Hello everyone, I have an interesting question to put our artillery experts today:
If Big Bertha was built to give the Germans the firepower of a 30.5cm, yet have better mobility over the latter, why was it transported in 5 loads? this kind of defeats the purpose of better mobility, doesn't it? Anyways, the big question is, given the actual size of the gun fully assembled, could it be transported whole, like its little brother the 21cm Morser?
Regards, Josh
__________________
"General, you have nobly protected your forts. Keep your sword...to have crossed swords with you has been an honor, sir." General der Infantrie, Otto von Emmich
The predecessor of the 42cm M_Gerat "Bertha" was the 42cm Gamma-Gerat - this had an all up weight of 150 tons and required 10 railway wagons to transport it. The bedding and gun took several days to assemble. The M-Gerat was transportable on 5 special wagons and could be assembled in a fraction of the time it took to assemble a Gamma-Gerat.
The bedding was dispensed with and the M-Gerat relied on the wide wheels with Radgurtel (pedrail feet) for stability. It couldn't be towed assembled.
There was a successor to the 42cm M-Gerat - the 30.5cm Beta-M-Gerat deployed in 1918. The Germans also used Skoda morser of 30.5 and 42cm calibre.
The 21cm Morser usually wasn't towed assembled - there was a special wagon to carry the barrel and the carriage could be fitted with a pair of wheels under the trail for towing. (see the Landships II article on 21cm for images of 21cms being moved).
But Bussig built those Artillery tractors to haul the morsers in one piece, and, to be honest I've never heard of 30.5 cm howitzer in service with His Majesties foot artillery that must have been late war. Prototype or actually deployed? .
But anyways, so your saying that it was more mobile in comparison to the huge concrete emplacement used previously. That makes sense. I had completely forgot that had existed.
Regards, Josh
__________________
"General, you have nobly protected your forts. Keep your sword...to have crossed swords with you has been an honor, sir." General der Infantrie, Otto von Emmich
The German Army had the following 30,5cm howitzers in service: - 8 Beta Gerät (Küstenmörser) - 2 Beta 09 Gerät - 1 Beta 09 in Räderlafette (a study for the Dicke Berta)
The gun mentioned abobe is the 30,5cm schwere Kartaune (30,5cm Beta Gerät in M-Lafette). This one has nothing to do with the Beta Gerät. A Kartaune is a howitzer with the barrel length of a gun. It was placed in the carriage of the Dicke Berta, the M-Gerät.
Even if the German Army had tractors which could pull the weight of the Beta 09 iR, the Dicke Berta or the schwere Kartaune, I seriously doubt that their gun carriages would survive a move in one go... The Kartaune would also be unmovable in one go due to it's length...
In the french Review "Tank Zone" N° 6-August 2009, still available: -one paper on "Das Schwerste Flachfeuer" with 26 photographs of 28-cm, 30,5 cm and 42-cm german heavy mortars and their trucks.At least, one photograph of each mortar and often more, mostly photographs of my collection, 20 never published. -in the same N° 6, an article of François Vauvillier on the "Char FT", study and prototyps from 1916. Yours sincerely, Guy François.
there were 8 Skoda M11 305mm's in the German army, if I am correct. Two pictures of Austrian Skoda's, one showing a tractor. Might be an Austro Daimler but I am no expert on the matter, so please comment!
....just some minor clarifications; the M.11 batteries used to reduce Belgian fortifications in August 1914 were crewed by KuK personnel and on loan to the German Army. The M.11 could be set up and firing in less than 2 hours and was quite effective. The system was broken down into 3 basic loads. Each component was pulled by an Austro Daimler M.12 Zugmaschine. ( The M.17 was not introduced into servie until late in the war. )
There were four batteries (eight howitzers) of Skoda 30.5cm Model 11 howitzers from the Austro-Hungarian Army.The batteries were organized and employed as two half-battalions, each with two batteries - Halbbaons (half battalion) Krakau with Batteries 3 and 4 of Festungsartillerie-regiment 2 and Halbbaons Görz with Batteries 7 and 8 of Festungsartillerie-bataillon 8.The howitzers arrived too late for the siege of Liege, but were at Namur, Maubeuge, and Antwerp, as well as the battles for French fortifications at Givet and between Verdun and Toul.
yes, I think the image is cropped. I guess this is the 'final' stage, the gun moved for the last meters or may be before laying. An identical picture of combined man/horsepower. Cropped too, this time a piece of field artillery on the move I think. Poor horses or mules.
When did Bussig Build those heavy tractors to pull the 210s in one go?
I suppose they wouldn't have used them too close behind the front would they?
Greetings, Josh
__________________
"General, you have nobly protected your forts. Keep your sword...to have crossed swords with you has been an honor, sir." General der Infantrie, Otto von Emmich
perhaps I could reanimate this discussion by getting my own facts straight: when did Daimler come out with this model Tractor?
Greetings, Josh
__________________
"General, you have nobly protected your forts. Keep your sword...to have crossed swords with you has been an honor, sir." General der Infantrie, Otto von Emmich
