Download or read book 42cm Big Bertha and German Siege Artillery of World War I written by Marc Romanych and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-01-20 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early days of World War I, Germany unveiled a new weapon – the mobile 42cm (16.5 inch) M-Gerät howitzer. At the time, it was the largest artillery piece of its kind in the world and a closely guarded secret. When war broke out, two of the howitzers were rushed directly from the factory to Liege where they quickly destroyed two forts and compelled the fortress to surrender. After repeat performances at Namur, Maubeuge and Antwerp, German soldiers christened the howitzers 'Grosse' or 'Dicke Berta' (Fat or Big Bertha) after Bertha von Krupp, owner of the Krupp armament works that built the howitzers. The nickname was soon picked up by German press which triumphed the 42cm howitzers as Wunderwaffe (wonder weapons), and the legend of Big Bertha was born. This book details the design and development of German siege guns before and during World War I. Accompanying the text are many rare, never-before-published photographs of 'Big Bertha' and the other German siege guns. Colour illustrations depict the most important aspects of the German siege artillery.

Download or read book 42cm Big Bertha and German Siege Artillery of World War I written by Marc Romanych and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-01-20 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early days of World War I, Germany unveiled a new weapon – the mobile 42cm (16.5 inch) M-Gerät howitzer. At the time, it was the largest artillery piece of its kind in the world and a closely guarded secret. When war broke out, two of the howitzers were rushed directly from the factory to Liege where they quickly destroyed two forts and compelled the fortress to surrender. After repeat performances at Namur, Maubeuge and Antwerp, German soldiers christened the howitzers 'Grosse' or 'Dicke Berta' (Fat or Big Bertha) after Bertha von Krupp, owner of the Krupp armament works that built the howitzers. The nickname was soon picked up by German press which triumphed the 42cm howitzers as Wunderwaffe (wonder weapons), and the legend of Big Bertha was born. This book details the design and development of German siege guns before and during World War I. Accompanying the text are many rare, never-before-published photographs of 'Big Bertha' and the other German siege guns. Colour illustrations depict the most important aspects of the German siege artillery.

Download or read book 42cm Big Bertha and German Siege Artillery of World War I written by Marc Romanych and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-01-20 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early days of World War I, Germany unveiled a new weapon – the mobile 42cm (16.5 inch) M-Gerät howitzer. At the time, it was the largest artillery piece of its kind in the world and a closely guarded secret. When war broke out, two of the howitzers were rushed directly from the factory to Liege where they quickly destroyed two forts and compelled the fortress to surrender. After repeat performances at Namur, Maubeuge and Antwerp, German soldiers christened the howitzers 'Grosse' or 'Dicke Berta' (Fat or Big Bertha) after Bertha von Krupp, owner of the Krupp armament works that built the howitzers. The nickname was soon picked up by German press which triumphed the 42cm howitzers as Wunderwaffe (wonder weapons), and the legend of Big Bertha was born. This book details the design and development of German siege guns before and during World War I. Accompanying the text are many rare, never-before-published photographs of 'Big Bertha' and the other German siege guns. Colour illustrations depict the most important aspects of the German siege artillery.

Download or read book World War II German Super Heavy Siege Guns written by Marc Romanych and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-07-23 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the outbreak of World War II approached, Nazi Germany ordered artillery manufacturers Krupp and Rheimetall-Borsig to build several super-heavy siege guns, vital to smash through French and Belgian fortresses that stood in the way of the Blitzkrieg. These 'secret weapons' were much larger than the siege artillery of World War I and included the largest artillery piece of the war, the massive 80cm railway gun 'schwere Gustav' (Heavy Gustav). However, these complex and massive artillery pieces required years to build and test and, as war drew near, the German High Command hastily brought several WWI-era heavy artillery pieces back into service and then purchased, and later confiscated, a large number of Czech Skoda mortars. The new super siege guns began entering service in time for the invasion of Russia, notably participating in the attack on the fortress of Brest-Litovsk. The highpoint for the siege artillery was the siege of Sevastopol in the summer of 1942, which saw the largest concentration of siege guns in the war. Afterwards, when Germany was on the defensive in the second half of 1943, the utility of the guns was greatly diminished, and they were employed in a piecemeal and sporadic fashion on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. In total, the German Army used some 50 siege guns during World War II, far more than the thirty-five it had during World War I. Supported by contemporary photographs and detailed artwork of the guns and their components, this is an essential guide to these guns, exploring their history, development, and deployment in stunning detail.

Download or read book German Artillery written by Wolfgang Fleischer and published by Fact File. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Each weapon is presented with a short description, images and a reference table of key technical data, supplemented by colour drawings."--Back cover

Download or read book World War I Artillery of Germany written by Source Wikipedia and published by University-Press.org. This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 24. Chapters: Amiens Gun, Big Bertha, Paris Gun, 28 cm SK L/40 "Bruno," 38 cm SK L/45 "Max," 24 cm SK L/40 "Theodor Karl," 21 cm SK "Peter Adalbert," 17 cm SK L/40 i.R.L. auf Eisenbahnwagen, 28 cm K L/40 "Kurfurst," 42 cm Gamma Morser, 10 cm K 17, Fahrpanzer, 24 cm SK L/30 "Theodor Otto," 15 cm sFH 13, 7.7 cm FK 96 n.A., 21 cm Morser 16, 7.7 cm FK 16, 15 cm SK "Nathan," 15 cm Kanone 16, 15 cm L/40 Feldkanone i.R., 7.62 cm Infanteriegeschutz L/16.5, 10.5 cm leFH 16, 21 cm Morser 10, 10.5 cm Feldhaubitze 98/09, 28 cm Haubitze L/12, 10 cm K 14, 13.5 cm K 09, 10 cm K 04, 7.7 cm Infanteriegeschutz L/20, 15 cm sFH 02, 7.7 cm Infanteriegeschutz L/27, 7.7 cm Kanone in Haubitzelafette. Excerpt: The Amiens Gun is a German 28 centimetres (11 in) gun captured by the Australian Imperial Force during World War I and returned to Australia as a war trophy. The gun was placed on public display on 26 March, 1920 in a position adjacent to the Central Railway Station. While the gun's carriage was scrapped during the 1960s, the gun barrel remains on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. The Gun in position outside Sydney's Central Station after the Unveiling Ceremony on 26 March 1920The ceremony of unveiling was performed before cheering thousands by Major-General Lee, State Commandant. Also present were Major-General Sir Charles Rosenthal, Brigadier-General Cox, C.B., Colonel Kingdon, Colonel Brughe, Q.M.G., Captain Soane, A.D.C, Mr. R. T. Ball, Minister for Works, Mr. James Fraser, C.M.G., Chief Railway Commissioner, and many Railway officers. Major-General Lee, in addressing the gathering, complimented all concerned in the unloading and reassembling of the gun. General Sir C. Rosenthal, speaking of the capture of the gun by the 31st Battalion of the 8th Brigade of the 5th Division, jocularly remarked that as it was a Victorian...

Download or read book Railway Guns of World War I written by Marc Romanych and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-24 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War I was the Golden Age of the railway gun. Even though at the start of the conflict none of the armies possessed any railway artillery pieces and the very idea was comparatively new, more railway guns were used during this war than in any other conflict. Designed to break the stalemate of trench warfare, the first railway guns were simple, improvised designs made by mounting surplus coastal defence, fortress, and naval guns onto existing commercial railway carriages. As the war dragged on, railway artillery development shifted to longer range guns that could shell targets deep behind enemy lines. This change of role brought much larger and more sophisticated guns often manufactured by mounting long-barrel naval guns to specially-designed railway carriages. This book details the design and development of railway guns during World War I from the very first basic designs to massive purpose built "monster" railway guns. Accompanying the text are many rare, never-before-published, photographs and colour illustrations depicting how these weapons were used during World War I.

Download or read book Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire During the Great War 1914 1920 written by and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-22 with total page 946 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1922 in a very limited edition, this mammoth work is the most comprehensive, single-volume record of the nation's commitment in the first total war in British history. Until August 1914, wars, as far as Great Britain was concerned, had been the business of the regular armed forces, supplemented by eager volunteers, motivated by patriotism and a sense of adventure. They had marched away behind the bands, with the Colours flying and the enthusiastic cheers of onlookers ringing in their ears. Apart from the families of the men doing the fighting, however, war had little effect on the wider population. In August 1914 most people expected the war to follow this previous pattern: the surge of patriotism, the Mafeking-style jingoism, the rush of volunteers eager to get to the fighting before it was all over. But within a couple of months, when the casualty lists of then First Battle of Ypres began to appear, the mood began to change, as people perceived the true nature of modern war. The record of this response is made clear in the monthly and annual statistical returns displayed in this volume. The scope of 'Statistics' is hugely impressive. It is divided into thirty-two parts, each dealing with a different aspect of the war effort - personnel, animals and materiel - under separate section headings, with the detail presented in clear, tabular form, frequently accompanied by a narrative of events or commentary. The wealth of detail displayed is formidable. For example, the 200-page part dealing with Strength of the Forces has tables showing monthly recruiting figures, strength returns by theatres, returns of Labour and Native personnel serving abroad, growth of individual Arms of the Service (infantry, artillery, cavalry etc.) and tables of consolidated figures. Casualty lists include those incurred in hospital ships, with individual ship details, and there are also figures for major offensives, such as the Somme, Arras, Passchendaele, Cambrai etc. Other parts deal with discipline - courts martial, crime and punishment statistics; consolidated list of honours and awards; texts of armistices; munitions production and expenditure, including the cost of certain bombardments during major battles. There is a fifty-page outline diary of the main events in the various Theatres of War and, under a separate heading, a diary of the air raids over the UK and coastal bombardments with resulting casualties.

Download or read book Breaking the Fortress Line 1914 written by Clayton Donnell and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-10-17 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Breaking the Fortress Line 1914 offers a fascinating new perspective on the German offensive against France and Belgium in 1914. In graphic detail it describes the intense fighting that took place around the forts and fortified cities that stood in the path of the German invasion. The ordeal began with the German assault on the mighty fortress of Lige. They took twelve days to batter their way through the 'Gateway to Belgium', losing thousands of men in repeated frontal assaults, and they had to bring up the heaviest siege artillery ever used to destroy the defences.This is the epic struggle that Clayton Donnell depicts in this compelling account of a neglected aspect of the battles that followed the outbreak of the Great War. Not only does he reconstruct the German attack on the strongpoints they encountered along the entire invasion line, but he traces the history and design of these fixed defences and analyses the massive military building programmes undertaken by the French, the Germans and the Belgians between 1871 and 1914. Thousands of huge forts, infantry strongpoints, bunkers, casemates and shelters were dug out along the French and German borders. The German Moselstellung and Steinbruch-stellung were born. These massive concrete fortress systems with steel gun turrets and diesel motors to generate electricity were a completely new concept of fortress design.As war approached, France and Germany devised plans to overcome each other's powerful armies and these border defences. The French plan avoided contact with the German fortress system. But the Kaiser's army faced twelve forts at Lige, nine more at Namur, and then the strongpoints of the first and second Sr de Rivires lines. Clayton Donnell provides a gripping narrative of the violent confrontation that followed.

Download or read book Ten Days in August written by Terence Zuber and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In August 1914 the German main attack was conducted by the 2nd Army. It had the missions of taking the vital fortresses of Liège and Namur, and then defeating the Anglo-French-Belgian forces in the open plains of northern Belgium.The German attack on the Belgian fortress at Liège from 5 to 16 August 1914 had tremendous political and military importance. Nevertheless, there has never been a complete account of the siege of Liège. The German and Belgian sources are fragmentary and biased. The short descriptions in English are general, use a few Belgian sources, and are filled with inaccuracies. Making professional military use of both German and Belgian sources, this book for the first time describes and evaluates the construction of the fortress, its military purpose, the German plan, and the conduct of the German attack on the night of 5-6 August. Previous accounts emphasize the importance of the huge German “Big Bertha” cannon, to the virtual exclusion of everything else: the Siege of Liège shows that the effect of this gun was a myth, and shows how the Germans really took the fortress. This is how the whole bloody mess started.

Download or read book Railway Guns of World War II written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-25 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War II marked the zenith of railway gun development. Although many of the railway guns deployed at the start of the conflict were of World War I vintage, Germany's ambitious development programme saw the introduction of a number of new classes, including the world's largest, the 80cm-calibre Schwerer Gustav and Schwerer Dora guns, which weighed in at 1,350 tons and fired a huge 7-ton shell. This book provides an overview of the types of railway guns in service during World War II, with a special focus on the German railway artillery used in France, Italy and on the Eastern Front, and analyzes why railway guns largely disappeared from use following the end of the war.

Download or read book The Forts of the Meuse in World War I written by Clayton Donnell and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2007-02-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On October 29, 1891, the new forts built around the cities of Li_ge and Namur, known as the "Forts of the Meuse," were turned over to the Belgian Army. The huge project, which had begun in 1888 and cost 71.6 million Belgian Francs, required over 9,000 workers to complete. It produced 21 modern forts that could defend the strategic rail, river, and road arteries passing through narrow gaps to the flat, open plains of Flanders. The Forts of the Meuse were the creation of General Brialmont, one of the foremost military engineers of his time. The development of new and more powerful artillery meant that Brialmont's forts were made of concrete, featuring underground barracks, storerooms, and guns protected in revolving steel turrets. In August 1914, the German Army attempted a quick crossing of this area in order to reach France, but it took them 12 days to destroy the fortresses, with the 30,000 Belgian troops putting up a valiant fight. Containing maps, diagrams, and photographs taken from private collections, this book explores the design, development, and influence of the "Forts of the Meuse," and highlights the importance of their role during the opening battle of World War I.

Download or read book British Artillery 1914 19 written by Dale Clarke and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-09-20 with total page 83 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1914 the artillery of Britain's 'Field Army' encompassed those weapons judged to have sufficient mobility to keep up with troops in the field. This book describes all major variants, from the 60-pdr guns of the heavy field batteries, perched somewhat uncomfortably on the cusp between field artillery and siege artillery, to the 2.75in. guns of the mountain batteries, almost toy-like in comparison. Between these two extremes lay the bulk of the artillery of the Field Army: the 13-pdr guns of the Royal Horse Artillery, and the 18-pdr guns and 4.5in. howitzers of the Royal Field Artillery batteries.

Download or read book Verdun 1916 written by H. W. Kaufmann and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-07-31 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wrapped in myth and distortion, the Battle of Verdun is one of the most enigmatic battles of the Great War, and the controversy continues a century later. Before the battle the Germans believed they had selected one of the strongest points in the French defences in the hope that, if they smashed through it, the French would collapse. But Verdun was actually a hollow shell since its forts were largely disarmed and the trench lines were incomplete. So why did the Germans fail to take Verdun? As well as seeking to answer this fundamental question, the authors of this perceptive new study reconsider other key aspects of the battle the German deployment of stormtroopers, the use of artillery and aircraft, how the French developed the idea of methodical battle which came to dominate their military thought after the war. They look too at how Verdun brought about a renaissance of fortress engineering that resulted in the creation of the Maginot Line and the other fortifications constructed in Europe before the Second World War.

Download or read book The Illustrated War News written by and published by . This book was released on 1917 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Superguns 1854 1991 written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-12-27 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last 150 years, gun designers have sought to transform warfare with artillery of superlative range and power, from William Armstrong's 19th-century “monster guns” to the latest research into hypersonic electro-magnetic railguns. Taking a case study approach, Superguns explains the technology and role of the finest monster weapons of each era. It looks at the 1918 “Wilhelm Gun,” designed to shell Paris from behind the German trenches; the World War II “V-3” gun built to bombard London across the Channel; the Cold War atomic cannons of the US and Soviet Union; and the story of Dr Gerald Bull's HARP program and the Iraqi “Supergun” he designed for Saddam Hussein. Illustrated throughout, this is an authoritative history of the greatest and most ambitious artillery pieces of all time.

Download or read book The Plan That Broke the World written by William D. O'Neil and published by William D. O'Neil. This book was released on 2014-03-11 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As July turned to August in 1914, all the Great Powers of Europe mobilized their armies and then went to war with one another. It would take more than 50 months for peace to return, and the better part of a century to heal many of the wounds. Germany acted only near the end of a chain of actions by other nations, but German troops moved first and set the pattern for the war. They smashed through neutral Belgium before thrusting deeply into France, coming close to knocking France out of the war, and soon were making huge inroads in Russia as well. It was a remarkable performance for an army outnumbered by its foes. Yet four years later the German Empire was swept away, its army a shell, its people starving, its government in chaos. How did the leaders of Imperial Germany come to make the decisions that committed their nation to an all-or-nothing war based on a highly risky strategy? This book explores the background of the decisions, what those who made them knew and thought, what they failed to look at and why. It explains the Prussian Great General Staff (Großer Generalstab) and the part it played in planning and preparing for war. It follows the action of August and the first part of September 1914 to show where they went wrong and how other options could have achieved Germany’s aims with far lower risk and cost. These options were realistically available and the book probes why the nation’s leaders failed to consider or rejected them. The German leaders in 1914 weren’t Hitler. They valued security over conquest and didn’t go to war to expand their empire. They weren't the first to light the fuze that led to war. They thought and acted as leaders very often do. We can understand them in terms of patterns we see all around us, patterns we even see in ourselves. Their decisions had results that were uniquely catastrophic, but the way they were reached was quite ordinary. The Plan That Broke the World explains it all briefly and crisply, in non-technical terms, drawing on the latest research. There are 35 images, many unique to this book, to illustrate specific aspects of the story. Four charts and thirteen high-quality maps, all but one drawn especially for this book, present complex information in forms that are immediately understandable. There’s no other book like it. The book Web site is whatweretheythinking.williamdoneil.com/theplanthatbroketheworld The Plan That Broke the World is a case study in the What Were They Thinking? series. The series Web site is whatweretheythinking.williamdoneil.com/