Found a cool video of the german railway gun.

[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/wikipedi...ed_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



HunterICX

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by HunterICX

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



HunterICX

Jesus! How do you load that?

[HunterICX]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Jesus! How do you load that?

like that

HunterICX

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by HunterICX

like that

HunterICX

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

[Task Force]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

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

probably could distroy a small city...
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.

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

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

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.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Jesus! How do you load that?

Carefully and slowly



(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.....com/dora.html

[Task Force]

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


If they had found out how to get it to fire these... lol

[Lionclaw]

Originally Posted by 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/wikipedi...ed_to_T-34.jpg

That is one big shell!!


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

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Lionclaw

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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