January-February - Air Defense Artillery

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14 THE COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL ]al/llary- FebruClT) Burst chamber of a German long-range gun, found at Chuignes, France. It is believed that this is the defecti.ve Paris gun mentioned in the article. save for fixed shore batteries. }\s a matter of fact the French at that time held dear a doctrine which had taken root to virtually the same extent as the Ligl/e Magil/ol doctrine of more recent vintage and which proved almost as disastrous. That doctrine was that the 75, 1/()lre lIIerl'eillellX Soixalzle-qllil/ze, the CallOll a 10111 {aire (cannon of all work) could do anything, that it was useful not only for infantry support, for rolling barrage, drum fire, box ,barrage, etc., but that the fire of the 75s, if sufficiently dense, could smother fortifications and heavy enemy batteries. That theor): mioht' be essentiallv correct as far as t> • theory goes, but it contains the important provision "if sufficiently dense" and the first "Vorld \Var proved conclUSively that sufficient density could not be obtained. But since the larger part of the French General Staff seems to have believed in the "miraculous 75" (just as they later believed in the miraculous i\tlaginot Line) little attention had been paid to heavier guns. In August 1914 the French army had only two types of really heavy pieces: the old 8.66-inch guns and the egually old 10.66-inch mortars. They also had some 12-inch and l3.8-inch naval riAes. Later on Schneider 280mm pieces were used in numbers by the French, at Verdun. In May 1916, a 14.6-inch (371mm) mortar made its appearance and finally even a railroad-mounted 520mm (20.47-inch) howitzer was developed, firing 3086.5-pound shells with a 661.4-pound bursting charge to a maximum range of 19,685 yards. But these pieces were, as J'vlajor I-licks put it, "used exceptionally." It is significant that German soldiers of the first \Vorld \Var ascribed all fire from field guns to French and all heavy fire to English batteries, without making an attempt at niceties of distinction. Before the arrival of the AE.F. they were usually right. Against the French 75s the Germans pitted their 77s and their lO5mm field howitzers; against field fortifications they used their long 150s (Krupp, or Rheinmetall) and against the Belgian and French fortresses they brought three he3\'y howitzers into play: tht 210mm Krupp (or as the Germans preferred to cal them 21 centimeter mortars). the 305mm or 30.5cm "Skodas" and the 42cm Krupp "Berthas." Later in the war the Germans developed a marked preference for what they called sclzwersles Flaclzfe/ler (super-hea\') flat trajectory) railroad mounted naval riAes, augmented in the end by the completely insane 120-foot Paris Gun of approximately 2lcm and 24cm, the latter being simply rebored barrels of the former. Among those German Aat trajectory pieces then were some that deserve special mention. The first city subjected to long range shelling by the Germans in \ Vorld \ Var I was Dunkergue, the range being close to 40 kilometers or about 44,000 yards. The guns used for this purpose were Krupp coast defense riAes of a caliber of 381 mm. forty-fi\ e calibers long. German soldiers nicknamed this gun Der Ialzge ElIIil which led some French observers to believe that there was a special gun type "EmiL" That belief was somewhat justified because the Germans did name their trench artillerv in a similar manner. There was the 1Hillellwerfer . AI. brecht and others and the shells fired by those heavy trench mortars were called b\' names like Lottie, Katie etc. Der lallge Emil, howev~r, was not a special type, it was the ordinary 381 mm Krupp coast defense gun. used at a much higher elevation than customary which accounted for the extreme range. Nor did the choice of the name Emil have any specific significance as that name is used by the Germans very much in the same manner we use the name Oscar. r\nother flat trajectory battery that has caused much wondering was the one of the strange caliber of 356111m. These guns (there were eight of them) were 52.5 calibers long and fired two types of shell, one weighing about 700 and the other about 1150 pounds. \Vhen fired at an elevation of 52 degrees these guns attained an extreme range of 66,000 yards. They had been built by Krupp for Greece to be used in the battleship Basileos Glzeorgios and were requisitioned before they wcre delivered. 142mm Krupp mortar, barrel section. This gun was transported in several loads.
GERi\IAN SIEGE GU~S OF THE TWO \VORLD WARS 15 The most frequently mentioned Gennan flat trajectOn' gun of \\' arid \ Var I is. of course, the long range (lU~ ~hat shelled Paris for the first time on i\ larch 23. 1918 from the Bois de Crepy. about eighty miles from the center of the French capital. The shells weighed ,ome 260 pounds and needed. according to the latest calculations. 200 seconds to complete their journey which carried them to a point almost thirty miles above the earth's surface. It is now known that the barrel of the gun was a little over eight inches in diameter and that it was 150 calibers long. A barrel of the lallge Emil type formed the outer cover, a riRed 210mm barrel was inserted into this and another 21Omm barrel pieced on in front. Because of the excessive pressures to he expected the shells had two driving bands preceded by pre-rifled bourrelets and the barrel was left smoothbore for a length of forty calibers near the muzzle. Since a barrel of this length could not possibly remain straight it was supported by a bridge-like girder structure. The official name of this gun which is still miscalled Big Bertha by some careless writers was Kaiser 'Villzellll r,£'Sc11iit: but was usually referred to as Parisgesc1ziitz or Fenzgesc1ziitz. Official name during the experimental stages seems to have been die lmlge 22.2 Zelltimeter KmlOlIe im Schiessgeriist (the long 222mm cannon in the shooting cradle). The different caliber mentioned in this designation is unimportant, the cali- C.lliber (em) GUNS: 17cm 21cm 24cm Length (Cal.) L/40 L/40 and L/45 L/30 and L/40 TABLE I Eight-inch Austrian gun. ber of the Paris Gun actually varied while it was being fired. Sixty numbered shells were provided for each barrel which was supposed to stand that number of rounds safely. \"hile the barrels, with one exception stood sixty rounds and possibly more, some of them had to be discarded after the fiftieth round because the gun kept undershooting. The shells slightly increased in size in the order numbered; the explosion of one of the guns after the third round is probably due to an error either in loading or in the numbering of the shells. It seems that the rebored barrels of one inch HEAVY GERMAN ORDNANCE OF WORLD \\TAR 1 Jf/ eight of Shell ( Approx.) (Pounds) 141 220-240 (four types) 310-330 (six types) Extreme Rall}?e (Yards) 30,000 28,000 28,000 Name Or Nickname 28cm L/40 and L/45 770 38,500 30.5cm L/50 9000) 41,000 35.6cm L/52.5 700 and 1150 66,000 (from Basileos Gheorgios.) 38.1cm L/45 900 and 1650 55,000 lallger Emil (All these guns, from the 21cm up, came on stationary platfonns as well as on various types of railroad mounts.) 21cm L/150 260 142,000 ~Paris 23.5cm L/132 273 100,000 (Gun HOWITZERS: 21cm L/12 28cm L/12 28cm L/14 30.5cm L/8 and L/12 30.5cm L/17 42cm L/16 RR 42cm L/14 260 9,000 770 11,000 "Sc1zwere Kiistell Hattbitze" 770 12,500 same 800 9,500 ("Sc1nverer Kiiste Morser") 850 13,200 "Kartaune " ~2550 16,000 "Ki\'IK"; "Gamma " 2050 i 1800 880 10,250 "M," Dicke Bertha
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January-February - Air Defense Artillery

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