Ghost weapon

6
At 5 hours 35 minutes on June 5, 1942, a thundering sound shocked the valley near Bakhchisarai, which in 20 years would have been mistaken for a thermonuclear explosion. At the railway station and in the homes of the townsfolk in the southern part of Bakhchisarai, glass flew out. After 45 seconds, a huge shell fell north of the Mekenzievy Gory station a few tens of meters from the field ammunition depot of the 95th Rifle Division. The next seven shots were fired at the old coastal battery number 16 south of the village of Lyubimovka. Six more shots on June 5 were fired at the Black Sea anti-aircraft battery fleet. The last shot that day sounded at dusk - at 19 hours 58 minutes.

Up until June 26, shells of monstrous caliber covered Soviet positions with a frequency of five to sixteen shots per day. The shelling ended as suddenly as it began, leaving the Soviet side with an unresolved question: what was it?

Complete "Dora"

In Sevastopol, the Dora was fired, the largest and most powerful cannon created history of humanity. Back in 1936, when visiting the Krupp plant, Hitler demanded from the company's management a super-power artillery system to combat the long-term facilities of the Maginot Line and Belgian forts. The design team of the Krupp company, which started developing the new weapon according to the proposed tactical and technical requirements, was headed by Professor Erich Muller, who completed the project in 1937 year. Krupp plants immediately began producing colossi.

The first cannon, named after the wife of the chief designer, Dora, was completed at the start of the 1941 of the year and cost about 10 million Reichsmarks. The bolt at the gun was wedge, and the loading is separate-sleeve. The full length of the barrel was 32,5 m, and the weight of 400 tons (!). In the combat position, the installation length was 43 m, width 7 m, and height 11,6 m. The total weight of the system was 1350 tons. The carriage of the super cannon consisted of two railway transporters, and the installation was fired from a twin track.

In the summer of 1941, the first gun was delivered from the Krupp plant in Essen to the experimental Hillersleben test site in 120 km west of Berlin. From September 10 to October 6, 1941 was fired at the test site, the results of which completely satisfied the Wehrmacht leadership. At the same time, the question arose: where can I apply this super-tool?

The fact is that the Germans managed to seize the Maginot Line and the Belgian forts in May and June of the year 1940 without the help of super-weapons. Hitler found "Dora" a new goal - to strengthen Gibraltar. But this idea was not feasible for two reasons: firstly, Spain’s railway bridges were built without the need to carry goods of such a weight, and secondly, General Franco was not at all going to let German troops pass through Spain.

Finally, in February 1942, General Halder, Chief of the Ground Forces General Staff, ordered the Douro to be sent to the Crimea and transferred to the disposal of Colonel General Manstein, commander of the 11 Army, to bombard Sevastopol.

Technical specifications
Effective firing range - 40 km. Total weight 1344 tons, barrel weight 400 tons, barrel length 32 m, caliber 800 mm, projectile length (without propelling charge) 3,75 m, weight of the projectile 7,1 tons

At the resort

25 on April 1942, the five echelons with dismantled gunfire and the service division, secretly arrived at the Tashlykh-Dair station (now the village of Yantornoye) in 30 km south of the railway junction Dzhankoy. The position for Dora was selected in 25 km from targets intended for shelling in Sevastopol and in 2 km south of the Bakhchisarai railway station. They decided to build the top-secret position of the gun in an open field, on a bare plot like a table, where there were no rock shelters or even a small fishing line. A low hill between the Churuk-Su river and the railway was opened by a longitudinal notch 10 m deep and about 200 wide m, a kilometer line was made to Bakhchisaray station, and “mustaches” laid down to the west of the hill, which provided a horizontal shelling angle of 45 degrees.

The construction of the firing position were conducted around the clock for four weeks. 600 military construction workers, the Trudfront workers of the Todt organization, 1000 people of local residents and several hundred prisoners of war were involved. Anti-aircraft defense was provided with reliable camouflage and constant patrols over the area of ​​fighters from the 1500-th Air Corps of General Richthofen. A battery of 8-mm anti-aircraft guns and 88-mm anti-aircraft guns were built next to the position. In addition, the Douro was served by a smoke disguise division, 20 Romanian infantry guard companies, a squad of service dogs and a special motorized field gendarmerie team. In total, the combat activity of the gun was provided by more than four thousand people.

Ghost weapon

The Gestapo declared the entire area a restricted area with all the ensuing consequences. The measures taken were so successful that the Soviet command never learned about the arrival in Crimea, or even about the very existence of “Dora” until 1945!

Contrary to the official history, the command of the Black Sea Fleet, led by Admiral Oktyabrsky, did one folly after another. Before 1943, it firmly believed that the Italian fleet entered the Black Sea in June of 1941, and fought hard with it - put up minefields, bombed mythical enemy submarines and torpedoed enemy ships that existed only in the inflamed imagination. As a result, dozens of combat and transport ships of the Black Sea Fleet died from their own mines and torpedoes! The command of the Sevastopol Defense District then sent a tribunal for alarmism of the Red Army and junior commanders who reported on the explosions of huge shells, then, on the contrary, reported to Moscow on the German use of 24-inch (610-mm) railway installations.

After the end of the fighting in the Crimea in May 1944, a special commission was engaged in the search for the firing position of the super heavy weapon in the areas of the villages of Duvanka (now Verkhsadovoye) and Zalanka (Front), but without success. Documents on the use of "Dora" also was not among the trophies of the Red Army captured in Germany. Therefore, Soviet military historians concluded that there was no “Dora” near Sevastopol at all, and all the rumors about it were Abwehr’s disinformation. But the writers "drew off" on "Dora" in full. In dozens of detective stories, heroic scouts, partisans, pilots, and sailors found and destroyed the Dora. There were people who "for the destruction of" Dora "" were awarded government awards, and one of them was even given the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Ghost weapon


Psychological weapon

The generation of myths around Dora was also promoted by the effect of its 7-ton shells, the effectiveness of which was close to ... zero! Of the 53 800 projectiles fired, only 5 hit the target. The observation posts of the 672 division have been hit by the battery No. 365, the strong point of the infantry regiment of the 95 th rifle division and the command post of the anti-aircraft division of the 61 th air defense regiment.

True, Manstein in his book “Lost Victories” wrote: “The gun destroyed a large ammunition depot on the shore of the Severnaya Bay, hidden in the rocks at a depth of 30 m.” With one shot. We note that none of the adits of Sukharnaya Beam was blown up by German artillery fire until the last days of the defense of the Northern side of Sevastopol, that is, until June 25 – 26. And the explosion, about which Manstein writes, occurred from the detonation of ammunition, which was openly laid out on the shore of the bay and prepared for evacuation to the South side. When firing at other objects, the shells lay at a distance from 100 to 740 m from the target.

The headquarters of 11 of the German army chose targets rather poorly. The first targets for the Dora armor-piercing projectiles were to be Coastal Tower Batteries No. 30 and No. 35, protected command posts of the fleet, Primorye Army and Coastal Defense, fleet communications centers, underground arsenals, special plants No. 1 and No. 2 and fuel depots , hidden in the thickness of the Inkerman limestone, however, they almost did not shoot.

As for the eight shells fired on the coastal battery number 16, it is nothing but an embarrassment of German intelligence. The 254-mm guns installed there were removed at the end of the 1920-s, and since then there has been no one there. By the way, I clambered and filmed the entire battery number 16 far and wide, but did not find any serious damage. Later, the Chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht, Colonel General Halder, praised the "Douro" as follows: "This is a work of art, but, unfortunately, useless."



Scrap metal

In addition to the "Dora" in Germany were made two more of her 800-millimeter sisters, who, however, did not participate in the hostilities. In 1944, the Germans planned to use the "Douro" for firing from the French territory around London. For this purpose, three-stage rockets N. HNUMX were developed. In addition, Krupp has designed a new barrel for the Dora with a smooth channel of the 326 caliber cm and 52 length meters. The firing range was assumed to be 48 km. However, the projectile itself contained only kg of explosive 100 and its high explosive effect was negligible compared to the V-30 and V-1. Hitler ordered to stop work on the 2-cm barrel and demanded the creation of guns, firing high-explosive shells weighing 52 tons with 10 tons of explosive. It is clear that the creation of such a tool was a fantasy.

22 April 1945, during the 3 th US Army offensive in Bavaria, forward patrols of one of the units, passing through the forest 36 km north of Auerbach, found heavy platforms in the dead end of the 14 railway line and some huge and complex metal construction, strongly damaged by the explosion. Later, in the nearby tunnel, other details were found, in particular, two giant artillery barrels (one of which was intact), parts of the gun carriages, the bolt, etc. A survey of prisoners showed that the structures found belong to the Dora and Gustav heavy duty guns. Upon completion of the survey, the remains of both artillery systems were scrapped.

The third super power weapon, one of the Gustavs, turned out to be in the Soviet zone of occupation, and its further fate is unknown to Western researchers. The author found mention of him in the “Report of the authorized Ministry of Armaments on work in Germany in 1945 – 1947.” T.2. According to the report: “... in July 1946 of the year, a special group of Soviet specialists on the instructions of the Ministry of Armaments undertook a study of the 800-mm Gustav installation. The group compiled a report describing, drawing and photographing 800-mm guns and carried out work on the preparation for the removal of the 800-mm Gustav rail installation in the USSR.

In 1946 – 1947, a train with parts of 80-cm guns “Gustav” arrived in Stalingrad at the plant “Barricades”. At the factory, the gun was studied for two years. According to information received from veterans of the design bureau, the plant was instructed to create a similar system, but I did not find confirmation in the archives. By 1950, the remains of Gustav were sent to the factory landfill, where they were stored until 1960, and then were scrapped.

Together with the gun, seven cartridges were delivered to the Barricades factory. Six of them were subsequently scrapped, and one, which was used as a fire barrel, survived and was later sent to Malakhov Kurgan. This is all that remains of the greatest instrument in the history of mankind.
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6 comments
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  1. Michelle
    0
    April 7 2011 11: 44
    The Germans generally respected such ambitious projects. Let us recall the "Mouse" super-heavy tank. Gigantism in action.
    1. 0
      29 September 2011 21: 34
      and the tank "Rat" I met such monsters in the games, the mouse will probably be in the height of the track!)
  2. Hans
    Hans
    0
    April 7 2011 21: 54
    Ja, ja, Russ Iffan, the German genius und brave Nimetsky soldier - eats from a great power. Mi eats everyone.
    1. 0
      29 September 2011 21: 38
      wir sind auch sie liben in POINT of leber fRITZ! love
  3. +1
    April 7 2011 22: 48
    Michelle,
    yes, the Germans have a giant "mouse" - it weighs almost 200 tons, but it could hardly be used in combat
  4. Sirius
    +5
    April 8 2011 18: 37
    Hans,
    But isn’t it better for German and Russian soldiers to stand shoulder to shoulder in a possible new war?
    1. aironfirst
      +2
      13 February 2012 09: 05
      Maybe so, but, then, it is better to let them be "for us" than we - "for them." smile

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