The famous "Big Bertha"
Usually, one has only to start talking in the company of "techies" about super-large guns, someone will certainly remember:
But, according to Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor V. G. Malikov, there are at least two mistakes in this judgment. Firstly, it was not the Big Bertha, but the Colossal that fired at the French capital; secondly, "Bertha" could not spit out a shell for more than a hundred kilometers at all. In general, it was like this …
The night of March 23, 1917 passed without the howling of sirens announcing another air raid. However … “at 7 o'clock in the morning I heard the strongest, as it seemed to me, a bomb explosion that shook the windows of our apartment on Ke Bourbon,” recalled Lieutenant General A. A. Ignatiev, then Russia's military attaché in France. - The sirens were silent, and we were even more surprised when exactly at 7 hours 15 minutes the same blow was heard, and at 7 hours 30 minutes - the third, somewhat more distant. On this sunny morning, Paris froze from the continued and incomprehensible strong explosions of some unknown bombs. These were shells fired from ultra-long-range German guns.
The idea to expose Paris to artillery fire, thereby demonstrating its military power, and morally influencing the French, arose at the Kaiser's headquarters in the spring of 1916. On the initiative of General E. Ludendorff, it was decided to make a large-caliber cannon that could reach Paris from behind the front line, which was then 90 kilometers from the French capital.
The development of the gun was entrusted to the Krupp company, which in 1914 manufactured a naval gun that fired 56 kilometers. In order to hit Paris, it was required to significantly increase the muzzle velocity of the projectile. As you know, it depends on the length of the trunk. The calculation showed that the supergun would need a barrel at least 34 meters long! It turned out to be impossible to cast such a barrel. Therefore, it was decided to make it composite. Behind the five-meter charging chamber was an internal threaded tube consisting of several parts. A six-meter smooth-walled muzzle was attached to it. From the breech, the barrel was covered with a 17 meter casing.
Excessively elongated, but relatively thin barrel weighing … 138 tons sagged from its own weight. It even had to be supported with steel cables. After each shot, he hesitated for 2-3 minutes. At the end of the shooting, it was even necessary to remove it with the help of gantry cranes and straighten it.
Under the influence of the incandescent gases formed during the combustion of a 250-kilogram powder charge, the friction against the walls of the barrel of a projectile weighing 118 kilograms, the diameter of the barrel changed. If immediately after production the caliber of the supergun was 210 millimeters, then after firing it increased to 214 millimeters, so the subsequent shells had to be made thicker and thicker.
The long-range monster was taken to the firing position on a railway platform by a carriage weighing 256 tons, mounted on 18 pairs of wheels. They also perceived the energy of bestowal. There were no special technical problems with horizontal guidance. And with the vertical? In the place from which they intended to shell Paris, the Germans secretly concreted the site. And on this "pillow" they made a turntable for a huge platform and a tool mounted on it. It was served by 60 coastal defense gunners led by an admiral.
Before each shot, some specialists first carefully examined the barrel, projectile and charge, while others calculated the trajectory taking into account the weather reports (direction, wind speed). Having flown out of the barrel, raised at 52 ° 30 relative to the horizon, the projectile reached an altitude of 20 kilometers in 20 seconds, and after 90 seconds it reached the top of the trajectory - 40 kilometers. Then the projectile re-entered the atmosphere and, accelerating, fell on the target at a speed of 922 meters per second. He completed the entire flight at a distance of 150 kilometers in 176 seconds.
The first shell fell on Republic Square. In total, the Germans fired 367 shells across the French capital, with a third of them hitting the suburbs. 256 Parisians were killed, 620 people were injured, but the Kaiser's command never reached the goal set by Ludendorff. On the contrary, in July August 1918, the Allies launched an offensive that brought Germany to the brink of defeat.
True, several hundred townspeople left Paris. Rumors spread about a mysterious supergun "Big Bertha", allegedly named after A. Krupp's wife. However, as already mentioned, - "Big (or" Tolstoy ") Bertha" was a short-barreled, 420 mm siege mortar, which the German army used during the siege of the Belgian fortress of Liege. And three super-long-range 210 mm Colossal cannons fired at the French capital. After the conclusion of a truce with the allies, the guns were dismantled, their parts and documents were hidden.
Nevertheless, the effect produced led to the fact that in the First World War, ultra-long-range guns began to be developed in other countries. Until the end of the war, French specialists managed to manufacture a heavy 210 mm gun mounted on a multi-axle railway transporter. The range of his fire was supposed to be at least 100 kilometers. However, this supercannon never made it to the front line - it turned out to be so massive that not a single bridge could withstand it during transportation.
British engineers preferred the 203 mm caliber. The barrel length of the British cannon was 122 caliber. This was enough for 109 kilogram projectiles to fly 110-120 kilometers at an initial speed of 1500 meters per second.
cannon "Colossal"
In Russia, back in 1911, a military engineer V. Trofimov proposed to the Main Artillery Directorate a project of a heavy weapon, the shells of which would rise into the stratosphere and hit targets at a distance of more than 100 kilometers. However, the project was rejected. Later, having learned about the shelling of Paris with Colossal cannons, V. Trofimov was the first to explain the essence of ultra-long-range shooting, stressing that there is reason to suspect German engineers of borrowing his ideas published before the war.
