Hitler's most powerful cannon. Dora Super Heavy Cannon

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Model 800-mm gun "Dora"

The biggest guns in stories... Dora is a unique weapon. The super-heavy 800 mm railway gun was the crown of the development of the artillery of the German army during the Second World War. Developed by the engineers of the famous Krupp company, this weapon was the most powerful artillery weapon in Hitler's arsenal.

As is often the case with German weapons during the war years, "Dora" shook the imagination, but the real effectiveness of the weapon, and most importantly, the resources invested in its creation did not justify themselves in any way. In part, the weapon repeated the fate of the superheavy tank Mouse. It was not a weapon for war, but for propaganda. And after the war, and for encyclopedias, reference books, fiction and popular science literature.



Best of all, this development is described by a winged expression that has come down to us from ancient literature: "The mountain gave birth to a mouse." Hitler and his generals had high hopes for this gun, but the results obtained from the use of Dora were negligible.

How did the idea of ​​creating Dora come about?


The Dora was originally designed as a super-powerful artillery piece, placed on a railway platform. The main targets for the 800-mm cannon were to be the French line of fortifications "Maginot", as well as the border forts of Belgium, which included the famous fort of Eben-Emael.

The task of developing a weapon for crushing the fortifications of the Maginot Line was personally set by Adolf Hitler during a visit to the Krupp plant. This happened in 1936. It is worth noting that the Krupp company had vast experience in creating super-powerful artillery since the First World War, so the choice of the developer of a new super-powerful gun was obvious.

Hitler's most powerful cannon. Dora Super Heavy Cannon
Installation of "Dora" at the position in the Crimea

An 800-mm artillery gun, throwing projectiles weighing about 7 tons at the target, which was comparable to the weight of light tanks of those years, was supposed to receive vertical guidance angles of up to +65 degrees and a maximum firing range of 35-45 kilometers. The terms of reference issued for the creation of the weapon indicated that the projectile of the new gun must be guaranteed to penetrate armor plates up to a meter thick, concrete fortifications 7 meters thick and solid ground up to 30 meters.

The work on the creation of a unique railway gun was supervised by Professor Erich Müller, who had extensive experience in creating various artillery systems. Already in 1937, the Krupp company completed the development of a super-powerful cannon project. In the same year, the military gave the firm an order for the manufacture of a super-powerful weapon.

It is worth noting that despite the developed state of German industry, there were problems in it. Including the effect of several financial crises that swept through Germany before the war, as well as the effect of the restrictions in force after the First World War during the existence of the Weimar Republic. The German industry systematically disrupted the supply of even small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery, let alone a super-heavy gun, which simply did not exist in the world.

Dora was fully assembled only in 1941. By that time, the Maginot Line, which her 7-ton shells were supposed to destroy, had long been taken. And Fort Eben-Emael, which before the war was the cause of the headache of German generals, was taken in a day. The main violin in this operation was played by only 85 paratroopers who successfully landed in the fort on gliders.

In total, two guns were fully assembled in Germany: "Douro" and "Gustav". It is believed that the second gun was named after the director of the company, Gustav Krupp. This order cost Germany 10 million Reichsmarks. For this amount, 250 15 cm sFH18 howitzers or 20 240-mm long-range K3 cannons could be built for the army at once. For the Wehrmacht, these guns would be much more useful.

The largest artillery crew in history


The Dora heavy-duty railway gun was a construction of gigantic proportions and proportions. Throughout the literature, the caliber of the gun is usually indicated as 800 mm, but to be absolutely precise, the gun had a caliber of 807 mm. The barrel alone of this gun weighed 400 tons with a length of 32,48 meters. The total weight of the entire gun on a specially designed railway platform was 1350 tons.


800-mm shell of the gun, in the background there is a T-34-85 tank

The total length of the artillery mount was 47,3 meters, width - 7,1 meters, height - 11,6 meters. To better understand the size of the installation, it can be noted that it was slightly lower than the standard five-story Khrushchev. At the same time, only the barrel of the gun weighed more than 8 Soviet KV-1 heavy tanks of the 1941 model.

The shells with which Dora had to hit its targets were also huge. The weight of the high-explosive projectile was 4,8 tons, the weight of the concrete-piercing shell was 7,1 tons. This was comparable to the combat weight of one of the most common pre-war tanks in the world - the famous Vickers Mk E (aka 6-ton Vickers). The firing range of high-explosive shells reached 52 km, concrete-piercing shells - up to 38 km.

The artillery mount itself was transported to the location only in a disassembled state. At the same time, a marshalling yard had to be built at the deployment site of the 800-mm gun. The first train delivered 43 carriages to the station, which were carried by service personnel and camouflage equipment. This is the number of wagons required when the gun was only used in hostilities, delivered to Sevastopol in 1942.

The second train consisted of 16 cars, which delivered an assembly crane and various auxiliary equipment to the site. The third train of 17 cars delivered parts of the carriage and workshops to the site. The fourth train, which consisted of 20 cars, carried a 400-ton barrel of the artillery system, as well as loading mechanisms. The fifth train of 10 wagons carried shells and charges for firing. In the carriages of the last train, the set air temperature was artificially maintained - no more than 15 degrees.

The equipment of the firing position alone took up to 3-6 weeks, and the assembly and installation of the railway artillery installation took about three more days. The assembly of the tool was carried out using railway cranes with 1000 hp engines. At the same time, specialists from the Krupp plant, up to 20 civil engineers, were nominally attached to the artillery mount.


The loading process of the Dora heavy-duty cannon

Although the installation was railway, it could not move along the usual railway track. The installation could move and shoot only from a specially built double railway track. During the assembly, a giant railroad conveyor was obtained with 40 axles and 80 wheels (40 on each side of the double track track).

More than 4 thousand people were involved to equip the position and maintain the installation near Sevastopol. This is an unprecedented figure. This, in addition to the direct calculation and people assembling the tool - 250 people, included several thousand workers who equipped the position and carried out excavation and engineering work.

About 400 people were in the attached anti-aircraft battalion. According to Manstein, the installation near Sevastopol was covered by two divisions at once, armed with 88-mm anti-aircraft guns and rapid-fire 20-mm machine guns. Also, up to 500 people of the military-chemical unit were attached to the gun, which could put a smoke screen and hide the installation from the eyes of the enemy.

Dora's effectiveness is in doubt


The most powerful artillery installation at Hitler's disposal played almost no role in World War II. The firing effect was impressive, but the exhaust was minimal. After the shot, the dishes on the tables trembled at a distance of up to three kilometers, but it was almost impossible to achieve direct hits from such an installation at the maximum range.

It is estimated that Dora fired 48 regular shells at various fortifications of the besieged city near Sevastopol. The shooting was carried out from 5 to 17 June 1942. It is believed that only 5 concrete-piercing shells hit the target (10,4 percent); German observers did not record the fall of 7 shells at all (14,5 percent). For 36 projectiles recorded (excluding hits), the spread reached hundreds of meters: flights were 140-700 meters, undershoots - 10-740 meters.


"Dora" is firing near Sevastopol

Five more shots with experienced high-explosive shells were fired on June 26, the result of these firing is unknown. It is believed that Dora's only successful hit was the destruction of a large ammunition depot nestled in the rocks on the northern shore of Severnaya Bay. The warehouse, located at a depth of 30 meters, was destroyed with one shot, in particular, Manstein wrote about this in his memoirs after the war.

At the same time, the top military leadership of Germany rated the effectiveness of the gun firing at Sevastopol extremely low. Hitler ordered the installation to be used to suppress forts and coastal tower batteries under the city, but the only tangible result was the covering of the warehouse.

Later, Colonel-General Halder, Chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht, summed up the results of the use of Dora. He called the railway artillery installation a real work of art, but at the same time useless. Fortunately for the USSR, the Germans spent 10 million marks on something that could be used for propaganda, not war. If German factories produced an extra 250 heavy 15-cm howitzers, then Soviet soldiers on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War would have had a harder time.

According to some reports, Dora could have been used a second time during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, but this information is fragmentary and episodic. Most likely, the installation was not used near Warsaw, or the effectiveness of its use was zero.

Of the two built installations, only Dora took part in the hostilities; Fat Gustav never fired at the enemy at all. The third unit under design and construction with a new 520mm long barrel, known as the Long Gustav, was never completed until the end of the war.
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62 comments
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  1. +26
    2 May 2021 05: 07
    Thank you for Dora! All members of the forum with a holiday on May 2 - the day of the capture of Berlin!
    1. +12
      2 May 2021 06: 58
      Thank you for your congratulations, but today, it seems, is Orthodox Easter. So Christ is Risen)))
      1. +5
        2 May 2021 08: 05
        Christ risen!!!

        - Truly resurrected !!!
      2. 0
        2 May 2021 11: 01
        Truly risen!
  2. +2
    2 May 2021 06: 18
    Yeah ... there were times (s)
  3. +3
    2 May 2021 06: 19
    Hitler, like any mentally abnormal person, suffered from mania, one of which, in addition to hatred of Jews, was the mania of gigantomania. Didn't anyone try to explain to Hitler that such monsters as "Dora" and "Mouse" are absolutely useless and that this is just a waste of resources and time? With these 10 million marks spent on the construction of the gun, it was possible to build 100 T-4 tanks, and if we also take into account the costs of servicing this monster and the maintenance of 5000 people, the numbers are generally outrageous!
    It is not for nothing that now the share of guns with a caliber of more than 155 mm is a scanty part in modern armies, since experience has shown that it is much cheaper and more effective to destroy a target with the help of aviation than to tinker with such expensive and inactive monsters. Or you can simply bypass a target that is too tough for artillery of 150-155 mm caliber, and not try to storm it head-on.
    1. +8
      2 May 2021 07: 22
      Quote: Kot_Kuzya
      it is much cheaper and more effective to destroy a target with the help of aircraft than to tinker with such expensive and sedentary monsters.

      Moreover, the Germans, back in WWI, stepped on this rake pretty well. But the "gloomy Teutonic genius" did not understand the hints wassat

      Ultra-long gun "Colossal". Source: secrethistory.su
      The experience of using this monster was not enough for them
      1. 0
        2 May 2021 08: 50
        Quote: NDR-791
        Moreover, the Germans, back in WWI, stepped on this rake pretty well. But the "gloomy Teutonic genius" did not understand the hints

        Well, why the "rake"?
        The "Paris cannon" worked in the end, although the effect appeared after 22 years.
        The French were frightened, and in 1940 did not show much will to resist, and Paris surrendered without a fight.
        1. +9
          2 May 2021 08: 56
          ... The "Paris cannon" worked in the end, although the effect appeared after 22 years.
          The French were frightened, and in 1940 did not show much will to resist, and Paris surrendered without a fight.
          In fact, the French surrendered not out of fear of the Paris cannon, but out of fear of a repeat of the four-year WWI massacre. The French decided that it was better to surrender than to fight for four years under the new Verdun and the Somme.
          1. -2
            2 May 2021 09: 00
            Yes, they did not want to sacrifice millions of lives for the Anglo-Jewish interests a second time.
            But the shelling of Paris, along with the Verdun you mentioned (small Britons fought on the Somme) played a role in the fact that just such an opinion prevailed.
          2. +4
            2 May 2021 12: 27
            In fact, the French surrendered not out of fear of the Paris cannon, but out of fear of a repeat of the four-year WWI massacre. The French decided that it was better to surrender than to fight for four years under the new Verdun and the Somme.

            The French did not surrender for fear of fighting for 4 years. The Frenchmen surrendered due to the fact that they were defeated ... Even having a desire to fight, they could not have realized this desire (De Gaulle does not count).
            1. +7
              2 May 2021 14: 16
              ... Even having a desire to fight, they would not be able to realize this desire (De Gaulle does not count).

              Don't write nonsense. First, France was then one of the great powers of that time and had vast territories in Africa and Asia, in fact, half of Africa and Indochina were then French. Nothing prevented the French government from evacuating to Algeria or Morocco and from there to continue to lead the fight against the Nazis even with the loss of the metropolis, as Churchill planned to do, who promised to leave for Canada and fight against the Nazis from there in the event of the capture of England by the Nazis. Secondly, even the Poles did not capitulate, unlike the French, and created their own government in exile in London. Even if the incredible happens, and the Germans could capture Suez, Gibraltar and all of North Africa, the French government could still continue the fight, moving either somewhere in Lagos, or in Suriname, or in the same London.
      2. +3
        2 May 2021 09: 02
        The Germans seem to be smart, but they are often blunt. Look, the Americans and the British, for example, did not engage in monsters such as "Dora" and relied on bombers, and as practice has shown, they were not mistaken. Thousands of bombers burned more than a dozen German and Japanese cities, and destroyed many strategic industrial facilities and transport hubs.
    2. +3
      2 May 2021 07: 45
      Quote: Kot_Kuzya
      since experience has shown that it is much cheaper and more effective to destroy a target with the help of aircraft than to tinker with such expensive and sedentary monsters.

      Controversial statement.
      The appearance of a large-caliber cannon washes away, on the contrary, associated with the abandonment of aviation in the direction of cheaper artillery.
      36 inch mortar (bomb thrower) Little David. Designed for shooting aircraft bombs, just for the sake of economy.
      1. +9
        2 May 2021 07: 46

        Forgot to upload a 914mm photo of Little David.
      2. +7
        2 May 2021 09: 03
        And?
        ... 36 inch mortar (bomb thrower) Little David. Designed for shooting aircraft bombs, just for the sake of economy.

        Have the Yankees used it in combat at least once? They didn't even try to apply it, it was purely an experiment.
    3. +9
      2 May 2021 07: 56
      Quote: Kot_Kuzya
      Hitler, like any mentally abnormal person, suffered from mania, one of which, in addition to hatred of Jews, was the mania of gigantomania.

      A bit of irony, our domestic Tsar Cannon surpassed the German Dora with a caliber of 890mm versus 807mm! After reading your comment, I even got worried about the attitude of Fyodor Ioannovich to the Jews !!! laughing
      1. -3
        2 May 2021 09: 04
        The Tsar Cannon is a props, not a single shot was fired from it.
        1. +11
          2 May 2021 10: 14
          Quote: Kot_Kuzya
          The Tsar Cannon is a props, not a single shot was fired from it.

          Studies of the 80s of the last century showed that at least once the Tsar's cannon was fired.
          Another controversial thing is what the weapon itself is. Today there are two versions. On the first tsar-cannon-shotgun, on the second bombard.

          Props - gun carriage and cannonballs!
    4. +1
      2 May 2021 18: 01
      Quote: Kot_Kuzya
      Didn't anyone try to explain to Hitler that such monsters as "Dora" and "Mouse" are absolutely useless and that this is just a waste of resources and time? With these 10 million marks spent on the construction of the gun, it was possible to build 100 T-4 tanks,
      On the contrary, the Fuehrer was "explained the need" for such weapons as "Dora" and "Gustav".
      And the Krupp firm bully received an order for 10 million Reichsmarks, not a tank factory, an order for 100 T-4 tanks ...
    5. -1
      2 May 2021 18: 31
      Hitler, on the basis of many sources, is also a selective drug addict, i.e. a priori psychotic and inadequate. Actually, the chronicle closer to the end of the war demonstrates all this personally.
    6. +1
      2 May 2021 20: 27
      Gigantomania is inherent not only to Hitler, but to all mankind and at all times. From the Incas, Egyptian pyramids to today
      1. 0
        3 May 2021 16: 10
        It’s well known. But with the passage of eras (if the errors are analyzed in detail), this charm subsides, giving way to common sense, precise guidance, dexterous maneuvering, dynamic steering ...
  4. +7
    2 May 2021 06: 36
    1.Five more shots with experienced high-explosive shells were fired on June 26, the result of these firing is unknown. It is believed that Dora's only successful hit was the destruction of a large ammunition depot nestled in the rocks on the northern shore of Severnaya Bay. The warehouse, located at a depth of 30 meters, was destroyed with one shot, in particular, Manstein wrote about this in his memoirs after the war. There is also a slightly different version of the detonation of the ammunition depot! Only those ammunition that lay outside the warehouse in an open area, prepared for removal to the other side of the bay ...
    2.According to some information, "Dora" could be used a second time during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, but this information is fragmentary and episodic. Most likely, the installation was not used near Warsaw., or the effectiveness of its application was zero.
    There is a slightly different infa ... More than 20 shells were fired near Warsaw ...
    3. There is also such a statement ... there were, nevertheless, made 3 guns ... well, at the "worst end" ... 2,5 ... wink The Germans managed to take out 2 guns to Bavaria ... and blew them up there ... In the exploded form, they went to the Americans! There are some not very "understandable" data that some kind of Dora-type weapon was given to the Soviet troops ... I can't say: in "whole" or "half" form ... By the way, the Germans were going to make 520-mm smooth barrels for all "Dor" ... as well as 540-mm barrels for 600-mm mortars ...
    PS The Nazis had a planchik to bombard England from the territory of France with Dora-type guns ... For this, they even developed a special (3-stage, active-rocket ...) projectile!
    This England was given to them! Straight, almost according to Mkrchtyan!
    "Hitler said that he has such a personal dislike for the injured England that he cannot eat!"
    1. +4
      2 May 2021 06: 56
      If I am not mistaken, I saw in Warsaw, the museum of the Polish troops, the bottom of the Dora shell.
    2. +4
      2 May 2021 13: 14
      Quote: Nikolaevich I
      This England was given to them!
      England then was like the United States today, plus it was the main competitor of German industry, which closed its markets (colonial system) from Germany.
      1. 0
        3 May 2021 03: 29
        Quote: bk0010
        England then was like the USA today

        Well, I didn’t write this ending of the commentary in complete surprize! There is such an expression: add a little sarcasm! wink
  5. +1
    2 May 2021 08: 23
    I wonder how the calculation of this monster ducked during the shot, so as not to rest? There is also a crash, Mom, do not cry, but plus recoil! How did they fight with her so that the gun would not fall off the mounts and stoppers?
    1. +2
      2 May 2021 10: 59
      Quote: Thrifty
      plus recoil! How did they fight with her so that the gun would not fall off the mounts and stoppers?

      In principle, they could be allowed to stupidly roll away on wheels on the rails, and smoothly slow down as trains slow down. I don't see anything similar to the recoil devices in the photo, those pair of cylinders above the barrel are clearly small to absorb the recoil energy.
      And most likely they dug into the bunker, which was dug up next to the firing position.
  6. +4
    2 May 2021 09: 06
    History has given too little time to the Millennial Reich. Otherwise, we would have seen a battleship with such a major caliber.
    1. +2
      2 May 2021 13: 17
      Quote: Narak-zempo
      Otherwise, we would have seen a battleship with such a major caliber.
      The Japanese had ships with a similar concept during the RYAV (Matsushima): an armored cruiser with a 320 mm gun. They did not get anywhere from it, the only benefit was from a dozen five-inch shoes.
      1. +2
        2 May 2021 13: 32
        Quote: bk0010
        The Japanese had ships with a similar concept during the RYAV (Matsushima): an armored cruiser with a 320 mm gun. They did not get anywhere from it, the only benefit was from a dozen five-inch shoes.

        Well, you can also recall the "white elephants of Admiral Fischer" with apophigee apotheosis in the form of HMS Furious with one 18 "cannon.
        One large barrel on a light ship will always be thrashed into white light.
        But if there are at least 8 such barrels for high-quality zeroing with semi-salvoes, and even with a high-quality fire control radar, this is a completely different matter.
        In my opinion, the construction of such a ship is a plan that fully reveals the greatness of the German spirit and the gloom of genius. Yes, they were gradually getting to this top, if you look at the LC projects of H.
        1. +2
          2 May 2021 16: 30
          Well, at least their "fantasies" Fisher, the British blinded a couple of aircraft carriers.
          And the 18 inch, they still stuck it somewhere. If I'm not mistaken on some kind of monitor. It seems General Wolf.
          1. -1
            2 May 2021 22: 40
            Quote: Kote pane Kohanka
            Well, at least their "fantasies" Fisher, the British blinded a couple of aircraft carriers.

            If we are already talking about converting the LK into aircraft carriers, then the H-44 would turn out to be a ship on which the Ju-88 could well be based.
    2. +1
      3 May 2021 00: 41
      Quote: Narak-zempo
      History has given too little time to the Millennial Reich. Otherwise, we would have seen a battleship with such a major caliber.
      The Germans in 1939 began the "Plan Z" construction of 6 battleships - H, J, K, L, M, N.
      Before the start of WWII, 2 hulls were laid, the rest were not laid. In October 1939, the construction of ships was stopped ...
      The main caliber was supposed to be - 8 SK C / 34 406mm guns, in 4 twin turret mounts.
      In Japan, there was the "Fifth Program of 1942" - the construction of 2 battleships of the "Yamato" type (reinforced Yamato) with the main caliber of six 510mm guns, in two-gun turrets.
      It didn't even come to order ...
      soldier
  7. +5
    2 May 2021 11: 47
    The warehouse, located at a depth of 30 meters, was destroyed with one shot, in particular, Manstein wrote about this in his memoirs after the war.

    Well, Manstein wrote a lot. Here Nikolaevich I (Vladimir) noted that according to other sources, these were shells lying on the ground. And the same Manstein claimed that during the first assault on Sevastopol, he did not have tank units. Well, yes, he did not have his own, but the fact that at Kakhovka three of our echelons with tanks were captured, in the way of which Filchenkov's sailors later stood at Duvankoy (now Verkhny Sadovoe), so this is nothing, they are captured, you can not even mention.
    1. 0
      2 May 2021 12: 01
      Quote: Aviator_
      Well, yes, he did not have his own, but the fact that at Kakhovka three of our echelons with tanks were captured, in the way of which Filchenkov's sailors later stood at Duvanky

      Well, well, he captured the tanks, but where did he take the tankers? And the service staff?
      Several dozen captured tanks are not a tank unit. In the best of ammunition consumption. There can be no talk of any deep breakthroughs and the creation of cauldrons.
      1. +5
        2 May 2021 12: 10
        Well, well, he captured the tanks, but where did he take the tankers?

        Does driving the T-26 require such a qualification that a tractor driver called up from the countryside does not have? Again, Manstein had "Sturmgeshuts" (self-propelled guns), he writes it himself. And what "deep breakthroughs and cauldrons" are possible in the conditions of the Crimea? The point is that he, the "great", wanted to take Sevastopol almost outright, with one infantry (as he himself writes), but Hitler interfered.
        1. -2
          2 May 2021 12: 37
          Quote: Aviator_
          Does driving the T-26 require such a qualification that a tractor driver called up from the countryside does not have?

          It is doubtful that in the field army in the infantry there were so many drivers who worked in civilian life with tracked vehicles. There were not so many of them in the interwar period in Germany, and they were sent, most likely, according to their specialty - mechanics, truck drivers, etc.
          But let's say the drivers were recruited. Can't you really see the difference between "driving a tank" and "fighting in a tank"? Whom to plant as vehicle commanders?
          Quote: Aviator_
          Again, Manstein had "Sturmgeshuts" (self-propelled guns), he writes this himself

          So what? To remove crews of self-propelled guns, which are of great combat value to support the infantry, for the sake of tanks, the value of which, to put it mildly, is questionable?
          1. +5
            2 May 2021 13: 57
            drivers working in civilian life with tracked vehicles. There were not so many of them in the interwar period in Germany,

            There were quite enough of them, horses in Germany were not plowed at that time, and they provided themselves with agricultural products.
            The crews of self-propelled guns in a day can tell the same called tractor drivers what can and cannot be done in a tank. And having a lot of trophies and not using them in any way is the height of carelessness. Again, at the very beginning of the war in our hastily formed units, the so-called "fear of tanks" was widespread, when the troops simply fled at the sight of the approaching armored vehicles. Naturally, this was not advertised, but this term appeared exactly then. As for the value of the T-26 - it was quite at the level of that time, the oncoming battle near Dubno in the summer of 1941 demonstrated this.
        2. +6
          2 May 2021 15: 32
          "Hitler prevented" 2/3 of the German generals in different variations repeat: "I, the more modest" we ", almost beat the Russians, but such and such Hitler prevented."
          When they were at the zenith of glory, they forgot the corporal, and then everyone remembered: "what to expect from the corporal"
          Although Rudel was cheating, he was more honest. In my opinion, only a few of them did not blame everything on Hitler
          1. +3
            2 May 2021 15: 38
            Although Rudel was cheating, he was more honest

            Rudel lied at his level, he did not receive orders from Hitler's headquarters in the Ju-87 cockpit - this is about his "honesty". Well, the German beaten generals are like bad dancers, something always bothers them.
      2. +3
        2 May 2021 15: 20
        It is a historical fact that the Germans captured our tanks and used them near Sevastopol. I saw a photograph somewhere. I heard from the front-line soldiers that the Germans used our tanks
        1. 0
          4 May 2021 11: 06
          used. but these were the tanks of the broken Crimean front and already in 42, and not tanks from near Kakhovka in November 41. they in 42 near Sevastopol also used captured French
    2. +1
      2 May 2021 17: 01
      "he did not have tank units. Well, yes, he did not have his own" ////
      ----
      French captured heavy tanks were specially brought in.
      They did not fit the Wehrmacht because of the slow speed, but they came in handy during the assault.
      fortifications of Sevastopol.
      1. 0
        2 May 2021 17: 07
        French captured heavy tanks were specially brought in.
        They did not fit the Wehrmacht because of the slow speed, but they came in handy during the assault.
        fortifications of Sevastopol.

        Probably it was, but not in the fall of 1941
  8. +1
    2 May 2021 12: 21
    Why build two such cannons ?! Already at the design stages, the Germans had to understand what a hellish crap would be with transportation and deployment. Even the front of the First World War would often move at a speed greater than the firing range divided by the time of deployment and transportation of this weapon, let alone attempts to implement such an archaic in BB2. It is striking that the Germans understood at the same time that the future war would be a war of the engine and dynamic movements - and this particular project looked against the background of this understanding as a completely alien element.
    1. +1
      2 May 2021 13: 19
      Quote: Knell Wardenheart
      Why build two such cannons ?!
      The military is always like this: main and backup (just kidding).
    2. +2
      2 May 2021 16: 34
      Quote: Knell Wardenheart
      Why build two such cannons ?! Already at the design stages, the Germans had to understand what a hellish crap would be with transportation and deployment.


      The generals are preparing for the wars of yesterday, so the belief in the miracle of the weapon of the first world multiplied by technical progress is the second!
  9. +1
    2 May 2021 14: 49
    The author, and Manstein could not use: "House" near Leningrad?
    Once, I read that Manstein, after Sevastopol, was assigned to Leningrad and brought in some kind of super-powerful weapon.
    I don't remember the author, but the book seems to be: "The password" Victory "is the memoirs of the veterans of the blockade
    1. +1
      2 May 2021 18: 48
      The author, and Manstein could not use: "House" near Leningrad?

      Was going, but did not grow together. Caution prevailed - the saturation of our aviation near Leningrad was significantly greater than near Sevastopol. Bombed into the trash.
    2. Alf
      0
      2 May 2021 21: 53
      Quote: vladcub
      Once, I read that Manstein, after Sevastopol, was assigned to Leningrad and brought in some kind of super-powerful weapon.

  10. -1
    2 May 2021 15: 14
    Comrades, Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter on that day
    For me personally: Orthodox holidays are a cultural and historical tradition. Memory of our parents and grandfathers.
    Without memory of our historical culture, we will turn into 'mankurts. So that everyone who is not indifferent to their history, happy Easter
  11. -1
    2 May 2021 15: 28
    Dora could beat Gibraltar with a bang. But this is the ideal of the disease of gigantomania.
    1. 0
      2 May 2021 18: 52
      Dora could beat Gibraltar with a bang.

      Franco prudently sat out during WWII in the form of neutral, he would not have allowed her to be hosted for the sake of Hitler's whim.
  12. 0
    2 May 2021 16: 08
    Instead of this Dora, several dozen field howitzers, anti-aircraft or anti-tank guns with a huge number of shells for them could be used up much more useful for the Wehrmacht.
  13. +4
    2 May 2021 16: 31
    Quote: Kot_Kuzya
    Hitler, like any mentally abnormal person, suffered from mania, one of which, ..., was mania of gigantomania.


    I'll be the "devil's advocate" - This is a "jamb" of performers! wassat / sarcasm /

  14. 0
    2 May 2021 21: 17
    Interesting. If it’s true about the number of trains, the technical side of the idea, frankly speaking, is off the charts. Although, on the other hand, in those years there were also a lot of people willing to use the budget in full.
  15. +1
    3 May 2021 11: 53
    They say there was even a platoon of prostitutes in the staff list of the employees seconded to the "dor", so that 43 carriages do not seem to be something supernatural.
  16. +2
    3 May 2021 22: 08
    It’s very difficult to explain the Axis tendencies towards all these monsters. Extremely useless stuff. Germany has Dora, the Japanese have Yamato ... But the allies turned out to be more pragmatic and did not go into gigantomania. Ordinary B-29, ordinary TM-3-12 ... And a lot of really good workhorses, Shermans and T-34s. Only one thing is bad: the current leadership is again dreaming of a wunderwaffe, weapons of retaliation and giant contraptions. And again, in the same way, they are hostile to the civilized West. The country has the same state monopoly and totalitarianism, the attack on freedom ... And the same irreplaceable dictator is in power. However, I got carried away. The main thing that I wanted to convey was that it did not come out to understand that the time of the giants had never come. We need an analogue not of Ford, but of Sverdlov.
  17. 0
    7 May 2021 13: 30
    In addition to 10 million Reichsmarks, they spent the time of many specialists, who, for example, could create a massive cannon with the best performance characteristics.
  18. -1
    27 July 2021 13: 34
    based on an article from the journal "Science and Technology", October 2010:

    To complete the picture, one could write that the wreckage of the exploded Dora gun came to the USSR for study:
    For almost four years, parts of the captured weapon lay in the vicinity of Leningrad. In 1950, by order of D.F. Ustinov, these units were transported to Stalingrad to the Barrikady plant to study and use the barrel in new developments

    http://militaryarticle.ru/tekhnika-i-vooruzhenie/2009/11748-samyj-krupnyj-artillerijskij-kalibr-v-sssr

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