess of even the Schwerer Gustav by German officials. A monster design known as the “Langer Gustav” was proposed. This gun would would have used the same 80cm caliber barrel as the Schwerer Gustav, but with a 52cm jacket for a different type of shell. This shell would have been “rocket assisted” and was supposed to have a range of 150km+. The gun was proposed to be located in Calais, France and have the range to hit London!

End of the Schwerer Gustav

The final disposition of Schwerer Gustav is also a little unclear. Suffice to say the gun never was deployed or used in the last 2 years of WWII. After the war, there were numerous reports of different outcomes for the weapon. One report had a US Army unit discovering the gun as part of it's wrecked train in Bavaria. Other information has the gun found in whole pieces, or partially scrapped, or completely scrapped. Another story is the Soviet Union captured the gun, at least partially. In reality Schwerer Gustav was most likely scrapped sometime in 1944 or early 1945. It's steel would have been useful somewhere else by that time.

Overall, the Schwerer Gustav is only an interesting failure. Never popular with German High Command, the extreme weapon was costly to operate and totally impractical. Even with so much awe-inspiring firepower, Schwerer Gustav disappeared from history with an uncertain fate.

Today some relics of the gun can still be visited. Several 80cm shells for the gun were found, and some are on display in London, Poland and Munich. The Military History Museum in Munich has the largest collection of pieces and shells from the Schwerer Gustav.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp55/vipe155/CondensedHistory/shell.jpg
Photo of shell by a T-34 at Munich museum

Gromit
Apr-18-2016, 09:48
This kind of useless waste of resources gives an insight into the minds of the people running Germany during the war!

FightingSteel1
Apr-18-2016, 14:45
A little addendum to this post. I'm sorry to say my original picture of the gun firing was not correct. In looking at it further, I realized I had linked to a smaller railway gun picture. Finding a picture of this gun firing is difficult, and I've now correctly linked one.

RAF74_Buzzsaw
Apr-18-2016, 16:06
As has been said, this weapon is an example of the failure of the Nazi regime to plan efficiently.

The nature of the Nazi government was essentially modeled on the Party power structure, so Germany's economy was divided up into personal fiefdoms... run by Nazi Party Bureaucrats with varying levels of efficiency and expertise. Some were completely incompetent, but remained in their positions due to their loyalty to Adolf Hitler.

In the case of armaments... the decision making was in the hands of incompetents initially... people like Goring, Frick or Todt had no real concept of how to plan and organize efficiently. So decisions were taken on the creation of equipment such as this gun. Even though Krupp arranged to pay for the weapon out of his own funds, that didn't change the fact enormous parts of Germany's manpower and technical resources were invested in building it... these could have been focused on much more practical goals. Throughout the war the Germans invested in a multiplicity of project types, instead of focusing on a particular type... a waste of resources.

It wasn't till Albert Speer took over as Armaments Minister after Todt died in a plane crash that the German economy began to be run in a rational and logical fashion. (it has been speculated that if Todt hadn't died in the accident, it was likely the war would have been shortened by as much as a year due to reduced German production... conversely if Speer had been running the German economy in 1939, the war's outcome could have been in doubt)

The poor German organization is in contrast to the way the Americans and Soviets ran their economies... the Soviets rationalized their production to a few key types, and produced them in vast quantities. The same applied to the American planning.