Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 312 Caliber Does Not Equal Power

Wang Gensheng shook his head at Li Xiu's surprise and said:
"This cannon is similar to a mortar, and considering ease of transport and range, the shells were not designed to be too large or heavy. The shells weigh only 1.7 tons, which is about twice the weight of the shells of our current 406mm naval gun. So although this Little David gun has the largest caliber, it is not the most powerful!"

That's right, the largest caliber barrel weapon ever manufactured and used by mankind was the Little David's Giant Mortar, which the Americans developed at the end of World War II.

However, although the Little David Cannon was originally designed to break through the Siegfried Line of the German army, the German army surrendered before it was even put into actual combat.

So aside from being used for some tests, the Little David Cannon eventually became nothing more than a spectacle.

In fact, in terms of the barrel of the cannon, although the Little David's caliber was large enough, it was indeed not large overall as a short-barreled cannon.

The largest cannon ever used in actual combat was the Gustav Gun of the German Army during World War II.

The Gustav Gun was named after the father of the head of Krupp. Three of the same type of gun were planned to be built, but only two were actually completed. The second gun was named after the engineer's wife, Dora.

The purpose of building the Gustav Cannon was quite simple: to break through the Maginot Line in the United States.

After World War I, France built the formidable Maginot Line on the border with Germany, which consisted of numerous strong fortifications.

Therefore, if the German army wanted to avenge its defeat in World War I and start another war, the Maginot Line would be the biggest obstacle.

Based on their experience in World War I, the Germans believed that the most effective means of dealing with fortified positions was heavy artillery.

During World War I, the seemingly impregnable Liege fortress was quickly breached by the 401mm giant cannon, the Big Bertha. This experience led the nation to invest heavily in the research and development of giant cannons when it restarted its military buildup.

However, the first one they developed was not the Gustav, but the Karl mortar with a caliber of 600 mm.

The Karl mortar could fire a 2.17-ton heavy shell with a maximum range of 4,400 meters, or a 1.7-ton shell with a range of 6,600 meters.

Its shells can penetrate 2.5 meters of concrete and explode inside.

However, the German army was still not satisfied with this artillery, mainly for two reasons.

First, the armor-piercing depth is still insufficient. After all, short-barreled mortars have limited launch height. Although their gravity penetration capability is already strong, its effectiveness against the Maginot Line remains questionable. After all, the Maginot Line's strongest fortifications consist of 3.5 meters of thick concrete.

Secondly, the range was too short. It should be noted that the artillery of many of the strong fortifications of the Maginot Line had a range of more than 10 kilometers, while the Karl mortar only had a range of a few kilometers, which was within the range of the fortification guns. As a fortification destructive firepower, it might not be very effective.

So, under the direct request of the military, the Chinese began to develop an ultra-large caliber howitzer. In order to ensure range and penetration effect, the caliber was set at an unparalleled 800 millimeters.

The first giant cannon was finally completed in early 1942.

Although the Gustav's caliber was only 800 millimeters, the barrel was 32 meters long, and the weight of the barrel alone reached 400 tons.

There are two types of shells: armor-piercing shells weighing seven tons and high-explosive shells weighing only four and a half tons.

Using lightweight high-explosive shells, the maximum range can reach 47 kilometers, while using armor-piercing shells only brings the range to 38 tons.

However, due to its large size, the rate of fire is only fourteen rounds per day—yes, fourteen rounds per day, not fourteen rounds per minute. Of course, the cannon itself does meet the intended design requirements.

It can deliver a seven-ton armor-piercing projectile 38 kilometers away, enough to destroy more than five meters of concrete.

At the time of its service, no other ground attack weapon could deliver such a large tonnage.

In actual combat, the Gustav Gun did indeed fulfill its design requirements.

Although the French surrendered too quickly, the German army never had the chance to use its heavy artillery to bombard the Maginot Line, which was initially designed to be a formidable target. However, in 1942, during the German Operation Barbarossa, the German army finally used this miraculous weapon in the history of warfare during the attack on the Soviet Sevastopol fortress complex.

The German offensive on Sevastopol was completed by September 1941, with the capture of all areas except for the fortress complex. However, the attack on the fortress complex was very difficult, and the offensive was halted in December of that year. The Germans then began transporting and preparing heavy artillery.

Then, on June 5, 1942, the Gustav Gun began bombarding the fortress batteries. The "Starling Fortress" was hit by six 4.8-ton high-explosive shells, the "Molotov Fortress" by seven, and the rear "Kubela" ammunition depot was hit by nine 7.1-ton armor-piercing shells, which penetrated eight meters of rock, detonating the depot and causing the entire fortress to shake. This warehouse, storing all the ammunition for the Fourth Defense Zone, was destroyed.

Almost all of the best-defended turrets were blasted open by the giant cannons.

Over a period of twelve days, from June 5th to June 17th, Gustav fired a total of forty-eight shells, fulfilling his mission as a fortress opener. He ultimately helped the German army capture Sevastopol.

However, this was only the giant cannon's one and only glorious moment.

The power of this giant cannon did not mask its inherent weaknesses.

This cannon was too large and too heavy, making it very cumbersome to use.

The cannon weighed over 400 tons, making it impossible to transport by any means. Therefore, the Germans designed a train carriage for this behemoth. Ordinary rails could not bear its weight, so a specially made double rail system, consisting of two parallel tracks, was required to support the massive cannon.

This brings the total weight of the gun barrel, gun mount, and auxiliary power unit to an astonishing 1,488 tons, which is equivalent to that of a light warship.

On land, especially in places without roads, let alone a behemoth weighing thousands of tons, even a behemoth weighing hundreds of tons has to take into account the terrain for transportation. This is completely different from the sea, where it is easy to transport even tens of thousands or millions of tons, let alone thousands of tons, without having to consider terrain or transportation.

And the result of such weight is slowness; everything is slow.

Using giant cannons is a slow process. It requires first constructing special railroads, then disassembling and transporting the cannons, and finally assembling them at their destination – a very lengthy preparation process.

The rate of fire was also very slow, with a maximum of fourteen rounds per day. There was no way around it, after all, the shells weighed several tons, and each reloading required the cooperation of a crane and several soldiers.

Furthermore, each propellant charge is close to two tons. The loading speed is extremely slow.

To operate such a cannon, the army independently established a heavy artillery battalion, with 503 personnel directly in charge of its operation.

The giant cannon itself is also a very large target. To prevent air attacks, it will be equipped with anti-aircraft artillery units and smoke-releasing units, with a total of more than 4,000 people serving this giant cannon.

Such resource consumption and time waste are staggering.

(End of this chapter)