In World War 2 the Germans liked to build them big and the the 60cm Siege Mortar Karl was no exception, it could fire shells of 60cm in diameter that weight 2170kg. It could fire its lighter shells at targets 10km away!
Seven guns were built, six of which saw combat between 1941 and 1945. It was used in attacking the Soviet fortresses of Brest-Litovsk and Sevastopol, bombarded Polish resistance fighters in Warsaw, participated in the Battle of the Bulge, and was used to try to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge during the Battle of Remagen. Only one exists today; the others were scrapped after the war.
In March 1936 Rheinmetall made a proposal for a super-heavy howitzer to attack the Maginot Line. Their initial concept was for a weapon that would be transported by several tracked vehicles and assembled on site, but the lengthy preparation time drove them to change it to a self-propelled weapon in January 1937. Extensive driving trials took place in 1938 and 1939 using a tank prototype and a scale model to investigate the extremely high ground pressure and steering of such an enormous vehicle. Firing trials took place in June 1939, the full-scale driving trials were held in May 1940. General Karl Becker of the Artillery was involved in the development, from whom the huge weapon gained its nickname.
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