Gustav Gun - The Largest Gun Ever Built

[desiman]

The Atomic Cannon video was cool, but it was a composite of several tests. When it cuts to the car, the trees, and the bus, that was from a larger nuke test.

Watching the car is a good lesson in nuke effects. The first to hit the car is the thermal pulse. The car doesn't move, but the paint is instantly burnt, and flashes to dust. Same with the bus. Then, the blast and shock wave hits, and the car is tossed like a toy.

The trees show the shock wave outwards, then the return airflow to fill the void. Really interesting (and frightening) stuff.

The cannon shell was a very small nuke with a yield of a kiloton or less.

I have a very small and stupid question, how do they record a nuclear blast like that ? Like how did the capture that car and the bus without the camera getting toasted also ? Do they do a shot from far off or is the camera enclosed in a protective shell or something ? pardon me for my stupidity. lol

 

[Xeric]

i think the Paris Gun was the largest ever.

 

[Maghrebi]

What about Iraqi's supergun Babylon project.

Under Project Babylon, Bull extended his HARP gun design to build the barrel in segments, with a total length of 512 feet. The gun would be able to fire 600 kg projectile to a range of 1,000 kilometers, or a 2,000 kg rocket-assisted projectile into orbit.

As a component of Project Babylon, Bull built a smaller gun, nick-named Baby Babylon, as a prototype for the larger gun. This 40 meter long gun was first constructed for horizontal testing in the summer of 1989, and installed at Jabal Hamrayn,

In documents filed with the UN Special Commission 18 July 1991, Iraq admitted possessing a gun with a barrel 350 millimeters wide and 45 meters long and that it was building a second one. The commission noted that the gun would have been inaccurate for conventional armaments, and that it was trying to determine if the weapon was intended for chemical, biological, or nuclear use. The superguns were potentially capable of firing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons to a range of up to 1,000 km.

 

[Penguin]

Lest we never forget the REAL largest gun - Atomic Annie:

only 280mm. 20 mile/32km range. 83 tons

M65 Atomic Cannon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

as compared to 800mm. 48km range. 1350 tons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerer_Gustav

 

[Penguin]

This thing only fired three rounds in anger in WWI, it was de-assembled and then reassembled every time it moved.

It has a huge 800mm round and takes about 30-45 minutes to reload.

Schwerer Gustav
In February 1942 Heavy Artillery Unit (E) 672 reorganized and went on the march, and Schwerer Gustav began its long ride to the Crimea. The train carrying the gun was of 25 cars, a total length of 1.5 kilometers. The gun reached the Perekop Isthmus in early March 1942, where it was held until early April. A special railway spur line was built to the Simferopol-Sevastopol railway 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of the target, at the end of which four semi-circular tracks were built specially for the Gustav to traverse. Outer tracks were required for the cranes which would have assembled Gustav.

The siege of Sevastopol was to be the gun's first combat test. Installation began in early May, and by 5 June the gun was ready to fire. The following targets were engaged:

5 June
Coastal guns at a range of 25,000 m. Eight shells fired.
Fort Stalin. Six shells fired.
6 June
Fort Molotov. Seven shells fired.
The White Cliff: an undersea ammunition magazine in Severnaya Bay. The magazine was sited 30 meters under the sea with at least 10 meters of concrete protection. After nine shells were fired, the magazine was ruined and one of the boats in the bay sunk.[3]
7 June
Firing in support of an infantry attack on Sudwestspitze, an outlying fortification. Seven shells fired.
11 June
Fort Siberia. Five shells fired.
17 June
Fort Maxim Gorki and its coastal battery. Five shells fired.
By the end of the siege on 4 July the city of Sevastopol lay in ruins, and 30,000 tons of artillery ammunition had been fired. Gustav had fired 48 rounds and worn out its original barrel, which had already fired around 250 rounds during testing and development. The gun was fitted with the spare barrel and the original was sent back to Krupp's factory in Essen for relining.

The gun was then dismantled and moved to the northern part of the eastern front, where an attack was planned on Leningrad. The gun was placed some 30 km from the city near the railway station of Taizy. The gun was fully operational when the attack was cancelled. The gun then spent the winter of 1942/43 near Leningrad.

Then it was moved back to Germany for refurbishment. Despite some claims, it was never used in Warsaw during the 1944 uprising, though one of its shells is on display at the Polish Army museum there.

The gun then appears to have been destroyed to prevent its capture sometime before 22 April 1945, when its ruins were discovered in a forest 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of Auerbach about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Chemnitz.

Schwerer Gustav - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Chogy]

@Penguin - I knew Atomic Annie was a dwarf compared to many others, but the payload was special. I think they had nuclear shells for many Naval vessels as well.

I have a very small and stupid question, how do they record a nuclear blast like that ? Like how did the capture that car and the bus without the camera getting toasted also ? Do they do a shot from far off or is the camera enclosed in a protective shell or something ? pardon me for my stupidity. lol

I think all they do is build a heavy concrete bunker for the camera, with the bulk of the concrete facing the blast, and probably a quartz window or very heavy glass protecting the viewing angle.

In an appropriate shelter, nukes are survivable, short of a direct hit.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Nothing beats the chicken heated nuclear landmine, in my opinion.

 

[mughaljee]

What about Iraqi's supergun Babylon project

 

[Chogy]

I think in these modern times, superguns are a waste of money. Easily spotted by air or satellite, very hard to move, vulnerable to air attack. One pass by an A-10 could put any single supergun out of action.

 

[Icarus]

Let's not forget Little David, with a Calibre of 914mm !