At the beginning of March 1943, the Krupp company presented its own project of a self-propelled assault gun with a caliber of 305 mm to the specialists of the German armament department “Wa Pruef 6”. The barrel of the gun had a length of 16 calibers.
The year 1943 was full of amazing projects for the German military-industrial complex. The war, which should have been ended two years ago, continues, and not in Germany's favor. The turning-point battles with the use of large armored vehicles showed the warring parties all the advantages of this technique. Ambitious and almost not embodied in iron projects of armored vehicles - self-propelled artillery installations, heavy and super-heavy tanks were represented by such well-known German armored vehicle manufacturers as Rheinmetall, Krupp, Alquette, Daimler-Benz, Porsche and MAN.
By the way, the same specialists of the sixth inspectorate also issued design assignments to all of the above companies. Funding for all projects of armored vehicles went through the aforementioned "Wa Pruef 6".
SPG "Bar"
The project name of the self-propelled armored mortar is "BAR". The vertical guidance angles of the gun are 0-70 degrees, the horizontal guidance angles are ± 2 degrees. The total mass of the gun mount is 16,500 kilograms. ACS "Bar" used two types of shells - high-explosive and concrete-piercing.
High-explosive fragmentation projectile - weight 350 kilograms, initial flight speed 355 meters per second, range of application of almost 11 kilometers.
Concrete-piercing shell - weight 380 kilograms, initial flight speed 345 meters per second, range of 10 kilometers.
The energy of the recoil action when firing a shot is 160 tons, the estimated length to which the gun will roll back when firing a shot is 100 centimeters.
Self-propelled mortar ammunition - 10 shells of these types.
The SPG team according to design data - 6 people:
- commander of the self-propelled guns;
- gunner;
- two loaders;
- radio operator;
- driver-mechanic.
The self-propelled gun's armor looked very powerful: the upper nose of the ACS was 130 mm, the lower nose of the hull was 100 mm, and the side armor was 80 mm. In addition, the bottom of the ACS of the front half received armor of 60 mm, the rear part of 30 mm. The SPG's roof received 50 mm armor.
The chassis was designed on the basis of the components used for the production of tanks "Panther" and "Tiger".
The propulsion system from the Maybach company - HL-230, 3000 rpm, power 700 hp
Transmission - AK 7-200.
The Krupp designers designed the chassis themselves. The track rollers had a diameter of 80 centimeters and were suspended on leaf springs.
Presumably, the self-propelled guns "Bar" would have used combat and transport tracks with a track width of 50 and 100 centimeters, respectively. Specific pressure 1.02 kg / cm2.
The speed of the self-propelled guns "Bar" was low, about 20 km / h.
The weight of the vehicle corresponded to the weight of super-heavy tanks and was equal to 120 tons.
The design length of the SPG is 8.2 meters, width 4.1 meters, height 3.5 meters, ground clearance 50 centimeters.
The fate of the project SPG "Bar"
By mid-May 43, the Krupp company learned about a competitor - a self-propelled unit, on which the designers of the Alquette company were working. The competitors' self-propelled guns were armed with an even larger caliber than the “Bar” self-propelled guns - 380 mm. A competitive SPG used a chassis from a Tiger tank.
"Wa Pruef 6" for mass production chooses a self-propelled artillery unit manufactured by the company "Alquette", the project of the self-propelled gun of the company "Krupp" remains unchallenged, and goes down in the history of armored vehicles as an unrealized project.
