Found a cool video of the german railway gun.

[Task Force]

yea, I found some stuff on youtube... pretty cool vid...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAxySDG_jjs&feature=related

this sucker is huge...:yep:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF8JhXJ8Aio&feature=related

[Falkirion]

That is one BFG

[GoldenRivet]

looked up some stats

range: approximately 24 miles

rate of fire:

get this
about 14 rounds per day

here is a pic of one of its shells as it appears next to a tank...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/80_cm_Gustav_shell_compared_to_T-34.jpg

[stabiz]

That is so cool.

[HunterICX]

I've seen a Dora shell up and close at the museum in Overloon
and yeah...its big :o

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/5600/3110071459nx5.jpg

HunterICX

[Lionclaw]

looked up some stats

range: approximately 24 miles

rate of fire:

get this
about 14 rounds per day

here is a pic of one of its shells as it appears next to a tank...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/80_cm_Gustav_shell_compared_to_T-34.jpg



:o

That is one big shell!!


Has there been any artillery piece that's either matched or surpassed it's size since then?

[Raptor1]

:o

That is one big shell!!


Has there been any artillery piece that's either matched or surpassed it's size since then?

There were some earlier guns that had a bigger caliber, but I don't think any gun matched the shellpower.

The American Little David mortar was also bigger, but it was a test weapon.

[Letum]

How did Big Babylon match?
It was to have a 39'' bore, 100ft length and a 470 mile range, but there are no details on shell size.

I remember seeing a section of it that was sized by UK customs on it's way to Iraq.

[Oberon]

How did Big Babylon match?
It was to have a 39'' bore, 100ft length and a 470 mile range, but there are no details on shell size.

I remember seeing a section of it that was sized by UK customs on it's way to Iraq.


I saw a section last week down at Woolwich, big calibre! :o

[mako88sb]

If you got around $800, you can pickup this 1/35 scale model:

http://ca.wrs.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkzfBq7NKZYABOBTrFAx.;_ylu=X3oDMTEzczU3a2p hBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNQRjb2xvA3NrMQR2dGlkA0NBQzAwMV8x/SIG=135s7pc5m/EXP=1253375297/**http%3a//www.missionmodels.com/product.php%3fproductid=17721%26cat=482%26bestsell er

I guess that's too puny a scale for some people:

http://ca.wrs.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGk21Lr7NKjV8AFjjrFAx.;_ylu=X3oDMTEzMzhzY3Q 1BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMgRjb2xvA3NrMQR2dGlkA0NBQzAwMV8x/SIG=1259qg4m8/EXP=1253376203/**http%3a//www.vonabt.co.uk/models/Dora/DoraBuild.htm

Hmmm! I can't seem to enlarge some of the pictures. Anybody else have that problem? Looks pretty impressive what I can see.


Rob

[Oberon]

Yeah, I can't enlarge the pics either, shame because it looks like an awesome model! :up:

[AVGWarhawk]

I've seen a Dora shell up and close at the museum in Overloon
and yeah...its big :o

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/5600/3110071459nx5.jpg

HunterICX

Jesus! How do you load that?

[HunterICX]

Jesus! How do you load that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XnV9hJ_2As

like that:03:

HunterICX

[Oberon]

Jesus! How do you load that?

Carefully and slowly :haha:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1HF3Jr5w9w

(from 1:20 onwards)

[mako88sb]

Here's another link that show's more of that 1/6 scale Dora and other projects of his. I think we need to get this guy interested in subs.

http://ca.wrs.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGk2.hvLNKpA8A5dnrFAx.;_ylu=X3oDMTEzcWpnbTU 2BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA3NrMQR2dGlkA0NBQzAwMV8x/SIG=11qsdebq7/EXP=1253379617/**http%3a//johkaz.byethost10.com/dora.html

[Task Force]

that sucker would make one hell of a model railway... lol:yep:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLroqzVNz2o
If they had found out how to get it to fire these... lol:o

[Oberon]

That flash burn always gives me the creeps.... :doh:

[Task Force]

yea... lol, but it would be an effecent way to cook dinner... (just make sure its strapped down... lol

[AVGWarhawk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XnV9hJ_2As

like that:03:

HunterICX


That is quite an operation. So really, just how devastating was this shell when she hit? :06:

[Task Force]

That is quite an operation. So really, just how devastating was this shell when she hit? :06:

probably could distroy a small city...:hmmm:
http://www.vincelewis.net/dora.html
The criteria that was required was that the shell had to penetrate 7 meters of steel reinforced concrete or at least 1 meter of hardened armour plate. The range required was to be over 25 miles.
it had a 7 to 8 ton shell...

The shells for Dora and Gustav, including the 1 ton charge was 17 feet long. It needed a ton of charge to send the 7 ton shell over 25 miles from the 100 foot long barrel. The shell on test firing proved to be able to penetrate 30 feet deep into earth making a crater over 90 feet feet across.

[AVGWarhawk]

probably could distroy a small city...:hmmm:
http://www.vincelewis.net/dora.html
The criteria that was required was that the shell had to penetrate 7 meters of steel reinforced concrete or at least 1 meter of hardened armour plate. The range required was to be over 25 miles.
it had a 7 to 8 ton shell...

The shells for Dora and Gustav, including the 1 ton charge was 17 feet long. It needed a ton of charge to send the 7 ton shell over 25 miles from the 100 foot long barrel. The shell on test firing proved to be able to penetrate 30 feet deep into earth making a crater over 90 feet feet across.


90 feet does not seem much to me for the size of the shell. Seems like a whole lot of work for 90 feet in diameter and 30 feet deep. Perhaps I'm haivng trouble visualizing this size crater. :hmmm:

[Task Force]

90 feet does not seem much to me for the size of the shell. Seems like a whole lot of work for 90 feet in diameter and 30 feet deep. Perhaps I'm haivng trouble visualizing this size crater. :hmmm:

That would be a huge crater... over 3 times the length of the room in in now.. (which is about 26 feet in length.)

[OneToughHerring]

Hmm, it was almost used against Leningrad. As if those people needed more hardships with the stuff they had to already endure.

About that Iraqi super gun, pretty amazing that the whole concept was still worth looking into as late as the 1990's. I guess that thing was just so powerfull that even in the era of missiles it would have made sense to have.

[Task Force]

I can see that the bigger issue with this gun... was its barrel life, and shelling speed.. and how to move it.:yep:

[Raptor1]

That is quite an operation. So really, just how devastating was this shell when she hit? :06:

The gun could reduce the forts at Sevastopol, some of the strongest in the world at the time, to rubble in just a few shells.

Apart from Sevastopol and it's planned use at Leningrad, I don't think it fit the German strategic doctrine much, probably a waste of valuable steel.

[August]

If you live close to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland you can see this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Anzioanniegun.jpg

[SgtPotato]

Babylon Gun, anyone?