Paris Gun - Description

Description

The Paris Gun was a weapon like no other, but its capabilities are not known with certainty. This is due to the weapon's apparent total destruction by the Germans in the face of the Allied offensive. Figures stated for the weapon's size, range, and performance vary widely depending on the source — not even the number of shells fired is certain.

The gun was capable of hurling a 94 kilogram (210 lb) shell to a range of 130 kilometers (81 mi) and a maximum altitude of 40 kilometers (25 miles, 131,000 ft) — the greatest height reached by a human-made projectile until the first successful V-2 flight test in October 1942. At the start of its 170-second trajectory, each shell from the Paris Gun reached a speed of 1,600 meters per second (5,250 ft/s).

Seven barrels were constructed. They used worn–out 38 cm SK L/45 "Max" gun barrels that were fitted with an internal tube that reduced the caliber from 380 millimetres (15 in) to 210 millimetres (8 in). The tube was 30 metres (98 ft) long and projected 12.9 metres (42 ft) out of the end of the gun, so an extension was bolted to the old gun-muzzle to cover and reinforce the lining tube. A further, smooth–bore extension was attached to the end of this, giving a total barrel length of 36 metres (118 ft). This smooth section was intended to improve accuracy and reduce the dispersion of the shells, as it reduced the slight yaw a shell might have immediately after leaving the gun barrel, that is produced by the gun's rifling. The barrel was braced to counteract barrel droop due to its length and weight, and vibrations while firing; it was mounted on a special rail-transportable carriage and fired from a prepared, concrete emplacement with a turntable. The original breech of the old, 38cm gun did not require modification or reinforcement.

Since it was based on a naval weapon, the gun was manned by a crew of 80 Imperial Navy sailors under the command of Vice-Admiral Rogge, chief of the Ordnance branch of the Admiralty. It was surrounded by several batteries of standard army artillery to create a "noise-screen" chorus around the big gun so that it could not be located by French and British spotters.

The projectile reached so high that it was the first human-made object to reach the stratosphere. The historian Adam Hochschild put it this way: "It took about three minutes for each giant shell to cover the distance to the city, climbing to an altitude of 25 miles at the top of its trajectory. This was by far the highest point ever reached by a man-made object, so high that gunners, in calculating where the shells would land, had to take into account the rotation of the Earth. For the first time in warfare, deadly projectiles rained down on civilians from the stratosphere." This virtually eliminated drag from air resistance, allowing the shell to achieve a range of over 130 kilometres (81 mi). The Paris Gun was the largest gun built at the time, but it was surpassed by the Schwerer Gustav of World War 2, this fired shells up to 70 times heavier, but with only around half the muzzle velocity and less than one third the range.

The unfinished V-3 cannon would have been able to fire somewhat larger projectiles to a longer range, and with a substantially higher rate of fire. Likewise the unfinished Iraqi super gun would have been substantially bigger.