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Can anybody identify this? It's German, World War II era, and looks like a whopping big gun, but I don't know anything else about it.

Dora?  German rail gun 800 mm and a crew of 500 men I believe.

You just beat me to it! Your Google/yahoo! is obviously faster than mine! [:D]

[X(]
 
Was that thing every used in action?  I would've been running the other way.

I just knew off the top of my head [:D]  I believe only 80 combat rounds were fired at the soviets in Svetepol somethingy...or was it only 20 rounds???  Complete waste of resources, money and men!  Thanks Hitler...you smuck. [;)]

ORIGINAL: CarnageINC
I just knew off the top of my head [:D]  I believe only 80 combat rounds were fired at the soviets in Svetepol somethingy.  Complete waste of resources, money and men!  Thanks Hitler...you smuck. [;)]

[:D]

Okay, but it sure must've been impressive on review and parade. Would've bumped morale a few notches on the homefront even if it was a giant pink elephant on the battlefield.

German artillery crews were known to chant "Grond! Grond!" when preparing to fire.

I knew about the gun, but when I looked it up again, I didn't realize they actually thought about building a SELF PROPELLED VERSION! Only 1500 tons. Why not just put a Destroyer on tracks and wheel that around?

It was drawn up, but cooler heads prevailed.....

No word on if a turreted version was considered

Soviet forces were known to defeat the tracked version by smashing their GEVs into the treads.

Yes your probably right, but all that for morale and PR....my god what a effort!  Those Germans sure did build things big...You should see the 'Maas' tank they were trying to build, couldn't even go over the biggest bridges in Europe let alone a muddy field..LOL

There it is!

They would have to paint a "BOMB ME PLEASE" sign on that thing!

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

I Why not just put a Destroyer on tracks and wheel that around?

[:D]

here is more on it

http://www.5ad.org/gun.htm

Dora was an 800mm cannon that required a battalion of men to operate.  It was used only once, during the siege of Sevastopol, and fired only about 80 rounds against the Soviet fortifications.  It was supported by a dozen railroad tracks and was moved on several trains in pieces.  It also required an antiaircraft battalion for protection from air attack. 

According to the link provided by topeverest, the gun was used several times including the Siege of Sevastopol and the Warsaw Getto uprising.

According to Hogg, one or the other of Gustav and Dora (yes, there were two) were used at Sevastopol, Stalingrad, and Leningrad, and probably not at Warsaw (more likely the slightly-less-insane 60cm siege howitzers). Gustav (which was the gun at Sevastopol, not Dora) fired maybe 300 shots total before the barrel had to be relined.

Also required an hour to reload, and a quadruple-line rail spur to be built as a firing emplacement. Each, in resources and manpower, cost about as much as two Tiger tank companies. Amazing piece of technology, but a seriously stupid weapon.

Guns such as this one really only have a psychological effect, their actual combat worth is negligible. Still running up a gun that is basically twice the size of the 16" guns on the Iowa Class and firing at targets from 25 miles away is bound to have an effect on enemy morale.

That thing might have been worth a lot more if built into a hardened bunker on the Atlantic wall...it could reach out and touch the covering BBs on D-Day if it had been.

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Only 1500 tons. Why not just put a Destroyer on tracks and wheel that around?

Nah, Hitler would not have been interested in a destroyer on tracks. Now a heavy cruiser or a battleship, that would have been different because they would have had armour plating, unlike the destroyer.

You can see how much importance he placed on building equipment which was invulnerable to enemy fire in his keen support for the Maus project, and the disproportionate importance placed on the contruction of Tiger tanks.

Alfred

There is a 1/35 scale kit of this gun available: http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=102439&page=1

I have read that it required laying double track where ever it went.  To get the thing to Sevastapol, they had to run double track across Russia and only run it on certain double track lines in Germany.

It was a pretty insane concept.

I have read the Germans were also working on a rail gun at Calais that would have been able to shell London.  In the run up to D-Day, some critical components were destroyed rendering it useless, but the Allies were unaware of it's existence until the hill side it was built into was over run and captured.

Bill