The Germans did not use ordinary heavy artillery, but the Gustav cannon specifically designed to break through the Maginot Line.
After the head of state came to power in 1936, he ordered the development of a heavy artillery that could break through the Maginot Line. This task was handed over to the German domestic arsenal for design. German designers who were naturally interested in complex machinery became enthusiastic.
In August 1937, Rheinmetall's "Plan No. 4" was launched. The caliber of the artillery was reduced to 600 mm, the shell weighed 2 tons, the charge was 350 kg, the muzzle velocity was 243 m/s, the maximum range was 4 kilometers, and the high and low range was -10°.
~75°, the standard shooting angle is 55°~75°, and it adopts a crawler-type self-propelled chassis.
Because the German artillery general Carl Beck had high hopes for this kind of heavy artillery, he believed that once several heavy artillery were used intensively, they would be invincible, so he intervened in the production of the cannon and asked Rheinmetall to build six Karls before trial production.
Mortar.
Under his repeated persistence, the six "Karl" heavy guns were completed from the late autumn of 1940 to August 1941. This is why this type of cannon is called "Karl".
In addition to Rheinmetall's Karl, Krupp Arsenal also proposed their plan-Gustav.
Unlike the Karl mortar, the Gustav cannon is a long-diameter super cannon, which also means it has a terrifying range.
The diameter is 800mm, the maximum range is 38 kilometers, the muzzle velocity of the shell reaches 720 meters per second, and the barrel alone is 32 meters long! In combat status, Gustav is 53 meters long, 12 meters high, and weighs 1,488 tons.
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In order to make such a super cannon operate normally, it would take a major general to command 1,400 people to spend three weeks assembling it, and the total number of people involved in command, operation, and security would reach more than 4,000.
Its artillery shells are also appalling. Each armor-piercing shell weighs 7 tons, and a high-explosive shell weighs 4.75 tons. The propellant fuel is between 1.8 tons and 2 tons.
Even because the loading mechanism is not perfect, a tank is needed to push the shells into the barrel!
Correspondingly, once Gustav fires, the power is astonishingly terrifying.
The thirty-meter-deep fortifications will be directly blown through, and the crater left by the explosion will be as big as four American football fields. Even the terrain will be completely changed!
This is an out-and-out battlefield terminator, because when a shell fired by Gustav hits the ground, the entire battlefield will be leveled!
Originally, six Karl mortars and one Gustav cannon were prepared to attack the Maginot Line, but the success of Manstein's plan prevented the German army from having to attack the Maginot Line.
The Karl mortars and Gustav cannons that arrived at the front were planned to be used to capture Paris.
After all, in World War I, the French's persistence in fighting in Paris left a deep impression on the Germans.
However, this time the French disappointed the Germans. Their performance was far from as tough as in World War I. The German army entered Paris in just one month.
This was undoubtedly good news, but it also made the German army feel like they had punched cotton in the face.
They were all prepared to go head-to-head with the French and fight to the death with the French like their fathers did. However, the French disappointed them greatly.
If it weren't for the persistence of Weygand's defense, which gave the French the last fig leaf, the Germans even thought they had defeated France.
Especially the senior officers of the German army who had experienced World War I, they even felt that their hard-earned preparations over the years were completely unnecessary, because the France in front of them and the France of World War I were basically two countries. Gu Zheng
This also made the top German officers responsible for commanding the attack on France feel that several huge cannons that had been built with a lot of money had become a meaningless waste. They could just use tanks to crush the French and wash their tracks on the banks of the Seine in Paris.
Fortunately, this attack by the British and French finally reminded the German military leaders that they still had a few huge cannons to use. Although it was meaningless to use huge cannons to attack tank clusters and infantry positions, they could still put these cannons to good use.
Their role can also be considered as a practical test.
Among them, the Gustav cannon was too complex to use and too slow to load. The cannon, which could only fire a dozen rounds a day, was only suitable for hitting fixed targets, so this super cannon was not put into battle.
After being assembled, it launched an artillery bombardment at some strategic points on the French defense line. It is still preparing.
The six Karl mortars do not have such troubles. They were originally designed to enter the battlefield within a few hours and can be regarded as a self-propelled artillery.
Because of this, when the German army decided to form a pocket formation to make dumplings, these six cannons were also pushed to the front line and entered the shelling position.
The terrifying roar that Ian heard was the sound of the 600mm shells fired by the Carl mortars tearing the sky apart.
When these super-heavy artillery shells, originally designed to destroy fortresses and bunkers, fell on the battlefield, what Ian felt was the earth shaking in a literal sense.
The surrounded British tank force suffered heavy losses at the first opportunity.
Of course, the Germans could not only use six Karl mortars. They used all the artillery of an armored group to bombard the British.
The battlefield was covered by artillery fire almost instantly, and among the artillery pieces of various calibers were only six super-heavy mortars.
The horror of such artillery fire is unimaginable. Even in the entire history of human warfare, there are only a few armies that can withstand such artillery fire and still persist in fighting.
The British are obviously not within this range, and their tank troops do not have such amazing fighting will.
However, this force was not completely wiped out, but quickly chose to break out after suffering heavy losses.
When they rushed into the German position and fought with the defending German troops, the German commander had to stop the bombardment.
Although Germany was very crazy during World War II, the German commanders were not crazy enough to bomb their own people with super-heavy artillery.
During World War II, only a crazy country that did not regard its citizens as human beings did such a thing. Not only did it allow its soldiers to launch suicide attacks, it even simply used its soldiers as wetware hosts for guided weapons. During World War II,
Realized artificial guidance.
However, in this way, the German army could only rely on the positions constructed by the infantry to block the British army's breakthrough.
The outcome of this battle also became whether the British army could break through, or whether the German army could tighten its pockets.
