German Super Weapons

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The Imperial War Museum in London, there's a Jagdpanther there as-well, very close to the T-34. Great place, you should go there some time.

I will go there. Me and my wife are flying to London for a week next month. Going to check out that museum.

 

[Soren]

It's a great place Adler, very modern if one can say that considering all the old equipment it contains But no it's very well set up, with many of the tanks having been very skillfully cut up on their sides, allowing a great view of the interior. Really gives you a good feel of how it must have been working in one of those steel boxes. But tanks are far from the only things they've got there, it's pretty much everything, from uniforms, smallarms, cars, airplanes, tanks to artillery pieces, the lot.

You've probably already seen some parts of the museum from Discovery channel, they had a series of programmes with a lot of footage from inside the museum, but still far from all the places were shown and only a handful of the machines. So you're in for a great treat no doubt, but you might as-well expect to be there for a minimal of 2 hours or more, so I hope your wife likes history as much as you do

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

It's a great place Adler, very modern if one can say that considering all the old equipment it contains But no it's very well set up, with many of the tanks having been very skillfully cut up on their sides, allowing a great view of the interior. Really gives you a good feel of how it must have been working in one of those steel boxes. But tanks are far from the only things they've got there, it's pretty much everything, from uniforms, smallarms, cars, airplanes, tanks to artillery pieces, the lot.

You've probably already seen some parts of the museum from Discovery channel, they had a series of programmes with a lot of footage from inside the museum, but still far from all the places were shown and only a handful of the machines. So you're in for a great treat no doubt, but you might as-well expect to be there for a minimal of 2 hours or more, so I hope your wife likes history as much as you do

I am looking forward to it. I have been to London 2 times already, and have never made it to this museum. It is in our itinerary this time however!

 

[bigZ]

Anybody have more info on the V3 superguns?

http://www.vanderweel.info/atlantikwall/pictures/uk036b.jpg

The Germans knew how to waste money and resources better than any other nation during WWII.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The Germans knew how to waste money and resources better than any other nation during WWII.

I will certainly agree with you on that. While some of these "super" weapons may have been innovative or ahead of there time, I really feel that too many resources were wasted on these weapons that had no chance of changing the outcome of the war.

 

[Soren]

Well it's typical German; Perfectionists experimentalists beyond reason. That coupled with the Nazi ideology which emphasized a constant seek for grandeur, and you get 800mm railway guns!

 

[Colin1]

I will certainly agree with you on that. While some of these "super" weapons may have been innovative or ahead of there time, I really feel that too many resources were wasted on these weapons that had no chance of changing the outcome of the war.

Well
I wasn't going to comment but I really do agree
railway guns can't have been terribly decisive and certainly not very versatile - if you as the enemy have an idea where they're going to be needed and deployed then you almost certainly know how they're going to get there! A quick word to the local resistance and one massive track demolition upstream of the gun and a similar one downstream and it's pretty much fighter-bomber fodder.

I think these weapons of grandeur may have had their day in WWI

 

[Stitch]

Assuming it did
surely the mother of all anti-tank mines would render it extremely difficult to repair and reasonably easy to finish off with fighter bombers and probably even strategic bombing - it's certainly big enough.

What were they thinking of powering it with? Did Maybach have something on the drawing board too?

They were planning on using two (2) U-Boot motors to power the thing; however, it still would have been extremely slow.

 

[GrauGeist]

The Gustov was a good example of the ideas the German leadership had, versus the reality of current events.

The Gustov was conceived as a means to assault the maginot line, but Hitler grew impatient and went around the line by invading France's neighbors. Interesting to think of how history may have been affected if the Gustov had been finished in time for the assault on France. Perhaps Belgium and the other contries would have been left out of the conquest?

 

[imalko]

The Dora Heavy Gustav were both 800mm guns. The Gustav was used at Sevastapol and the Dora at Stalingrad.

Soren, are you sure that Dora was used at Stalingrad? I must say this is the first time I hear something like that. I thought that this kind of gun was used only at Sevastopol.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Dora was set up to be used against Stalingrad but she never fired any rounds on the city and was withdrawn with the German retreat.

Schwerer Gustav was used in the siege of Sevastapol

 

[GrauGeist]

Imalko, Dora was brought up to about 9 miles from Stalingrad in August of 1942, and was ready by September. It had to be withdrawn shortly after that though, because of the Soviet's move to encircle the city.

Gustav was deployed in several actions in the Crimea, being used to attack a number of Soviet forts and pounding Sevastopol. It was then deployed to Leningrad, but never used.

 

[imalko]

Thanks for the info guys! As I wrote, never heard about intended use of Dora at Stalingrad before. Well, this is great place to learn new things.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Imalko, Dora was brought up to about 9 miles from Stalingrad in August of 1942, and was ready by September. It had to be withdrawn shortly after that though, because of the Soviet's move to encircle the city.

Gustav was deployed in several actions in the Crimea, being used to attack a number of Soviet forts and pounding Sevastopol. It was then deployed to Leningrad, but never used.

You are correct. Like I said, Dora was never actually used at Stalingrad.

Being ready for use and being used are two different things.

 

[imalko]

Thats probably the reason why I never heard or read about it before....

 

[Soren]

I can't remember wether it was actually fired at Stalingrad or not, but it was certainly there. It was however hastily disassembled in fear of it being captured by the Russians in 42.