The Germans, learning of a weak point in the French lines of defense at the Ardennes Forest in Belgium, cut a quick swath through the Ardennes, crossed the Meuse River, and encircled a substantial allied force whose only chance for survival was to be evacuated from - you guessed it - Dunkirk. The gun was developed at Krupp in the 1930s at the. Maginot Line be damned and the Germans, rather than chip away at it, just decided to move up north and skirt around it, entering France through Belgium and the Netherlands. Schwerer Gustav (Dutch: Zware Gustaf), is a German extremely heavy railway gun with a caliber of 80 cm.

The French had built the Maginot line to prevent another German attack and partly in response to the increasing German rearmament which was contrary to the Treaty of Versailles signed after WWI. After the Fall of France Germany added 58 captured French guns to its inventory while Italy was given 19 French guns with many of these being captured by the Germans after the Italian capitulation. The original purpose for the creation of the Schwerer Gustav was to destroy the French Maginot line, a line of formidable fortifications encircling France to protect her from a German invasion. World War II saw the final use of the railway gun, with the massive 80 cm (31 in) Schwerer Gustav gun, the largest artillery piece to be used in combat, deployed by Nazi Germany. Even in the immediate years after World War I, armored trains carried raiding parties which. The shellsвЂ™ (caliber) were approximately 30вЂќ in diameter. The Heavy Gustav and the K-5s were the last hurrah for the railway gun and the train as a weapon of war. The base scale is 28mm with reduction down to 15mm recommended (75 for. Initially designed to be used against the French Maginot Line, the gun was not operational until late 1941. It weighed almost 1350 tons and could fire 7-ton projectiles up to a distance of 47 kilometers. The Schwerer Gustav - вЂњschwererвЂќ meaning вЂњlarge,вЂќ and вЂњGustavвЂќ for the name of the contract builder Gustav Krupp - weighed approximately 1,350 (short) tons! It could engage targets out to 43 kilometers with a variety of munitions including a seven-ton armor-piercing and a 5-ton high explosive warhead. Schwerer Gustav was the heaviest mobile artillery piece ever built and the largest caliber rifled weapon to ever be fired in battle.

Schwerer GustavвЂ™s armor-piercing shell weighs 7 tons and can strike a target out to 43 kilometers.

Gustav the railway gun