Figure 1.--German F�hrer Adolf Hitler after the fall of Franceproved to be one of the most effective weaoons in the Allied arsenal. This was the case in bith his strategic thinking and gis micro, tactical management of the Wehrmacht. He alsi made disaterous decisions as to weapontry. He delayed projects that could have changed the military situation, like jet aircafaft, and agave priority to weaoons that used enormous amounts of resources, but had virtually no impact on the War. One example among many was the huge Dora Gun. Here we see Hitler with his Armaments Minister, Albert Speer, admiring the Dora Gun in early-1942.

The Germans wasted enormous resources in building huge railway guns. This was a repeat of World war I when Germany as well as America and France deployed rail guns. The most famous was the German Big Bertha. The gun was named after Berth Krup had was used to bombard Paris. World war II saw both the British and Germans deploy rail guns along the Channel. They were, however not extensively use. The most important rail gun during the War was the enormous German Dora Gun. It was a massive 80 cm (31 in) Schwerer Gustav gun, the largest artillery piece ever to be used in combat. The size of the shells and the train crane cars needed to load it were unbelievable. In contast the largest American artillery was the 16 in gun used on battleships. The Japanese used 18 in guns in their superbattleships, Yanato and Musahi. The enormity of the Dora gun can thus be appreciated. Dora Gun was only used on the Eastern Front. It was most notably used in the seige of Sevasterpol in the final stage in the ballte for the Crimean Peninsulka (1942). Rail guns were not emplaced, but were basically similar to other smaller emplaced weapons because moving them was so difficult. Even so, the Dora Gun was one of Hitler's favorite weaons. Hitler loved giantism regardless of effectiveness. There were several examples of this in addition to the Dora Gun, including the Tiger Tank, battleships like Bismarck, and the V-3 Atlantic Wall gun, a type of emplaced artillery. The Dora Gun was never used in the west, beause by 1942 with the entry of America into the War, the Western Allies began gaining air superiority over the Channel and France. The Dora Gun could not be deployed in such circumstances. The Allies had no similare weapon. The Dora Gun was the final use of the rail gun in history. Like battleships in naval warfare, they were massive, expensive, and vulnerable to air attack. The Dora Gun was, however, not an effective use of resources. It required enormous resources and was difficult to move. After Germany lost air supperiority, the Dora gun was essentially a huge sitting duck. It could be found a targeted well before ir fired a single shell.

Created: 3:17 PM 7/3/2015
Last updated: 3:17 PM 7/3/2015