The 60 cm Mörser Karl was a heavy piece of siege artillery employed by the Wehrmacht in World War II. Designed and developed by Rheinmetall between 1937 and 1940, it entered service in 1941, with a total of seven pieces being delivered to the German Army. Except for the last one, each one of them were baptized with names of the Germanic mythology: Wotan, Thor, Ziu, Loki, Odin, and Baldur. It was used in combat during the German attack on Brest-Litovsk in the 1941 Operation Barbarossa, during siege of Sevastopol in 1942, the siege of Leningrad in 1943, and the bombing of Warsaw to quell the Polish uprising of 1944.
Technical Characteristics
The 60 cm Mörser Karl was a 600 mm self-propelled howitzer. With a weight of 120 tons, it was mounted on a tracked chassis, which was powered by a 580 HP diesel engine. It was the heaviest German tracked vehicle, which crept along at 10 km per hour to the site of firing. For long distances, it was hauled by railroad train. To load it, the Karl Gerät, as it was also known, utilized a a heavy crane, which was mounted on the chassis of a Panzer IV tank. The monstrous barrel had 112 rifles, which were carefully inspected before and after each shot. The upper carriage had a double return for the barrel and the carriage, with the barrel and carriage having two counter recoil mechanisms.
Specifications
Type: self-propelled siege howitzer
Caliber: 600 mm
Weight: 120 tons
Barrel Length: 4.2 m (13 ft, 9 in)
Total Length: 11.15 m (36 ft, 7 in)
Recoil type: hydro-pneumatic
Breech: horizontal, sliding wedge
Elevation: +55° to +70°
Below, the 60 cm Morser Karl "Ziu" ready for action on the East Front in 1942.
The Karl Gerät at the moment of firing its 289-kg anti-bunker shell
Below, 60 cm Mörser "Thor" already set up for action in the Winter of 1943. It required a large number of soldiers to get it ready for action.
A German gun technician inspects the rifles of the Morser Karl gun barrel.
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