Heavy Gustav - The World's Biggest Artillery Gun

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5 жыл бұрын

The Germans poured immense resources into creating two massive railway artillery guns, Heavy Gustav and Dora. They were the largest ever made. Twice as big as the largest battleship weapons of the era, Heavy Gustav fired shells that weighed 7 tons! Find out the full story behind this madcap scheme.
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Film: KZfaq Creative Commons

Пікірлер: 420

@trycoldman2358 5 жыл бұрын

You're talking a lot of smack for someone within 37 Km

@ksztyrix 5 жыл бұрын

Underwater ammunition magazine? This deserve an episode

@countercuIture 5 жыл бұрын

Yes please!

@markfryer9880 5 жыл бұрын

Definitely, just even thinking about how to build such a project boggles the mind. 10 metres concrete for the roof is still a considerable amount to pour even today but back then it was all small batch mixed close to the point of placement. And this was all below water level.

@user-me5oq3kl4h 5 жыл бұрын

It never existed, made up to cover the complete failure of the gun

@JoinMeInDeathBaby 5 жыл бұрын

@@user-me5oq3kl4h я тоже удивился, никогда о таком не слышал

@Makh927 4 жыл бұрын

Михаил Черников elaborate further..

@Apodeipnon 5 жыл бұрын

Biggest artillery gun on the planet: buy one, get one for free apparently 😁

@timareskog2418 5 жыл бұрын

I personally saw one of the cartridge cases in a friends private collection during the early 90's. He had travelled to the US to purchase it for a cost equivalent of a new small car. Apparently each projectile was numbered and had to be used in sequence as, due to wear in the barrel, the diameter of each projectile was machined slightly larger than the previous projectile, thus the performance was always optimal.

@markfryer9880 5 жыл бұрын

Tim Areskog Are you sure it was for these guns? It might be a shell case for Anzio Annie and sisters.

@timareskog2418 5 жыл бұрын

Mark Fryer My friend was very adamant on which gun it was from, he had become very determined on which guns he was collecting either complete ammunition or just cases or inert projectiles from. I asked if a photo could be taken of me standing inside the case but he wouldn't allow it nor would this acquisition to his collection be made known about to but a very few of his closest friends.

@hallamhal 5 жыл бұрын

I personally saw one of the shells... It's in the imperial war museum

@chrisneedham5803 5 жыл бұрын

There's a shell case from one in Holland

@lampshade6967 5 жыл бұрын

Does he still have the shell?

@ottoskorzeny1378 5 жыл бұрын

Thomas The Tank Engine's Surly German Cousin.

@panzerraven4135 5 жыл бұрын

Germans and engineering..

@minuteman2012 5 жыл бұрын

Germany had the best technology.. except for nuclear....

@kababyenoh 5 жыл бұрын

I wonder how many German soldiers were deafened by the firings?

@jacobhayes9992 5 жыл бұрын

Honestly looks like something out of a sci-fi steampunk movie, especially 5:07.

@gumunduringigumundsson9344 5 жыл бұрын

My thoughts exactly.

@jrherita 5 жыл бұрын

This is what orbital bombardment looked like in the early 1940s..

@alexfilma16 5 жыл бұрын

Thomas The Tank Engine and Gustav The Railway Gun

@DawnOfTheDead991 4 жыл бұрын

Real Blitzkrieg weapon, if you have 5 weeks and 4000 men to spare, as well as complete control of the railways

@avnrulz8587 5 жыл бұрын

Yes, how many panzer battalions could that metal and the 500 troops been turned in to.

@countercuIture 5 жыл бұрын

Germany be like "bigger BIGGER BIGGER!!!!"

@davemorgan6013 5 жыл бұрын

Makes me think of the Maus 2 tank.

@blazeiscrazy8737 5 жыл бұрын

That's what she said.

@CLK944 5 жыл бұрын

BIGGER=BETTER, JA

@santasdeath1 5 жыл бұрын

größer größer größer!

@g13flat 5 жыл бұрын

More of an exercise in vanity as far as I can see. All the materials wasted could have been used for mass produced weapons.

@WilliamJones-Halibut-vq1fs 5 жыл бұрын

The weapon was a worthwhile investment. It could destroy the forts of the Maginot line. It proved it could do so by destroying Sevastopol.

@WilliamJones-Halibut-vq1fs 5 жыл бұрын

Had the German breakthroughs at Sedan or Belgium not occurred the Gustaves would have smashed up the fortresses of the Maginot line one by one as they did to Sevastopol.. That’s not a waste of resources, in fact could have been the most worthwhile investment ever.

@twirlipofthemists3201 5 жыл бұрын

Thousands of troops to operate it... imagine thousands of heavy mortars instead. Huge, stupid waste.

@radioboys8986 5 жыл бұрын

@@WilliamJones-Halibut-vq1fs no it was a huge waste, what it could have or might have done, matters not

@madwolf0966 5 жыл бұрын

Twirlip Of The Mists it was designed for the Maginot but since they by-passed it and did a surprise encirclement it was probably deemed “worthless” until Sevastopol though I do understand where you are coming from

@SafetyProMalta 5 жыл бұрын

The Germans always loved their artillery....

@blueeyeswhitedragon9839 5 жыл бұрын

A companion piece could be the canon designed by Gerald Bull for Iraq.

@markfryer9880 5 жыл бұрын

Oggy Well he did pay for it with his own life by getting bumped off in mysterious circumstances.

@napoleonblownapart8155 4 жыл бұрын

Engineers: So how big do you want this cannon? Hitler: Yes

@venkatjayadeepj1342 5 жыл бұрын

What do you call a pissed off German? A Sauerkraut.

@nikshmenga 5 жыл бұрын

good one!!!! :D 😂 lol 😂 jaja 😂

@chrisneedham5803 5 жыл бұрын

The Germans have a song "everything has an end but a sausage has two"

@chrisneedham5803 5 жыл бұрын

@deee327ify ....... But I'd be angry if you gave me 'Sauerkraut'

@justapieceofsoap4332 5 жыл бұрын

That joke is literally why the Americans called the German krauts, this joke is literally older than any of you...

@CommiTsunami 5 жыл бұрын

Dad joke of the day.

@YourOldUncleNoongah 5 жыл бұрын

Imagine being there and seeing such a weapon arrive on the field, let alone seeing and hearing it fire those shells.

@scotthopkins7711 4 жыл бұрын

Germans were amazing at engineering.

@6omega2 5 жыл бұрын

I like how you point out at the end that in terms of cost benefit analysis, these guns were not a winning proposition. However, for those of us with an appreciation for truly heavy artillery, all I can say is...WOW!!! Also, I think I glimpsed "Loki" and "Thor" in there - the gigantic mortars the Germans had.

@banzaibomb4980 5 жыл бұрын

When literally everything has to absolutely die...

@garymckee8857 4 жыл бұрын

Fantastic engineering.

@kvdodenburg2031 5 жыл бұрын

Amazing German engineering.

@kast7n336 5 жыл бұрын

mark Felton always make my day thank u :)

@santasdeath1 5 жыл бұрын

This is why I love this channel, even though I thought I knew about Germany's railway guns there's still something else to learn! Thanks great video

@martyincanuckistan3635 5 жыл бұрын

And a smart comment that I agree with compared to some of the immature comments made by others. Mark Felton continues to bring us unique quality information, the comments were particularly interesting around Sevastopol

@Gow-13510 5 жыл бұрын

Fire at 1-3 round per hour

@brotjack 3 жыл бұрын

Should have named it "Hefty Hermann" [Göring] 🤣

@lexor521 4 жыл бұрын

4000 men needed too fire one projectile 😱😱😱😱🤪🤪🤪 Great job in narration I find this to be very informative Mark good job

@cybercapri 5 жыл бұрын

GO BIG OR GO HOME, Germany took this statement to NEW LEVELS....

@HelloImKowaBunga 4 жыл бұрын

This is by far the most informative channel I've found on KZfaq and I love every second of it

@seananthonyegan3395 5 жыл бұрын

Nearly a mile long for the train that would be a prize target to go after for plane. My coffee grinder is Krupps funny old world..

@vincevandergoes2362 5 жыл бұрын

Wow, fantastic Mark. Puts all of this into great perspective. Love these short non biased documentaries. Cheers

@McRocket 5 жыл бұрын

I knew about these guns. But I never put it together that they were more then twice as big (diameter) to Bismarck's guns. Just amazing. Thanks for this.

@sugarsammy7209 3 жыл бұрын

Expensive, yet so beautiful.

@TheNcube 5 жыл бұрын

Largest naval gun of that period was actually the 46cm type 94 of the battleships Yamato and Musashi.

@deonmurphy6383 5 жыл бұрын

Thank you Mr Felton. I had known of these two artillery pieces, but had only seen photographs of them, so the film was very interesting. Keep up the excellent and informative pieces.

@CommiTsunami 5 жыл бұрын

Do you guys remember when the History Channel was this and not Ice Road Truckers?

@kaiserofgermania5236 5 жыл бұрын

Right on my birthday. Many thanks!

@MarkFeltonProductions 5 жыл бұрын

Happy Birthday

@justtracie8636 3 жыл бұрын

I thought I'd watched all your videos. Imagine how happy I was to discover some I've missed.

@knightowl3577 5 жыл бұрын

A tremendous engineering feat but a hideous waste of resources. And that was plus for the allies in the long run.

@Lerxstification 5 жыл бұрын

Dirty Harry would love to have this.

@petyrkowalski9887 4 жыл бұрын

Heavy Gustav sounds like a former German colleague who was a world class saussage eater.

@clamsandwich6373 4 жыл бұрын

Thomas the train’s pissed of cousin.

@PiperStart 5 жыл бұрын

Good diplomacy is an even better use of resources.

@Roscoe_B 5 жыл бұрын

Krupp was an amazing company most known for armament production, but made most of it's fortune making steel rails for train tracks.

@alswann2702 5 жыл бұрын

So the krauts could really say "Mine's bigger" without lying.

@timheersma4708 4 жыл бұрын

There were many ever larger plans on the drawing board - the 1000 tonne "Ratte" tank, the 1500 tonne "Landkreuser", the A9/A10 rocket (ICBM in theory) and A11 (3 stage), and A12 (4 stage). Many of these ideas lacked the time, resources, and push for completion.

@hanzkrupps3315 4 жыл бұрын

Small asthma bullets break apart on impact with water. That shell was IMPRESSIVE!!

@SVanHutten 4 жыл бұрын

Loved the bit with the guns firing in sync with music: a mashup of sorts between Leni Riefenstahl and Buster Crabbe´s Flash Gordon. BTW, great video, as always.

@spiffinz 5 жыл бұрын

What a time to be alive..

@rooster3285 5 жыл бұрын

Wow, awesome footage Mark ! thanks

@sarjim4381 5 жыл бұрын

Heavy Gustav and his sister Dora were cool in a kind of a "lets all play army" video game way, but it seems like spending the same amount of money and time could have resulted in developing the blockbuster type bombs of the RAF. The 12,000 pound version had nearly the destructive capability of one round from our boy and could have been delivered in larger numbers while Germany still had air superiority in Russia.

@nepete7 5 жыл бұрын

First they would have to develop a heavy bomber - HE-111 wouldn’t cut it for those bombs. Not that it wouldn’t be a better choice in retrospect, but nobody else had bombs like that when these guns were planned.

@eddyredmond7758 4 жыл бұрын

Mark I have seen photos of the Paris Gun but this thing was a beast. Great video Mark!!!

@sarjim4381 5 жыл бұрын

Good morning or afternoon, depending on where you are. This one should be interesting.

@PU8698 5 жыл бұрын

It is 2:28 pm here where i live

@sarjim4381 5 жыл бұрын

@@PU8698 0630 where I live.

@countercuIture 5 жыл бұрын

7:45 am so good morning lol

@kast7n336 5 жыл бұрын

@@PU8698 ur time is same as my its now 2:46

@stuartharper3968 5 жыл бұрын

Great presentation from a master historian!

@andyrichardsvideovlogs8835 5 жыл бұрын

True, one can argue that Gustav and Dora were a drain on resources. But Gustav was "free" and justified itself. Nowadays we would call it a "technology demonstrater". However, to have seen/heard/felt that firing would be awesome.

@Hornet_Legion 5 жыл бұрын

Not sure if it was mentioned by anyone else but the gun was self propelled. It's size meant that it had to stay on railroad tracks. That means it was the largest self propelled gun in history by a magnitude.

@jasrajsinghbhinder5033 4 жыл бұрын

How big do you want the gun to be? Yes.

@cgaccount3669 5 жыл бұрын

Nice video! Even when you discuss something I've heard about you present new information! Everything I've heard before is they had no idea what became of these guns. Thanks for the clarification!

@gadsden1957 5 жыл бұрын

My father (10th Armored, WW2-Ardennes)told me he saw this gun and that the bore was so big you could crawl into it.

@zangardo3937 4 жыл бұрын

seen all of this on the history channel about 20 years ago. glad your regurgitating this information and clips to younger white claw viewers.

@alexmarra6656 5 жыл бұрын

Just one thing to say,I love this channel !!!

@stefanvogel8255 3 жыл бұрын

German engineering ♥️👍

@nathanspalink5438 4 жыл бұрын

Would love to see one in person. To bad one isn't in a museum somewhere.

@Spor7y01 5 жыл бұрын

Amazing Engineering

@melvyncox3361 4 жыл бұрын

What a monster!

@eisenhertz 5 жыл бұрын

thanks again mark,just yesterday i saw the wochenschau from 1942,with pictures from the gustav.and ancyo any.

@corporalhicks86 5 жыл бұрын

Been waiting for this one!

@charleswade2514 5 жыл бұрын

My grandfather called it the anzio express. He heard it fire many times and was never afraid.

@Starwarsgeek-98 5 жыл бұрын

Sorry to say that these were not the guns at anzio The guns at Anzio were K5 railway guns of 11.1 inch caliber not these 36 inch bastards. They were placed along the atlantic wall at the time of the italian invasion

@XilencezGaming 5 жыл бұрын

Fantastic video!!

@nessuno1948 5 жыл бұрын

This is thinking great........When I was a kid, in the fifties we new about the Grosse Bertha, the gun shelling Paris in WW1 from over 100 km but never new about this gun and the other artillery (massive mortar) used in WW2. Could be that the war was so near in memory and I discovered it many decades after, on specialized publications. From Italy, the northeastern border.

@frontsightblade 4 жыл бұрын

Consistently great content

@LordFred69 5 жыл бұрын

excellent. Thank you for the video

@joaovitorsilvagohl682 4 жыл бұрын

for the objective that they where build for the would do great work. the magnot line costed more than the heavy gustav could ever cost so in a sense the machine was worth it

@redram5150 5 жыл бұрын

Ironic a seven-tonne shell needs the appellation “armor piercing”. One would think a shell of such size would pierce armor natually

@3-DtimeCosmology 5 жыл бұрын

Fascinating

@-__-_-_--__--_-__-_____--_-___ 4 жыл бұрын

"Lost to history" So heavy Gustav is still out there in parts

@Horizon344 5 жыл бұрын

The similarities between the German patterns of behaviour in WW1 & WW2 are quite startling. These 2 guns of WW2 were created for the same role as WW1's Big Berthas, used to break the Belgian forts in the 1914 invasion. Hitler just repeated the same game-plan that had been used in WW1, with the same outcome, in the same timescale. He must have thought he was on to a winner when England lost France & Italy from the alliance at the start, but their loss was canceled out by Russian industrialization in the 1920-30's & the USA taking the field earlier than WW1.

@Lappmogel 5 жыл бұрын

It wasn't the same at all, they used new strategies, tactics and weapons and because of that they won in the west in no time. Paratroopers taking the Belgian forts extremely quick, tanks rolling through France in no time, better coordination between different arms etc. A totally different form of war. I would argue they did so well (in the beginning) of ww2 because they lost ww1. Germany lost the war, the top brass lost credibility and where canned and that paved the wave for new fresh ideas and innovations. The allies (western) on the other hand was stuck preparing for the same old war again, with France basically building a giant elaborate trench along their border. Outcome wasn't the same either, Russia pulled out early and the western powers finished Germany. In ww2 it was basically the opposite, the only similarity being the US coming in at the end when it was all ready clear who was winning. The biggest irony in all of this is that it was the Germans who helped the communist get into power, sending Lenin into Russia just so he could stir up a revolution and destroy tsarist russia from within.

@nicomeier8098 5 жыл бұрын

Love our vids: always so accurate! BTW: the WW1 "Paris" guns were more a weapon of terror/fear then actually meant to do a lot of damage. Still: I believe that over 90% of the shells fired hit their designated target, quite an accomplishment.

@yak141freestyle2 4 жыл бұрын

30min reload is insanity

@MortenCbr 5 жыл бұрын

thank you for superb. videos! Make one about Hans ulric Rudel! stuka pilot!

@lynstoneham 5 жыл бұрын

So informative really interesting

@joekrebs964 4 жыл бұрын

Awesome I want one of these!

@Vvtism 4 жыл бұрын

A lot of junior enlisted German soldiers must have had tons of fun loading and maintaining this thing lol

@UpTheAnte1987 4 жыл бұрын

Imagine flying an allied fighter bomber and spotting this below. New target acquired

@lumpyfishgravy 4 жыл бұрын

Isn't it funny how two similar cultures - German and Japanese - could be obsessed by opposite aesthetics? Germany was quite clearly for BIG while in Japan small is beautiful.

@Bigsky1991 4 жыл бұрын

I had an example of the special Cannon crewman's uniform for a member of the Dora crew. They were very unique. I sold it years later to the Commander of the US Artillery school in Ft. Sill Oklahoma. It's the only known example in N. America, and certainly the only lightly worn, mint example.

@kevinkennedyquandt4440 5 жыл бұрын

Great video

@tasman006 5 жыл бұрын

Not only resources but the manpower to use this gun such a waste.

@salzkasten 5 жыл бұрын

One should not forget that second trench war was a possibility and in that case it would have been immensely useful to posses such artillery being able to shell supply depots behind the frontlines.

@twirlipofthemists3201 5 жыл бұрын

Immense yes, useful maybe no.