Flak crew

Germany's "Vengeance" weapons were a curious collection.  A primitive flying bomb (the V-1), the world's first successful ballistic missile (the V-2), and the V-3, an "accelerator", multi-breech gun.  One thing they arguably had in common was that the resources expended on them was largely a waste, at least in terms of achieving any real strategic advantage to Germany late in the war.  The V-3, as it turned out, was probably the most wasteful of the lot.

The idea of an "accelerator gun" - a weapon in which the initial launching charge would be supplemented by timed or "sensitized" explosions from charges in supplementary breeches deployed along the length of a very long barrel to achieve very high muzzle velocity and range - had been knocking around among European military engineers for quite some time since the mid-19th century.  The Nazis (or at least Hitler, whose word counted) took up the idea.  Development of the weapon was beset by difficulties (including rapid "shooting out" of barrels, and at least one barrel burst).  This slowed, but did not stop the development programme.  Hitler's idea was to create a battery of V-3 superguns in a location that would permit them to inflict a heavy bombardment on London.  A site was located in the Pas de Calais, and huge investment took place in constructing the sloped ramps and enclosing and subsidiary bunkers.  The plan was to create a battery of 25 large-caliber V-3s (later to be expanded to 50), with London as a fixed target (it goes without saying that such large weapons could not be elevated or traversed).  However, construction delays and delays in development held this plan back; only two guns were deployed, and these never fired.  The site was eventually rendered unusable in early July, 1944 when it was bombed by 617 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, using Tallboy "earthquake" bunker-busting bombs.  Total write-off; total waste.

This was not quite the end of the V-3, however.  Two smaller caliber superguns were brought into use from within Germany, aimed at the city of ... Luxemburg, which had been liberated in September, 1944.  This was scarcely a critical strategic target - but, what the Hell.  The two V-3s (one of which is probably pictured here, given the steel supports known to have been used for these guns), fired something between 100 and 200 projectiles in the general direction of Luxembourg at a range of about 70 km, scoring perhaps 50 hits on the urban area and inflicting fairly minor casualties (mainly on civilians) and damage.  Bearing in mind that this was happening during the Battle of the Bulge, and when Germany was enduring severe shortages of war materiel (which forced the supergunners to adopt a somewhat improvised approach to ammunition and supplementary "accelerating" charges), This can be considered another expensive waste of effort and resources.  The remaining V-3 prototype and trial weapons, along with the two aimed at Luxembourg, were destroyed to avoid capture by the Allies.  Why they bothered I do not know.  

Not that the "supergun" idea entirely went away, even then.  Much more recently, the late and unlamented Saddam Hussein of Iraq conspired with corrupt British engineering firms and other shady elements to obtain lengths of barrel for the construction of a V-3 type weapon to be aimed at Israel, probably at Tel Aviv (the parts were supposed to be "water pipes" and such).  This plot was discovered by the Brits, causing a major political scandal.   What Saddam hoped to achieve (other than being bombed, or perhaps nuked, by the Israelis) is not clear.  Still, adopting this notion was worthy of the late Maddass.  Hard to believe that anybody else will try this technically feasible, but expensive and stupid idea ... but in this world, you never know ... Yours from a quarry, somewhere near Calais, JR.



Supergun - the V-3.

German artillerymen firing a 150 mm heavy field howitzer (15cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18, or sFH18).