Combat Artillery - one of the three oldest branches of service - throughout its existence known examples create unique pieces.Huge, powerful, unprecedented, they were announced as a weapon of victory and almost always remained out of work.Most likely, they thought as an indicator of the military power of powers, the demonstration of engineering genius.
Giant caliber
There are several lists on which the first place in the list of "World's Largest Gun" occupy different guns.Unsurpassed to this day the machine-monster of large caliber (914 mm, which is 36 inches) is an American experimental mortar (gun with a short barrel for hinged fire) under the name "Little David".This is an amazing miracle weapon never left Aberdeen Proving Ground.Very soon, for lack of demand, it has become a museum piece.
«very timid old lady.And do not believe that the gun! »
Behind the monster is listed in the list of Russian Tsar Cannon (photo of this peculiar character Russia included).Its size - 890 mm, or 35 inches.This bombard cast in bronze Russian master Andrei Chokhov in 1586, is a monument to the art of casting and artillery.It is made in the Cannon yard to the glory of the king Fyodor Ivanovich and obviously to intimidate enemies who would have fled when he heard about the size and capabilities of the gun.Research in 1980 by the Serpukhov experts managed to establish that one shell from the gun still was released.But this beauty is in the literal and figurative sense, a symbol of the greatness of Russian weapons.One of the most striking sights of Moscow, the Tsar Cannon (photo evidence of a perpetual pandemonium people from the mast) along with the Tsar Bell childhood in the minds of Russians associate with greatness and invincibility of Russia.This shotgun Russia, as in the old days it was called, has a weight of 39.31 tons, the length is 5.34 meters.Cannon is listed in the Guinness Book of Records.It may be added that the sketches drawn APBryullov, a professor of architecture and the elder brother of the legendary Karl Briullov, engineering drawings produced de Witte.
Applied only once
Third on the list is a machine-monster, named after the wife of the chief designer of "Dora".It really is the world's largest cannon in size and weight.Under the guidance of Professor Erich Muller factory concern "Krupp" in 1930 at the personal order of Adolf Hitler had created a kind of miracle of the artillery of art.It is a tool, a huge, costly and, in principle, a useless, used only once in the storming of Sevastopol in 1942, when the 250 days the city resisted the most powerful army in the world.It is, despite his frightening appearance, has not shown any advantages.A legendary defense of Sevastopol included in all textbooks.
and "Dora" too tough
combat coastal artillery battery number 30 Maxim Gorky for the recognition of the Germans themselves allowed to delay the taking of the city for six months.This fort is called battery Germans, they also recognized as "a true masterpiece of engineering."Never in the history of the war fascist invaders did not use artillery in such numbers.To break the resistance of the Russian unprecedented, and was brought here German gun "Dora".Cannon Beast developed by the group "Krupp", was made under the personal instruction of Adolf Hitler specifically to destroy the heavily fortified Maginot Line.There, she was not involved.She was taken to Crimea to participate in the operation codenamed "Fire tornado at" catching sturgeon. "
Amazing Options
807-mm cannon artillery is a miracle of art.Unique super-heavy hulk running on rails, the world's largest cannon not found a worthy and widespread use because of its advantages become disadvantages.
One shell weighed 7,100 kilograms.The length of the barrel reached 32 meters.Firing range - 25 kilometers "over the horizon", which is due to rarity of hitting the target.Just one time, "Dora" has caused more or less considerable damage - destroyed an ammunition dump.At the same time to maintain a monster, who had a total length of 50 meters and a height with lowered barrel 11 meters, and with a raised - 35, 4139 in addition to the calculation of the soldiers, civilians, officers and gun commander with the rank of colonel were necessary transport and protection battalions, commandant, maskingcompany, a bakery department and field post.
awesome and useless
such parameters that made it cumbersome malomanevrennoy unprotected surprisingly expensive and totally ineffective, did not know the history of artillery.
This "heavy duty" weapon mounted on a special platform moving on rails, remote from each other at a distance of 6 meters."Dora" has not played any significant role in the capture of Sevastopol.Nevertheless, it moved near Leningrad to suppress the heroic city.But here, she found the application.Adolf Hitler had plans to destroy the naval base in Gibraltar, Britain, but they have disappeared due to non-delivery giant.At the end of the war at that time, really the world's largest cannon was blown up by the Germans in Bavaria, 36 kilometers from the city of Auerbach.
can add that clumsy "Dora" was the twin brother of "fat Gustav", constructed in 1930.By the end of the war we were made to the details and the third died ignominiously monster.
