Paris Gun Wwi
One gun had burst while being fired and killed its own crew.
Paris gun wwi. Paris gun any of several long range cannon produced by the german arms manufacturer krupp in 1917 18 during world war i. Parisians entered the first world war 1914 1918 in august 1914 on a wave of patriotic fervor but within a few weeks paris was close to the front lines and bombarded by german aircraft and artillery. Five german long range weapons were used at the st. The paris gun german.
Originally designed for use on ships the long max was used as a railway gun. They were in service from march to august 1918. The guns were fabricated by. Paris geschütz pariser kanone was the name given to a type of german long range siege gun several of which were used to bombard paris during world war i they were in service from march to august 1918.
The guns were designed by the krupp factories under the direction of professor fritz. When the guns were first employed parisians believed they had been bombed by a high altitude zeppelin as the sound of neither an aeroplane nor a gun could be heard. Its 180kg powder charge could hurl a 120kg shell with 7kg of explosive to a range of 131km 81 miles. Yet none of the guns were ever found even after the armistice.
Referred to in germany as the pariser kanonen the wilhelmrohr wilhelm s barrel in reference to the kaiser or the wilhelm geschütz wilhelm s gun three such cannons were manufactured. The parisians endured food shortages rationing and an epidemic of influenza but morale remained high until near the end of the war with the departure of young men to the front lines women. Build a gun that could hit paris from where they were 75 miles away. And were the largest pieces of artillery used during the war by barrel length if not caliber and are considered to be superguns.
Though the paris gun had little impact on the outcome of world war i it was a high priority target for allied troops. The paris gun was a type of german long range siege gun several of which were used to bombard paris during world war i. The starting point for building a paris gun was the barrel of a long max one of the other large artillery pieces of the era. The paris region was intermittently under fire from long range guns from 23 march to 9 august 1918.
The paris gun of world war i called by the germans the kaiser wilhelm gun and as shown above often incorrectly termed lange max or big bertha two completely different guns was 34 meters long and weighed 125 tons. So they did what any german might do. When the germans wanted to shell paris during world war i they knew exactly what they were doing.