Paris Gun - Use in World War I

Use in World War I

The gun was fired from the forest of Coucy and the first shell landed at 7:18 a.m. on 21 March 1918 on the Quai de la Seine, the explosion being heard across the city. Shells continued to land at 15 minute intervals, with 21 counted on the first day. The initial assumption was these were bombs dropped from aircraft too high to be seen. But within a few hours, sufficient casing fragments had been collected to show that the explosions were the result of shells, not bombs. By the end of the day, military authorities were aware the shells were being fired from behind German lines by a new long-range gun, although there was initially wild press speculation on the origin of the shells. This included the theory they were being fired by German agents close by Paris, or even within the city itself so abandoned quarries close to the city were searched for a hidden gun. However, within days, the gun had been found by the French air reconnaissance aviator Didier Daurat.

The Paris gun emplacement was dug out of the north side of the wooded hill at Chateau Bellevue near Crépy, Aisne. The gun was mounted on heavy steel rails embedded in concrete, facing Paris. During World War I, the baron and his family were allowed to stay in the chateau with the Germans. Barracks and tunnels were dug underground.

The Paris gun was used to shell Paris at a range of 120 km (75 mi). The distance was so far that the Coriolis effect — the rotation of the Earth — was substantial enough to affect trajectory calculations. The gun was fired at an azimuth of 232 degrees (west-southwest) from Crépy-en-Laon, which was at a latitude of 49.5 degrees North.

In total, about 320 to 367 shells were fired, at a maximum rate of around 20 per day. The shells killed 250 people and wounded 620, and caused considerable damage to property. The worst incident was on 29 March 1918, when a single shell hit the roof of the St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church, collapsing the entire roof on to the congregation then hearing the Good Friday service. A total of 88 people were killed and 68 were wounded. That inspired Romain Rolland to write his novel Pierre et Luce.

The gun was taken back to Germany in August 1918 as Allied advances threatened its security. The gun was never captured by the Allies. It is believed that near the end of the war it was completely destroyed by the Germans. One spare mounting was captured by American troops near Château-Thierry, but the gun was never found; the construction plans seem to have been destroyed as well.

The Paris Gun holds a significant place in the history of astronautics, as its shells were the first man-made objects to reach the stratosphere. In the 1930s, the German Army became interested in rockets for long range artillery as a replacement for the Paris Gun—which was specifically banned under the Versailles Treaty.