On the 59th Aniversery of D-Day a little remembrace for our German Friends of how far out of control things got, when neighbors came to call on the former Soviet Union in the early 1940s.

32" Rifle for reduction of towns and cities:





This may not be exactly the right forum for this post, but you must admit this rifle is a "Big Bore!"

[ 06-07-2003, 06:27: Message edited by: DMCI* ]

If I remember it right load data was about one metric ton of powder behind either a 9 ton steel projectile or a 7 ton concrete shell.
I believe several dozen shots were fired at Sevastopol.

I understand that Robgunbuilder is working on a slightly modified CZ550 to accept this round.

JohnTheGreek

OOOOOOH, I want the first one, and can it be made to fit in a marlin lever action.???

That was some really serious
big bore developement.Enough expansion ratio
there to get the job done.Ed.

Dear Ed - we did much better in WW I. Remember Easter 1918, when German long-range artillery shelled Paris over 120 over 150 kms. All ballistic tables had to be calculated especially for this project, since the projectiles travelled through stratosphere.

C.

DMCI*

Serious DG rifle I have been in contact with Blaser to get a few barrels for the owners of of silly overengineered kraut guns. I will offer Walther the first conversion "First rifle in the statosphere"

The only tiresome thing about this monster is that it requires railway, alot of friends and relatives to operate it and a good connection with a powder maker

/ JOHAN

Saddam tried to copy guns like this, to use against Isreal.I often wondered why Hitler
didn't try this against London..These types
of guns bring about a remembrance that we
celebrate June 6, yesterday, Normandy, that the
man on the ground, gun in hand had to settle
things.Ed.

This is a pretty interesting link for those not familiar with these large bores.

http://www.cix.co.uk/~nrobinson/railgun/Railwayguns/German/Dora%20index.htm

carcano, Hitler's "Paris Gun", that was the official name, was a very formidable engineering feat. Not real great on either damage or accuracy, but it sure shocked the citizens of the target city. A quick but interesting fact, the shells for this gun were all different. Each one was a few thousandths larger than the one before it. They had to fired in order because of the extreme barrel erosion. Because of this, the gun had to be re-bored on a regular basis. Even with these quirks, it was one heckuva gun!

Rick

The problem with these super giant guns was that they were so costly and burdensome to build, maintain and shoot that they did more damage to the German economy than to the French or the Russians. It was even worse than using a $1 million cruise missile to hit a $14 tent.

They are fun pictures though.

What about Saddam's big gun? Didn't it have a barrel 100 yards long and use successive charges to propel the projectile 100 miles to Israel?

Was it dismanteled, bombed or what?

500grains,

I heard that during its development, the gun in Iraq, Israel told Saddam not to do it and apparently had told the scientist developing it not to. now remember, I just heard this from someone who said that they saw it on tv or something like that. Apparently they had the developer under guard and one day his guards went to check on him and found him very dead. They think it was the Mussad.

I love the picture though, looks like a toy. Crazy.

Red

That was Gerald Bull. He developed a gun that would fire satellites into orbit but no-one was interested. He did a great deal of work. On some mobile artillery for Israel, he reworked the SCUD missles so they would fly a greater distance. He was a brilliant man. He did not listen when he should have though.

Hello:
Ah yes, Gerald Bull, another famous Canadian. Too bad he pissed off the Israelis. As for Hitler and the Paris Gun, he didn't need it, just a short drive in the country.
Grizz

The movie Doomsday Gun based on the events in Dr.Bull's life when he began work on Husseins gun.
Excerpt
Dr. Gerald Bull, the arms manufacturer on whose life this teleplay was based, was fatally shot in his apartment in Brussels, Belgium on March 22, 1990. The killer remains at large. Bull was the inventor of the HARP missile, an extremely long-range cannon capable of hitting a target over 100 miles away, and developed arms for countries such as Chile (under Pinochet's military government) and South Africa (prior to the lifting of the UN embargo).

Carcano, my appologies. It has been a few years since World History, and I did get my wars mixed up. Looks like I need a refresher course. Thank you for straightening that one out.

Rick