Chapter 638: Legend of the Giant Cannon

Many weapons have been built in the long history of human warfare, but only a few can be called super weapons. The "Gustav" 800mm railway gun, the largest caliber artillery system ever put into actual combat, is a well-known one.

The Gustav railway gun, which was designed in 1934, was originally used to target the Maginot Line of France. At the beginning of the design, it was established that it could penetrate a 7-meter-thick concrete wall or 1,000 mm armored steel with one shot. The final winner of the design and manufacturing of this city treasure was the famous German "King of Heavy Artillery" Krupp Company.

The design of this type of giant cannon was initially shelved after being submitted to the German Army Command, but like Comrade Stalin, the father of CP, Hitler, a fanatical believer in large calibers, personally put this plan on the agenda.

The head of state said he was happy, and the people below naturally had to consider the position under their buttocks and find ways to please the head of state.

Judging from the final result, the thunderous roar of 800mm guns from the Hillersleben test range on September 10, 1941, did make Hitler smile and feel extremely satisfied.

According to the practice of Krupp, the first unit of the 800mm giant railway gun system, "Gustav", was given to the German Wehrmacht for free without any payment.

It is a practice of Krupp that the first gun of any order undertaken by the company is given to the Wehrmacht for free. Although the cost of the 800mm cannon is far higher than any weapon under the company, which is an astronomical figure, the company's young boss Efred Krupp finally decided to continue the tradition of "giving away for free".

Hitler, who was very happy, made a request when he watched the Gustav test. This super anti-city treasure that made him excited could not only build one, but also two more to be dignified.

Since the Führer has spoken, there are many people who are willing to do the flattering. After all, as long as they can make the Führer happy, how much money is spent and whether it is a waste of resources, what does it matter to those who are anxious to move their positions?

After naming the first heavy artillery after his father, Efred Krupp, the small boss of Krupp Company, named the second machine after his wife "Dora".

This time, Efred Krupp asked the Wehrmacht for a one-time manufacturing fee of 7 million Reichsmarks for the second machine "Dora", which is equivalent to 29.4 million US dollars, enough to build 28 Tiger tanks, which are famous for their expensiveness.

After the first two Gustavs were built, the fate of the yet-to-be-named Gustav No. 3 was more tragic.

This specialized version of the 82-caliber 520mm No. 3 machine, designed to bombard London, England from Calais, France, has a maximum range of 190 kilometers when using a full-caliber rocket-extended shell specially made for it. It was a well-deserved black technology doomsday weapon at the time.

The British bulls, who didn't know where they got the information that the Germans were building this treasure against London, were shocked. Without saying a word, they immediately mobilized the Lancaster bomber formation to flatten the No. 3 machine construction factory in Essen, and used heavy aerial bombs to blow the unfinished No. 3 machine lying in the factory into a pile of twisted and hot scrap copper and rotten iron.

The unfinished No. 3 machine was destroyed in the air raid and became the swan song of the Gustav 800mm giant railway gun. The No. 1 "Gustav" and No. 2 "Dora", which had been built and delivered, became the only remaining fruits.

These two unique super weapons in human history were almost sent to the front at the same time in 1942.

Gustav Unit-01, which had just turned Sevastopol into ruins, is currently being transferred to Leningrad. After firing 48 rounds of artillery shells and smoothing the barrel rifling, it has been replaced with a brand new spare barrel. The Germans plan to use this super weapon to make the holy city of Leningrad, which would rather die than surrender, bow down under the muzzle of the 800mm cannon.

On the other hand, the protracted battle of Stalingrad has made the Germans gradually realize that conquering this city may encounter the same troublesome situation as the siege of Leningrad last year.

The Germans, who have suffered a loss once, cannot repeat the same mistake. The German army, who intends to make a final decision, directly dragged the brand new Unit-02 Dora to the Stalingrad front battlefield for deployment. The situation of having absolute air superiority and surrounding the city from land is the best time for this bulky anti-city treasure to show its prowess.

It is not easy to assemble this super cannon with a combat weight of 1,350 tons.

In the following days, Carl and Martin, who were sent to help, became free servants to serve Miss Dora.

The weight of a component, which ranges from several tons to dozens of tons, is simply beyond human power. In order to assemble Dora, which was disassembled into 25 train cars, a special gantry crane for lifting must be built on site.

The 250-man artillery group that went to the front line with Dora, together with more than 800 infantrymen from a battalion who came to support and help, built a 20-meter-high double-door gantry crane on site to assemble Dora.

After 54 hours of hard work, Dora was finally assembled and showed her majestic and domineering figure, but the 2,500-man engineer team that laid a special double-track railway for Miss Dora was still busy.

Once the huge Miss Dora, who weighed 1,350 tons, was assembled, someone would need to clear the way in front of her wherever she went.

The special double-track railway needs to be laid after the actual terrain survey is completed on site according to the deployment situation. At the same time, the design of the turning rails used to adjust the left and right firing range of the artillery must also be taken into account. The difficulty of laying the rails is no less than a major infrastructure project.

The 2,500-man railway support team includes many different positions such as engineers, topographic survey experts, railway engineers, and mechanics, each of which performs their duties and works together.

In addition, there are 2 anti-aircraft artillery battalions to protect Miss Dora from air raids. In addition to the logistics support team, the cooking team that cooks for thousands of people, and other indispensable subordinate units, the total number of special servants surrounding Miss Dora has exceeded 3,500.

Originally, I just wanted to come to join in the fun and have a sneak peek, but I never thought that I would be treated as a coolie for free. Carl and Martin regretted it very much and complained bitterly.

After helping to assemble the second Miss Dora, they were called over to help lay the railway.

Karl and Martin, who were wielding hoes and shovels to dig the railway embankment, were exhausted. It is easy to imagine how labor-intensive it was to do this kind of earthwork work to repair the earth under the scorching sun in August.

Whenever Karl and Martin were too tired to do it and threw down their tools, they sat down on the construction site, took out their kettles to drink water, smoked cigarettes and took a break, the towering figure of the second Miss Dora always made the two brothers feel the value of their work and grinned.

"Look, Karl, she is so beautiful! Just like a lover, isn't she?"