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For combat use, the gun was mounted on a special chassis with a total of 40 axles on the eight cars used to support the gun. The first round fired from the commissioned gun barrel occurred on September 10, 1941. After the trials, Hitler directed the gun only be used at his discretion and two guns were ordered. A test model was built in 1939 and successfully penetrated one meter of armor plating and seven feet of reinforced steel at the Hillersleben firing range.įormal acceptance trials of the gun were conducted at the Rügenwald Proving Ground with Hitler in attendance in the spring of 1941. Construction of the gun started in the summer of 1937 with a number of technical challenges faced during the forging of large pieces of steel. After this trip, design work began on the 80cm model with plans completed in 1936 and approved. The gun would only traverse in elevation with traversal being accomplished by moving the gun along curved sections of runway.Īt this point development stalled until Adolf Hitler visited Essen in March 1936 and asked about the feasibility of the Gustav gun. Based on the required size of the weapon (a total weight of more than 1,000 tons), it would need to be supported on railway tracks to be mobile. Eric Müller, a Krupp engineer, calculated that to meet the requirements of the OKH, it would take a shell with a caliber of approximately 80 cm, from a barrel 30 meters long, and weighing seven tons.
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#Gustav the railway gun full
The requirements laid out were to create a gun capable of piercing one full meter of steel armor plate or seven meters of reinforced concrete beyond the range of French artillery. The German Army High Command (OKH) commissioned Krupp of Essen, Germany to destroy the fortifications located at the French Maginot Line in 1934. Maximum Range: 47,000 meters (51,000 yd) (HE, high explosive), 38,000 meters (42,000 yd) (AP, armor piercing) Gustav Gun Video Maximum Effective range: Approximately 39,000 meters (43,000 yards) Rate of fire: 1 round every 30 to 45 minutes or typically 14 rounds a day 2 German Flak battalions to protect the rail gun from Allied Air Attack. Gustav Gun Crew: 250 to assemble the gun in 3 days (54 hours), 2,500 to lay track and dig embankments.
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Weight: 1,350 tons (1,490 short tons 1,330 long tons) 80 cm Gustav Railway Gun, date unknown.īarrel length: 32.5 meters (106 ft 8 in) L/40.6