When was big bertha built

Twelve were built and in the course of the war it is estimated that six were lost due to barrel failure. Ten of these were built and none survive today, although one was used by the Germans during WW2. The shell weighed lbs.

Due to excessive wear, the barrel only lasted for about 65 shots. Only one gun was ever deployed at a time, although bases were built for three, and one was destroyed by careless shell management. After the war Krupp-Essen reworked the Paris Gun into a railcar-mounted model called the 21 cm Kanone 12 in Eisenbahnlafette. Two of these were manufactured in and they were used in and to shell Kent in Southern England. At the start of the war they had nineteen of these and they loaned eight to the Germans to use alongside of the real Big Berthas on the Belgian and French forts.

Originally developed as a coastal defence howitzer the design of the gun was modified by Krupp so that it could be dismantled and moved by road for use inland. The purpose of the gun was to demolish concrete fortifications, firing ten of its one-ton shells in an hour. Its range was about 10 kilometres 6. With the destructive capabilities of such a huge weapon, the demolition of the historic medieval town of Ypres began.

On the death of Friedrich Alfred Krupp in his daughter, Bertha , had inherited the firm as the only child. She was the great-granddaughter of the firm's founder Friedrich Krupp The new howitzer was a road-mobile weapon mounted on a two-wheeled field type carriage of conventional, if massive, construction. The barrel was shorter than Gamma's by 4 calibres length, and reverted to the conventional Krupp sliding-wedge breech. With thinner walls, the barrel was of generally lighter construction than Gamma's and fired lighter shells of around kg.

Fully assembled it weighed 43 tons, much less than Gamma, and did not have to be emplaced in concrete. Special steel "mats" were developed, onto which the wheels were driven, with a steel aiming arc at the rear of the carriage that allowed limited traverse. This aiming arc was fitted with a massive "spade" that was buried in the ground and which helped anchor the weapon. Krupp and Daimler developed a tractor for the Bertha, though Podeus motorploughs were also used to tow the guns, which were broken down into five loads when on the road.

This German cm mortar shell fell on the Belgrade Fortress in the bombing of Belgrade, October , during Mackensen's offensive. It is now at the Belgrade Military Museum , Serbia. Bertha proved very effective against older constructions such as the Belgian forts designed in the s by Brialmont , destroying several in a few days.

The concrete used in the Belgian forts was of poor quality, however, and consisted of layers of concrete only, with no steel reinforcement.

Big Bertha gained a strong reputation on both sides of the lines due to its early impressive successes in smashing the forts at Liege. The German press went wild with enthusiasm and declared the Bertha a Wunderwaffe. Only Fort Vaux was severely damaged during this event, destroying the water storage and leading to the surrender of the fort. 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.

A full-scale wooden model was built by Emil Cherubin in It was displayed in various places in Nazi Germany until It was also featured on a postcard. Afterwards, he turned his model-making talents to building wooden models for museums, theatres, and other displays.