42 cm Gamma Mörser

The 42 cm Gamma Mörser was a powerful heavy howitzer, which was employed by the German Army in the First and Second World War. This 420-mm-caliber gun was used to attack heavily fortified enemy positions, such as concrete artillery emplacements, and to lay siege to a city. It was designed by Krupp, which produced a total of only 12 pieces. Also known as the Gamma Gerät, it was so heavy, that it had to be transported by rail in seven parts, which were put together on site just before combat action, requiring a large number of men that used gantries and cranes.

In the First World War, this heavy piece of siege artillery was used by the Germans to bomb the Belgian Army's fortifications at Liege, during the Battle of Liege, in 1914, and the French Verdun fortresses in 1916. In the Second World War, it was fielded to open breaches in the Maginot Line in June 1940, at the beginning of the Battle of France, and to bomb Sevastopol, in Crimea, in 1942. In 1914, there were five Gamma Mörsers; in the next couple of years, seven more 42-cm howitzers would be built.

The Gamma Gerät fired heavy, concrete-piercing shells to a maximum distance of 14 km. The rifled barrel had a life span of about 1000 shots. Redesigned in 1937, it was the heaviest high-angle howitzer of the Second World War. A lift and hydraulic loading ram were used to load the shell into the gun breech.

Specifications

Type: heavy siege howitzer

Caliber: 420 mm

Weight: 150 metric tons

Barrel Length: L/16 (6.7 m)

Breech: horizontal sliding block

Elevation: +43° to +75°

Traverse: 46°

Below, the Gamma Gerät already mounted in WW2.

The German 420-mm howitzer during the siege of Sevastopol.