To Spectator : Long Max-Big Bertha

Dear Spectator,

Another famous WW I myth that has to be killed. The Long Max gun was a 38 cm naval gun, known as the 38 cm S.K. L/45 B.Ger. These type of guns were made for the ships of the Baden/Bayern class, of which two ships were never completed, the Wurttemberg and the Sachsen. This class of ships had 8 of these guns on board, 4 turrets with two guns.
They were used at the Western front at places such as Zillisheim, Bredene, Klerken, Koekelare,...
The max. elevation was 55 degrees, they could fire 45 km and more, there were several types of grenades,detonators,...
Weight of 1 gun was 77,63 Tons, not 105 as some experts claim.
A number of these guns were used as railway guns or variations (the E and B Ger means Eisenbahn und Bettung Gerust).
Grenades varied from 750 kg to 400 kg and from 208 to 155 cm.
The Big Bertha is often refered to as the famous Paris gun, which is totally incorrect, as it was a 42 cm mortar gun, used f.e. by the Germans at the Antwerp attack in 1914. It had a very small range.
The Paris gun itself was nothing else than a 38 cm gun Long Max, with another gun barell in it and with the well known system Francotte mounted on it. The calibre varied from 21 till 24 cm it seems and every shell was little bit bigger then the one before, as the barell became wider and wider. The Paris gun is also known as the Wilhelm gun or Long Wilhelm.
The Long Max museum has one 38 cm grenade in its possesion and two others will arrive in the first two weeks. We also have a 38 cm shell of the type C/34 as used in WW II.

If any other questions on the topic, I will gladly answer them.

Regards,

Johan

Johan-Thank you for your gracious and informative response. I was told once by an old WWI vet that the Big Bertha was a railroad gun that had a tremendous range but actually fired a shell of a rather small calibre. I know various cannons can be adopted to multiple use as the German 88 was during the second war. Thanks again for clarifying this for me.

The Spectator