Super Cannon Dora (8 pics + text)

Superorudie were collected in late 1941. in the shops of the plant of the company "Krupp».
Caliber - 813 mm.
Barrel length - 32 m.
The weight of the projectile - 7100 kg.
Minimum distance shooting - 25 km, maximum - 40.
Full-length guns - 50 m.
Total weight - 1448 tons.
The persistence of the barrel - 300 shots.
Rate - 3 shots per hour projectile "Dora" punched armor plating thickness of 1 m or 8-foot reinforced concrete ceiling. First supergun called "Gustav", but the tradition of the company to give their products female names was stronger, and the invention has changed "sex».



Superorudie transported by several trains (up to 60 locomotives and cars with a staff of several hundred people).



Engineering training areas were 1, 5, thousands of workers and a thousand deminers four weeks. Since the equipment "Dora" was delivered in 106 wagons by five trains in the place of deployment of instruments built an entire marshalling yard. For misinformation compositions with equipment "Dora" they were first brought under the Kerch which stood until April 25, and after the training positions were secretly transferred under the Bakhchisarai. The 43 cars of the first train arrived attendants, kitchen and a masking agent. The 16 cars of the second train was brought construction crane and accessories. The 17 coaches of the third - to deliver some of the most guns and workshop. A fourth train of 20 wagons moved 400-ton 32-meter trunk and loading mechanism. In the fifth of 10 cars of the train, which was supported by the artificial climate (constant 15 degrees Celsius), placed shells and propellant charges. Cannon was collected for 54 hours and the beginning of June is prepared to shoot.
Number of staff "Dora" 4139 soldiers, officers and civilians. Among other things, the calculation tools included a battalion of guards, transport battalion commander's office, field bakery, camouflage company, department and field post marching ... a brothel with a staff of 40 «workers».



In the first fight, "Dora" had come under the walls of the French ukreplinii "Maginot Line." However, during the design and manufacture of guns the Germans bypassed "Maginot Line" from the rear and forced to surrender Paris.



In the spring of 1942, Hitler summoned to Berlin commander of the 11th Army of General Fritz Erich von Manstein. Fuhrer wondered why the captain pulls the taking of Sevastopol. The failure of the two assaults Manstein explained that the approaches to the city well fortified and the garrison fought with incredible fanaticism. "There are many Russian heavy naval artillery, including the impregnable fort incredible caliber guns," - he said.

The position for the "Dora" chose Tsukerort general himself, the commander of the compound of the heavy cannons, while the surrounding area on a plane flying by Bakhchisarai. The gun was hidden in the mountain, for which it made a special cut. Since the position of the gun barrel was changed only vertically to change the direction of shooting horizontally "Dora" was mounted on a railway platform, standing on 80 wheels, heading steeply curved arc of the railroad tracks with four ways.

"Dora" was used in the battle against the famous Soviet of the 30th Battery of Captain G. Alexander. The group of staff officers of the Wehrmacht advance flew to Crimea and chose the firing position near the village of Duvankoy. For engineering training was allocated 1,000 field engineers and 1,500 workers, forcibly mobilized from the local community. Special railway line equipped station Dzhankoy, where the roads were chetyrehrelsovymi.



Data on the use supergun Sevastopol contradictory. In his memoirs Manstein argued that "Dora" released by the Soviet fortress of 80 shells. German guns pretty soon spotted the Soviet pilots, who caused her serious blow position and damage powertrains.

In general, the use of "Dora" has not produced the results expected by the command of the Wehrmacht: there were only one successful hit that caused the explosion of the Soviet ammunition depot, located at a depth of 27 m. In other cases, projectile guns, penetrating into the ground, punched round the trunk diameter about 1 m and a depth of 12 m. The blast warhead primer at its base compacts formed deep drop-shaped funnel diameter of approximately 3 m. Defensive same construction could be damaged only when a direct hit.

On the morning of June 5, 1942, two diesel locomotives capacity 1050 hp each rolled out to combat sickle position this colossus a total weight of 1,350 tonnes and installed down to the centimeter. The first shot was from a projectile weighing 7088 kg, two powder charges of 465 kilograms each, liner weighing 920 kilograms. The lift gave him the barrel elevation of 53 degrees. Especially for adjusting shooting some distance from the "Dora" I was raised in the air balloon. When fired, the service team is hiding in the shelter for several hundred meters. Shot causes the effect of a mini-earthquake. The roar from the combustion of 6 milliseconds over 900 kilograms of gunpowder and pushing 7-ton projectile was just horrible - in the car for 3 kilometers, according to contemporaries, witnesses, bouncing dishes. Rollback pressed track 5 centimeters.



Erich von Manstein: & quot; ... June 5 at 5.35 the first concrete-piercing shells at the northern part of Sevastopol released install "Dora." The next 8 rounds flew to the area of ​​the battery № 30. Columns of smoke from explosions rose to a height of 160 meters, but no one hit in the armor of the tower has not been reached, accuracy monster gun from a distance of nearly 30 km was, as might be expected, very small . Another 7 missiles "Dora" in the day released the so-called "Fort Stalin," the target was only one of them.

The following day, gun 7-fold strafed "Fort Molotov" and then destroyed a large ammunition depot on the north shore of the bay of North, nestled in the tunnel at a depth of 27 m. [204] This, incidentally, has displeased the Führer, who believed that "Dora "to be used exclusively against the heavily fortified fortifications. Within three days, 672 th Division 38 spent shells, left 10. Already during the storm 5 of them were released on June 11 on the "Fort Siberia" - hit the target 3, the rest was shot on 17 June. Only a 25th of the position of the new ammunition was delivered - five high-explosive shells. Four were used for test firing and only one fired in the direction of the city .... & quot;



Researchers are silent on the question of how exactly "Dora" was taken from the Crimea. In any case, it is clear that the Germans dismantled all equipment that course, secret, and carefully removed all traces.

After the capture of Sevastopol "Dora" was sent to near Leningrad, in the station area Thais. When the operation is to break the blockade of the city, the Germans hastily evacuated supergun Bavaria. In April 1945, at the approach of the Americans blew up a weapon.

The most accurate estimate of this miracle of military equipment made chief of the General Staff of the Army of Nazi Germany, Colonel-General Franz Halder: "This work of art, but useless."