Big Bertha (howitzer) - Surviving Examples and Replicas

Surviving Examples and Replicas

Two Big Berthas were captured at the end of the war. One was taken to the United States and evaluated at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. The gun was later placed on display at the United States Army Ordnance Museum, and scrapped in the 1950s. The fate of the other is unknown.

Claims that another Bertha survived on Krupp's proving ground at Meppen, and was used again in World War II in the Battle of Sevastopol, are based on a misconception. It was, in fact, a Gamma-Gerät howitzer, assembled at Meppen after World War I from parts scavenged by Krupp, and it went on to see action in World War II, along with the modern and even larger Mörser Karl and Schwerer Gustav.

A full-scale wooden model was built by Emil Cherubin in 1932. It was displayed in various places in Nazi Germany until 1939. It was also featured on a postcard. Cherubin had served with a Bertha battery during World War I. Afterwards, he turned his model-making talents to building wooden models for museums, theatres, and other displays. He also built 1/4-scale display models of Bertha and the Paris Gun.