Re: Paris Gun
- From: Peter Stickney <p_stickney@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:40:01 GMT
Pat Flannery wrote:
David Spain wrote:
'Tis of some note that the average shell velocity as reported in Pat's
article
of about 30 miles a minute, is about the same as the cruise velocity
of an SR71
at altitude on afterburners.
That would surely reduce the time of my commute...
You are going to need a 800 mm Dora/Gustav shell to get enough internal
room to ride around in though.
If you have no objection to flying over a shorter range though, try a
"Karl" shell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6rser_Karl
To save costs on making those shells, they were mainly made of cast
concrete on the later ones with metal driving bands on the exterior.
Then their was this monster made for the invasion of Japan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_David
What made "Little David" fun was the way it was loaded...you swung it
down horizontal, engaged the pre-cut rifling bands on the shell into the
rifling of the giant mortar's muzzle end, and then elevated it...while
listening to the strange sound of the shell rotating itself down the
interior of the barrel till it sat atop the propellant charge and was
ready to fire....over around half a minute's time.
"Little David" was actually an improvisation of an improvisation.
The Aberdeen Proving Grounds needed something to test Armor Piecing bombs
vs. various samples of armor plate. The bombs have to strike with various
velocities, so that things like the minimum altitude for a drop against a
particular target an be determined.
Just dropping them from an airplane wasn't sufficient - it depended too much
on the ability of the crew to match the test criteria, the small targets
were too small to reliably hit from altitude, and the whole shebang was
very dependant on weather.
The solution was "Little David" A big honkin' mortar that could launch a
saboted bomb at a precise velocity, and hit a 20'x 20' (6m x 6m) target
close by.
As we island-hopped toward Japan, we learned about the Japanese methods of
digging in, and using natural caves & such as the basis for fortifications.
It was deemed useful to have something that could drop a Big Honkin' Armor
Piercing projectile on these fortifications, so that we didn't need to keep
doing the dangerous and slow Grenade and Flame-Thrower assaults that were
pretty much the only things that worked. Somebody remembered Aberdeen's
Bomb Test Mortar, and a bit of work was done to make it semi-mobile.
You've got to admire the simplicity of the concept - but one wonders
about getting a whole set of bulldozers ready to go every time you
wanted to change its traverse aim and had to re-dig the hole it was
sitting in.
It sat on a rotating platform. The platform was dug in. That's not unusual
at all for heavy pieces. The American 8" Gun (Not Howitzer) and 240mm
Howitzer came with a clamshell crane and a set of bulldozers per battery (2
guns/battery) to dig the firing pits and assemble the weapons. (They broke
down into 3 units each for travelling.)
Certainly, the Japanese defenders could easily evacuate any troops
directly ahead of its firing line and watch it pummeling away at empty
ground. :-)
Actually, they couldn't. Experience had shown that, especially during the
daylight hours, we were able to keep the Japanese holed up in their
fortifications - only small groups could exfiltrate. The danger was from
the observation that these forts had, and the protected weapons - you
couldn't just bypass them without getting shot from behind by them.
They certainly weren't surrendering, so they had to be reduced.
As a way to reduce these forts, Little David makes good sense.
It didn't matter how long it took to emplace, or to load and fire. The Bad
Guys weren't going anywhere.
--
Pete Stickney
Any plan where you lose you hat is a bad plan
.
- References:
- Paris Gun
- From: Pat Flannery
- Re: Paris Gun
- From: David Spain
- Re: Paris Gun
- From: Pat Flannery
- Paris Gun
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