Today In History

I like more this one:



At the 8th of August 1941 the Messerschmitt ME163 had its first successful test flight with a rocket engine (in Peenemünde).



At the 2nd of October 1941 this type of airplane reached the phenomenal speed of 1003,67 km/h what is quite close to Mach1 (1.231 km/h).

So, this is something as a jet helicopter...? ^^

Summer 1942:
One of the world's largest cannon was used in a military intervention for the first time.



"Schwerer Gustav" also named "Dora Cannon" was built in the need for a special weapon to have a suitable super range cannon for the "Ligne Maginot".



From the ordered 3 cannons of this type only one actually had ever been used in combat, it was the battle of Sevastopol (Севастопольская оборона)



The cannon itself was a difficult challenge for maintaining its supplies; within 5 days all its ammunition inventory was depleted.

It was never used anymore after that in combat action.

"Dora-Ensemble"


The projectile in comparison to a T34 tank


Generally it was planned to move the third cannon to Normandy ("Langer Gustav", with some special modifications), to shoot across the English Channel, while "Schwerer Gustav" was planned to move for the battle of Leningrad. But this never happened, instead, the 2 existing cannons were blasted right before proceeding allied troops were able to lay their hands on them, the third never had been finished and was found partly in the remainings of the Krupp factories.



In the video you can also see another special cannon, "Mörser Karl", also especially developed for the "Ligne Maginot" (5 cannons from this type were built).

These artillery were designed in the same optic as the artillery of the WW1, ie a race for the mass and the calibre, as same optic as the huge panzer Maus was designed. Then after, the designers realized the giant difficulties of implementation of such machines and the quite relative profitability of this concept of huge weapons. With your permission, Morty, i complete your post by some quantified data from French Wiki, to seize well this aspect of things.

Mass: 1 350 tons
Basis: two parallel rails
Length / width / height: 42,976 m / 7,01 m / 11,6 m
Calibre: 800 mm
Length of the tube: 32,48 m
Maximal Élevation: between 48 ° and 65 ° (according to carriage)
Ammunitions
Dimension(Size) of shells: 0,8 x 3,75 m (variable length according to the type)
Anti-Blindage
Mass: 7,1 tons
Reach: 37 km
Penetration
Steel: 1 m
Reinforced concrete: 7 m
Concrete: 10 m
Earth: 30 m
Explosive
Mass: 4,8 tons
Reach: 45 km

Preparation of the ground: 3 to 6 weeks for 2 500 men
Time of assembling of the cannon: 54 hours for 250 men
Servants: 500 men
Observed rate of fire: 14 a day (or 2 per hour)
Life cycle of the bore of the cannon: approximately 300 shots

PS : In my opinion, this kind of things, born by the frenzy of gigantism of Hitler and its advisers, far from representing the modernity, showed on the opposite a come back of the strategic thought towards a medieval war concept of siege, contrary to very modern Blitzkrieg. The examples are many of this will of " the biggest, the heaviest, the fastest ": Bismarck battleship, Gustav cannon , Tiger 2 panzer... History showed the failure of this concept...

August 19, 1942


In Dieppe, Operation Jubilee , the allied first attempt of landing on occuped Europe, ended in a bloodbath for the Allies...

We can think that the sacrifice of the Canadian soldiers will not be vain and will provide precious intelligence for the further landings in WW2...

Well guys, maybe it's not the good forum here in History for speaking about that, but it's not very important.

I just read this on the local press here . Basically, if you're not familiar with French language, it say that "Several descendants' of the German Nazis, left on Monday of the place of the ancient camp of Auschwitz to cross Poland with several descendants of victims, in a " walking for the life " and against the anti-Semitism.

Right.

But in the same article, you can read this : "The participants will walk by taking turns by small groups between several extermination camps installed in Poland by Nazi Germany. They so want to apologize for what had made their grandparents (underscored by me) and break a kind of conspiracy of the silence on these acts in Germany ", declared one of the organizers, Zbigniew Judasz.

And there, i feel a bit disturbed, because in my opinion, these people aren't responsible about what their grandparents did, and thus why do they have to apologize for them ? There are still authentic nazi criminals who have never apologize...

Well, i know that it's a very hard topic, but here's what i'm feeling about it. You know, that make me think about this song by French singer Maxime le Forestier. The title is "Né quelque part" (Born somewhere)...