siege-gun, used in Liege, manufactured in the factories of the largest German weapons industrialist Krupp, located in Essen. The gun was nicknamed "Big Bertha" - on behalf of the group leader's wife Gustav Krupp, but his official title was "Model L / 14 '. He threw mortar shell weight 820 kg (1808 pounds) at a distance of up to 12000 m, a path with elevation angle of up to 80 degrees and with a rate of approximately 10 rounds per hour.
Mortar "Big Bertha" – video
By the beginning of the war, Germany had six such mortars, they were transported either by rail, or on a wheeled platform. Apart from the purely military application, "Big Bertha" and played an important advocacy role, and its allies were very afraid. One such mortar survived until the beginning of World War II and participated in the siege of Sevastopol. In April 1915 g. mass of 92 German howitzers bombarded the Belgian city of Ypres and 420-mm "Big Bertha" waged a continuous fire from hiding in the nearby forest Utuls. British official "History of the First World War," writes, shells that ripped the air with noise, yzdavaemыm tramvaynыm wagon, racing on badly laid rails.
To construct a 420-mm cannon began to 1900 , based on the Krupp experiments with 350-mm guns. Eight years later, the German army ordered a larger version, ic 1912 year there was a 159-ton howitzer, consisting of five sections - for the possibility of its transportation by rail to an assembly plant. Later took a more practical 39-ton mortar, which could be used on the ground. That she was nicknamed "Big Bertha". Mobile version of the gun was transported in separate sections, using tractors "Daimler-Benz", calculation of 200 people needed six o'clock working hard to prepare the weapon for firing.
Photo gun "Big Bertha"
