The biggest gun in the world - Dora

The biggest gun in the world was developed in the 1930s by Krupp for destroying large, heavily fortified targets. The shell «Dora» punched armor in the thickness of 1 m or 8-metre ferro-concrete overlapping.
In the beginning the supergun has received the name "Gustav", but the tradition of firm to give to the products female names it has appeared more strongly, and the invention has changed "sex".

Transported the super gun was with the help of several trains (all to 60 locomotives and wagons with the personnel in quantity some hundred persons).
Engineering preparation of district was conducted by 1,5 thousand workers and one thousand sappers of 4 weeks. As the equipment of the biggest gun «Dora» was delivered in 106 wagons by five trains, in a place of deployment of the weapon have constructed the whole switchyard.

Quantity of service personnel «Dora» - 4139 soldiers, officers and civilians. Among other things calculation tools include protection battalion, a transport battalion commandant, Field bakery, camouflage squadron, a field office mail and marching battalion… brothel with staff in 40 "workers".
Data about supergun application near Sevastopol are contradictory. In memoirs Manstein asserted, that «Dora» has let out on the Soviet fortress of 80 shells. The German gun was soon marked by the Soviet pilots who struck to its position serious blow and have damaged energytrain.

In the morning on June, 5th, 1942 two diesel locomotives with powerful capacity in 1050 horsepowers everyone have rolled out this construction in weight of 1350 tons on a fighting crescent position and have established to within centimetre. The first shot consisted of a shell 7088 kg, two powder charges on 465 kg everyone is powerful, sleeves 920 kg is powerful. The trunk lift has given it an eminence in 53 degrees.

Specially for updating of shooting a little at some distance from «Dora» the aerostat has been lifted in air. At a shot the service command hid in shelter for some hundred of metres. The shot caused effect of mini earthquake. The roar at combustion for 6 milliseconds from above 900 kg of gunpowder and pushing out of a 7-ton shell was simply monstrous - in the wagon for 3 kilometres, under the certificate of contemporaries-eyewitnesses, the dishware jumped up. Recoil pressed a railway line on 5 centimetres.

After a capture of Sevastopol "Dora" have sent under Leningrad, in station Tajtsy area. When operation on break of blockade of a city has begun, Germans hastily evacuated a supergun to Bavaria. In April, 1945 at approach of Americans, the biggest gun in the world have blown up.
The most exact estimation to this miracle of military technics was given by the chief of the Joint Staff of land forces of fascist Germany colonel general Frants Galder: «the Present work of art, however useless».