Karl-Gerät (040) 600mm Howitzer

CONTROLS: To Elevate The Gun, Press "ALT" And Hold "S" To Depress The Gun, Hold "W". To Fire The Missle Hold Down Right Mouse Button And Press "Enable Thruster". Before Firing Make Sure You Have Emergency Brakes On (Spacebar) To Engage). NOTE: "If The Rocket Would Not Leave The Breach When The Thruster Is Engaged, Elevate The Gun Up Slowly Until It Fires Off!"

DESCRIPTION: "Karl-Gerät" (040/041) (German literally "Karl-device"), also known as Mörser Karl, was a World War II German self-propelled siege mortar (Mörser) designed and built by Rheinmetall. Its heaviest munition was a 60 cm (24 in) diameter, 2,170 kg (4,780 lb) shell, and the range for its lightest shell of 1,250 kg (2,760 lb) was just over 10 km (6.2 mi). Each gun had to be accompanied by a crane, a heavy transport trailer, and several modified tanks to carry shells. Seven guns were built, six of which saw combat between 1941 and 1945. It was used in attacking the Soviet fortresses of Brest-Litovsk and Sevastopol, bombarded Polish resistance fighters in Warsaw, participated in the Battle of the Bulge, and was used to try to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge during the Battle of Remagen. One Karl-Gerät has survived and the remainder were scrapped after the war.

The 124-ton vehicle was propelled by a Daimler-Benz MB 503A 12-cylinder liquid-cooled gasoline engine or a Daimler-Benz MB 507C 12-cylinder liquid-cooled diesel engine, but this was mainly used for aiming (the mount had only 4 degrees of traverse on each side), as the engines provided a top speed of only 10 km/h (6.2 mph). For longer distances the Karl-Gerät was disassembled using a special 35 t (34 long tons; 39 short tons) mobile crane into seven loads. The chassis was loaded onto a six-axle Culemeyer-Strassenroller lowboy trailer. The other parts of the gun were lighter and used four-axle trailers. If the trailer with the chassis on board had to cross a bridge that couldn't carry their combined weight the chassis had to be off-loaded and driven across under its own power.[6] The weapon was moved long distances via rail on a variant of a Schnabel car; the whole chassis was hung between two huge pedestal-mounted swiveling arms fixed to five-axle bogies.[7] When it reached its destination, the weapon was detached from its supporting arms, driven to its intended firing location, then the chassis was lowered to the ground by lowering the suspension on its continuous track units' roadwheels on each side to distribute the recoil forces more evenly in preparation for firing. The Karl-Gerät proved to have no problems moving over normal soil, but under no circumstances was it allowed to make turns on soft soil lest it throw a track. The chassis had to be backed into position to fire, which expedited movement to a new position, but the firing position had to be precisely leveled and the approach route prepared ahead of time to fill in soft spots and any ditches, etc.[8] It could only be loaded at zero elevation, so it had to be re-aimed between every shot.[7]

DEVELOPMENT: In March 1936 Rheinmetall made a proposal for a super-heavy howitzer to attack the Maginot Line. Their initial concept was for a weapon that would be transported by several tracked vehicles and assembled on site, but the lengthy preparation time drove them to change it to a self-propelled weapon in January 1937. Extensive driving trials took place in 1938 and 1939 using the first Neubaufahrzeug tank prototype and a scale model to investigate the extremely high ground pressure and steering of such an enormous vehicle. Firing trials took place in June 1939.[1] The full-scale driving trials were held at Unterlüss in May 1940. General Karl Becker of the Artillery was involved in the development, from whom the huge weapon gained its nickname.[2] In total, seven Karl-Geräte howitzers were manufactured. The first six had the nicknames "Adam" (later "Baldur"), "Eva" (later "Wotan"), "Thor", "Odin", "Loki", and "Ziu"; the seventh, the research and test weapon (Versuchs-Gerät), had no name. Delivery of the six production vehicles took place from November 1940 to August 1941.[3] In February 1941, discussions commenced concerning increasing the range of the weapon, and in May 1942, 54 cm (21 in) Gerät 041 barrels were ordered for the six vehicles. At a conference with Adolf Hitler in March 1943 it was stated that the first Gerät 041 would be delivered by June 1943, and the third, by mid-August. Only three of the Gerät 041 barrels were actually completed for mounting on Karl-Gerät Nr. I, IV and V,[4] although any vehicle could be converted to use the smaller weapon. Twenty-two Panzer IV Ausf. D, E and F chassis were modified with a superstructure capable of carrying four shells that replaced the turret and outfitted with a crane as Munitionsschlepper für Karl-Gerät ammunition transporters/loaders.[5] Two or three of these Munitionsschlepper were assigned to each weapon.

AMMUNITION: The original heavy 600 mm concrete-piercing shells (schwere Betongranate) made a crater up to 15 m (49 ft) wide and 5 m (16 ft) deep.[9] More range was desired and the light concrete-piercing shell (leichte Betongranate) 040 was introduced in 1942. Firing trials for the 54 cm shells were not completed until the end of 1944 and they were not used in combat before then. The original 600 mm heavy shell had no designation other than the name. The Gerät number was added for the newer shells.[10]