Three years before the outbreak of World War II, Hitler entrusted the management of the Krupp concern with the development of a heavy-duty long-range gun capable of punching concrete fortifications up to seven meters thick and meter armor. The implementation of this project was the heavy-duty gun "Dora", so named in honor of the wife of its chief designer Erich Müller.
The first examples of superheavy guns
By the time the Fuhrer came up with such an ambitious idea, German industry already had experience producing artillery monsters. At the end of the First World War, Paris was fired upon by a battery consisting of three superheavy guns of the Colossal system. The trunks of these monsters had a caliber of two hundred seven millimeters and sent their shells to a distance of over one hundred kilometers, which at that time was considered a record.
However, the calculation of the damage done by the French capital to this battery showed that its real effectiveness is negligible. With exceptional range, the accuracy of the guns was extremely low, and it was possible to fire from them not specific objects, but only huge areas.
Only a small part of the shells fell into residential buildings or other structures. The guns were installed on railway platforms, and at least eighty people were required to service each of them. Considering their high cost, it turned out that the cost of them was much higher than the damage that they could inflict on the enemy.
Shame on the Treaty of Versailles
At the end of the war, the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, among other restrictions, introduced a ban on the manufacture of guns for Germany, the caliber of which exceeded one hundred and fifty millimeters. It was for this reason that for the leadership of the Third Reich it was a matter of prestige, amending the article of a treaty humiliating for them, to create a cannon that could surprise the world. As a result, Dora appeared - an instrument of retribution for restrained national pride.
Create Artillery Monster
Work on the creation of the project and the production of this monster took five years. The Dora super-heavy railway gun, with its technical parameters, exceeded imagination and common sense. Despite the fact that a projectile launched from it with a caliber of eight hundred and thirteen millimeters flew only fifty kilometers, it was able to penetrate seven meters of reinforced concrete, meter armor and earthen fortification of thirty meters thickness.
Tools Issues
However, these undoubtedly high indicators lost their meaning, given that the gun, with extremely low aiming fire, required truly large-scale maintenance and operating costs. It is known, for example, that the position occupied by the Dora railway gun was at least four and a half kilometers. The whole installation was delivered disassembled, and its installation took up to one and a half months, which required two 110-ton cranes.
The combat crew of such a gun consisted of five hundred people, but, in addition, a security battalion and a transport battalion were attached to them. For the supply of ammunition involved two trains and another energy train. In general, the personnel needed to service one such gun was one and a half thousand people. To feed so many people, there was even a field bakery. From all this it is clear that the Dora is a tool that requires incredible costs for its operation.
The first attempt to use the gun
For the first time, the Germans tried to use their new brainchild against the British to destroy the defenses they erected in Gibraltar. But immediately there was a problem with transportation through the territory of Spain. In a country that has not yet recovered after the civil war, there were no lifting bridges and roads necessary for transporting such a monster. In addition, the dictator Franco prevented this in every possible way, not wanting to draw the country into a military clash with the Western allies at that moment.
Transfer of guns to the eastern front
In view of these circumstances, the Dora super-heavy gun was sent to the eastern front. In February 1942, it arrived in Crimea, where it was at the disposal of an army that tried unsuccessfully to storm Sevastopol. Here, the Dora 813 mm siege gun was used to suppress Soviet coastal batteries equipped with 305 mm guns.
The prohibitively large staff serving the installation here on the eastern front needed to be increased by additional security forces, since from the first days of arrival on the peninsula the gun and its calculation were attacked by partisans. As you know, railway artillery is very vulnerable to air strikes, therefore, to cover the guns from air raids, the anti-aircraft division had to be additionally involved. He was also joined by a chemical unit, whose task was to create smoke screens.
Preparing a combat position to start shelling
The place for installing the gun was chosen with particular care. It was determined during a flight over the territory from the air personally by the commander of the formation of heavy guns, General Zuckerort. He chose one of the mountains in which a wide cut was made to equip the fighting position. In order to ensure technical control, the Krupp company sent its specialists involved in the development and manufacture of the gun to the war zone.
The design features of the guns allowed the barrel to be moved only in a vertical position, therefore, to change the direction of fire (horizontally), the Dora gun was placed on a special platform that moved along an arc of steeply curved railway tracks. Two powerful diesel locomotives were used to move it.
The installation of the artillery mount and its preparation for firing were completed by early June 1942. To strengthen the fire strike on the fortifications of Sevastopol, the Germans used, in addition to the Dora, two more self-propelled guns Carl. The caliber of their trunks was 60 cm. They were also powerful and destructive tools.
Memoirs of participants in events
There is evidence of eyewitnesses of the memorial day on June 5, 1942. They talk about how two powerful locomotives rolled out along the rail of this monster weighing 1350 tons. It should be installed with an accuracy of a centimeter, which was done by a team of machinists. For the first shot, a shell weighing 7 tons was placed in the charging part of the gun.
An aerostat flew into the air, the crew whose task was to adjust the fire. When the preparations were completed, the entire calculation of the gun was assigned to shelters located at a distance of several hundred meters. From the same eyewitnesses it is known that the recoil during the shot was so strong that the rails on which the platform was standing went into the ground by five centimeters.
Useless work of military art
Military historians disagree on the number of shots fired by the German Dora cannon in Sevastopol. Based on the data of the Soviet command, there were forty-eight of them. This corresponds to the technical resource of the barrel, which does not withstand more of them (then it needs to be replaced). German sources claim that the gun fired at least eighty shots, after which, during the next raid of Soviet bombers, the power train was disabled.
In general, the command of the Wehrmacht was forced to admit that Hitler’s praised gun "Dora" did not live up to its hopes. For all the costs incurred, the effectiveness of the fire was minimal. Only one successful hit was recorded in the ammunition depot, which was located at a distance of twenty-seven kilometers. The remaining multi-ton shells fell without any benefit, leaving deep craters in the ground.
The defensive structures, however, did no harm, since they could be destroyed only as a result of direct hits. The statement about this cannon of the chief of staff of the ground forces of the Wehrmacht, Colonel-General Franz Halder, has been preserved. He said the Dora’s biggest cannon is just a useless work of art. It is difficult to add anything to the judgment of this military specialist.
Fuhrer anger and new plans
Such disappointing results, shown during the fighting by the Dora’s gun, provoked the Fuhrer’s anger. He had high hopes for this project. According to his calculations, the gun, despite the prohibitive costs associated with its manufacture, was supposed to go into mass production and, thus, make a significant change in the balance of forces on the fronts. In addition, the serial production of guns of this scale was to testify to the industrial potential of Germany.
After the failure in the Crimea, the Krupp designers tried to improve their brainchild. It was supposed to be a completely different heavy artillery mount Dora. The gun was supposed to be ultra-long-range, and it was to be used on the Western Front. It was planned to introduce fundamental changes in its design, allowing, according to the authors' intention, to fire with three-stage rockets. But such plans, fortunately, were not destined to materialize.
During the war years, in addition to the Dora gun, the Germans fired another super-heavy gun of eighty centimeters. It received the name in honor of the head of the Krupp company Gustav Krupp von Bollen - “Fat Gustav”. This gun, costing Germany ten million marks, was also unsuitable for use, like the Dora. The gun had practically all the same numerous shortcomings and very limited advantages. At the end of the war, both installations were blown up by the Germans.