Ultimately the Maginot line was simply outflanked by the German Army rather than demolished. Forging and machining the massive barrel posed many difficult problems and the spring of 1940 came and went without the 80-cm gun being completed.

The manufacture of the cannon proved even harder than had been anticipated. The only stipulation being, that gun should be ready to demolish the Maginot Line defences by the spring of 1940. In early 1937 he was in a position to lay a set of drawings before Hitler, who approved, and consented to the allocation of 10 million Marks for the project. After Hitler had departed, Gustav Krupp decided to take a gamble, and set his design team to work on the 80-cm model. Krupp ( no doubt fully aware of the fate that had already befallen Hugo Junker) was keen to assure Hitler that, although the building of such a monster cannon was a difficult proposition, it could in fact be built. The proprietor, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen (1870-1950) was therefore quickly able to provide the Führer with a comprehensive answer based on the earlier calculations. Here the matter might have rested, except that in March 1936 Hitler paid a visit to the Krupp factory, and raised the same question. This the factory provided, partly as a propaganda stunt and partly as a design exercise. Krupp AG, a leading German steelworks and armaments manufacturer, were approached with a request to provide ballistic data for hypothetical guns of 70-cm, 80-cm, and 100-cm calibres. 80 cm Gustav Railway Gun Country of OriginĬontributor: Alan Chanter ww2dbaseThe gigantic 80-cm kanone known as 'Gustav' owed its origin to a 1935 Wehrmacht study into what would be needed to penetrate the thickness of concrete, being boasted of in French newspapers, in the newly completed Maginot Line.

Wreck the railway gun