Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

Rundstedt couldn't help but wonder. "Your Highness, why don't we build this kind of super cannon?" With an 800mm caliber, the power of this cannon is exciting just to hear it.

Yannick smiled. "Because it's completely useless."

In 1934 in the original time and space, the Krupp Company received a request from the German Army Command. It was hoped that Krupp would design a heavy artillery that could destroy the fortresses on the Maginot Line. It would be best if one shot could penetrate 7 meters thick. Concrete bunkers or 1-meter-thick steel plates must be fired from a distance where enemy artillery cannot return fire.

After calculations, Krupp engineer Dr. Ehrlich Muller found that to meet this requirement, the artillery shell alone would weigh seven tons, have a caliber of approximately 800mm, a barrel length of at least 30 meters, and the entire equipment would cost nearly 1,000 Ton weight.

For it to be maneuverable, it would need to distribute its overall weight across two sets of rails. Generally speaking, railway guns can only adjust the shooting elevation angle. As for the left and right rotation angle, it depends on the curvature of the rail. The correction of the rotation angle can be completed by moving the gun carriage forward and backward.

In fact, the Gustav heavy artillery belongs to the category of heavy siege artillery/fortress artillery like the heavy artillery used by the Japanese army to attack Highland 203 in the Russo-Japanese War and the heavy artillery used by the German army to attack the Verdun Fortress in World War I.

The main combat mission of this kind of artillery is highly single. It is generally equipped with high-explosive warheads or full-caliber armor-piercing blasting warheads and is used to attack the defender's permanent fortifications, especially highly fortified fortresses or field fortification systems - in fact, this Artillery can also be used to attack populated areas (the German army once had this idea), but this idea was too crazy in the early stages of World War I when the meat grinder of the total war was not yet running at full speed. It was not implemented entirely because the cost-effectiveness was too low (the cost of firing the artillery and the shells was very high, and you just wanted to use it to bomb people).

The design goals of the Gustav cannon are very clear. It has two main targets. One is the Eben Aima Fortress in Belgium, and the other is the French Maginot Line. According to the requirements of the yellow plan, the probability of it being used for the Ebenemma Fortress is slightly higher. After all, the main attack direction initially determined by the German Army in 1939 was to attack from Belgium and the Netherlands along the old path of the Schlieffen Plan, with the battle line to the left. maneuver.

Although the Gustav cannon can theoretically destroy the fortress support points of the Maginot Line and ensure that the assault troops can break through the fire control zone between the fortresses, its breakthrough efficiency will be greatly affected, which is still an unacceptable result for the German army. . As for the later German army, they chose Manstein's sickening plan, and instead broke through the Ardennes Forest from the Sedan Gap, forced the crossing of the Meuse River, and then turned right, which required a higher attack speed for the German army (so much so that it was implemented in actual combat. The tank troops of the Central German Army were completely out of touch with the subsequent artillery support echelon attack, relying entirely on Stukas for ground fire support). They relied on railway movement, and their maneuvering speed was extremely slow. It took several days after deployment to fire a single Gusta. The giant cannon is even more useless - wherever this thing appears, it is equivalent to telling others, "This is the direction of my main attack." There is also the suddenness of the battle.

The only place where the Gustav cannon was used was in the offensive and defensive battle of Sevastopol when the German Army Group South eliminated the flank threat on the Crimean Peninsula. According to Manbulun, there was no such thing as a roundabout flanking attack in this battle. In other words, just from the front, knocking down a few fixed permanent fortresses in Sevastopol can shake the entire defense system of the Soviet Coastal Army.

Therefore, at this time, the German army pulled out the Gustav cannon. Anyway, there were only so many targets, so they slowly chewed them up. This was also the only time this kind of artillery was useful. Later, the pace of war became faster and faster. Armored attack and defense based on the continuous front became the main combat style. There was no chance for the Gustav artillery to play its role.

The German army encountered a very troublesome problem during the first assembly process of the Gustav cannon. Because the total mass of the gun was too heavy, it had to be transported by dozens of trains. During the assembly process, two sets of trains had to be used. Only rails can guarantee some mobility. Even so, after assembly, the Gustav cannon can only walk in a straight line. A slight slope will prevent it from moving, let alone passing bridges and other transportation facilities.

What is even more surprising is that assembling a Gustav cannon requires an army major general as the commander-in-chief. It took 350 people three days to assemble it after arriving at the transportation location. An additional 3,000 people were needed to lay special rails and organize air defense and security work. , and there is also an air helicopter cover brigade to follow, and more than 4,000 people are needed to complete a deployment.

Due to the excessive weight of the shells, the loading process is very slow. The maximum rate of fire of the artillery is only 3 rounds per hour. The usual shooting interval is 19-45 minutes. The barrel life of the artillery is only 100 rounds.

Simply put, this is a highly specialized weapon and equipment with a specific goal, special mission, and because of this, it was never used during the entire Second World War except for the offensive and defensive battle of Sevastopol; It can be described as a model of extremely low cost performance.

"And we have a ten-ton aerial bomb 'Grand Slam', which is far more practical than this 'super cannon', so why bother building such a useless thing."

After listening to Yannick's explanation, Rundstedt nodded thoughtfully. "What His Highness said is true, but what about the Finnish defense line? The Soviets have brought out such a super cannon, and the Finnish defense line may not be able to hold it."

"Isn't that just right? After fighting for so long, it's time to take a break." The Soviet-Finnish War in the original time and space was negotiated with the Soviet Union on March 7, 1940, through the mediation of Sweden. According to the Moscow Peace Agreement on March 12, 1940, Finland lost Karelia, including Finland's second largest city Vyborg, 10% of Finland's arable land, and 1/5 of its industrial output. 222,000 residents, accounting for 12% of Finland's total population, lost their homes and were deported. Finland also ceded the Rebach Peninsula in the Barents Sea, four islands in the Gulf of Finland, part of the Sara area, and leased the Hanko Peninsula to the Soviet Union as a naval base for 30 years. This agreement was very harsh for Finland. Just one year later, another war broke out with the Soviet Union with the support of Germany.

"When the Soviets see the power of this cannon, they might mass-produce it."

A Gustav cannon weighs 1,350 tons. If these were used as early tanks, four or five hundred of them would not be built? If the Soviet Union built ten giant cannons, wouldn't that mean they built four to five thousand fewer tanks?