Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II

third gun, which was never completed, in Essen. The
project proved to be a very expensive exercise in futility:
seven million Reichsmarks per gun, without the
cost of the special trains needed to transport them and
the manpower required both to manufacture and to
operate them. There were various schemes put forward
for improved versions on the original carriages.
These included one in 52cm calibre to fire a 1.42tonne
(1.4-ton) shell to a range of about 113km (70
miles); one to fire a 38cm sabotted sub-calibre shell to
over 145km (90 miles) and even to fire rocket-assisted
projectiles to something like 193km (120 miles);
and a smooth-bore version to fire a version of the finstabilised,
dart-like projectile called the Teenemunde
arrow shell' (Peenemünde Pfeilgeschoss\ developed
for the K5 gun (see below). None came to anything.
THE GERAT 041
The 'Gustav Gerät' guns were not the only fortresssmashers
constructed for the German Army. Rather
more satisfactory, and more practical, were the selfpropelled
60cm howitzers developed by Rheinmetall
ARTILLERY
as the Gerät 041, known unofficially as 'Karl', after
General Karl Becker, whose brainchild they were.
These were short-barrelled weapons, more like mortars
than howitzers, with a maximum range of 4.5km
(2.8 miles); they fired a 2.23-tonne (2.2-ton) shell
specially designed to destroy reinforced-concrete
structures such as blockhouses by burrowing into
them for 2.5m (8.2ft) before exploding their 240kg
(5291b) charge.
The complete ensemble weighed 124 tonnes (122
tons), and if the howitzers themselves were massive,
the carriages upon which they rode were hardly less
so at 11.3m (37ft) long, with full-length tracks with
eight, and later 11, small roadwheels, each one independently
sprung on a torsion bar. The vehicle could
be jacked down to allow its hull to rest on the ground,
thus avoiding the effects of recoil on the suspension.
The recoil system itself was duplex: the gun recoiled
Below: Rheinmetall constructed six 60cm self-propelled
mortars for the Wehrmacht. These 'fortress smashers' -
this is 'Thor' - were used all along the Eastern Front.