Schwerer Gustav: It's a Really Big Gun

Or BFG.
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[@Earth1960]

Sure, a grown man could crawl inside a barrel that big but he'd have to be a person of the highest calibre.

[@WookieChef]

Nice.

[@carloantoniomartinelli5418]

Very funny, actually...and I mean it.

[@scumroyalsgaming]

Bada-bumm-bumm-tsssss

[@dustyhicks6591]

That's punny as hell! I was waiting on a 3rd pun from Simon, after he said the 2nd one was the last. Hopefully he will see it, after tending to his other channels lol

[@brkbtjunkie]

You son of a gun

[@davidperrier6149]

America- Dora the Explorer Germany - Dora the Destroyer

[@HereticalKitsune]

*Dora the Exploder

[@Rico-oz4ct]

*Dora the Zerstörer

[@Rico-oz4ct]

@Toughen Up, Fluffy yeah but it sounds worse lol

[@RC-14]

@latex glove It has nothing to do with nukes but ok...

[@jamesmeyers887]

God made people people made big guns and planes and what not to kill other people

[@TheKencoffee]

"I named it Dora because it is ear splitting and high maintenance!" ... "Yes I'll be sleeping on the couch." -Gustav

[@dukecraig2402]

Nowadays they'd call it Karen.

[@1337fraggzb00N]

US NAVY: We have a Railgun. German Reich: Das is neat. Now watch our RailWAY gun.

[@andyb1653]

Japan: We built a Bullet Train 1940s Germany: ..........is that some kind of joke?

[@historytank5673]

honestly, the germans should have taken it to the French coast put it on the Cala border build a quickly fortified turntable and use it to blow up important targets OR even better sue this gun to move gun an down the coast blowing up ships, vital military targets or to say hello to the brits (good thing they did not do that) They could be fired up to 29 miles and the distance between Cales and France is 21 miles. And the Germans had the channel islands, and they were only 14 miles away from England stick the gun in a fortified turntable, boom you can shoot 15 miles inland... Dam that's scary to think about

[@1337fraggzb00N]

@@historytank5673 the Germans already had some guns that were even able to hit London: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-3_cannon They did not work that good.

[@allangibson2408]

@@1337fraggzb00N The V3 did work - they were a little impaired by being hit with several ten ton bombs dropped by the British.

[@1337fraggzb00N]

@@allangibson2408 yes, they worked for a very short time and caused not much damage. The whole project was overestimated. Also even the bombing with Tallboys had not much effect because the whole system was deeply buried and reinforced with concrete. All in all it was just a waste of time for both sides.

[@anthonvanderneut]

Sounds like the ink-jet printer scam. You get the gun for free, but you have to buy the barrels from the manufacturer on a regular basis.

[@Ushio01]

All big guns had barrel wear the Iowa class had a barrel life of 300 rounds and WW2 naval battles often saw 50 shots per barrel.

[@Limrasson]

Yes it's similar but with less pain and mental anguish.

[@Hydrazine1000]

Actually it was tradition for Krupps at the time to build the first item for the military free of charge, so it could be put through its paces and see if the requirements were met. The second copy of the gun, named Dora, was bought, for 7 million Reichs Mark (an equivalent of about 25 million US$ in today's currency).

[@timbirch4999]

@@Ushio01 We know.

[@Celtopia]

hahahahahahaha yes spot on

[@JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

An incredible piece of engineering. Beyond that it was a complete waste of time, material, money and manpower.

[@edwardcardona717]

That's Nazi Germany's specialty with military weapons

[@AroAceGamer]

Like the Death Stars from Star Wars...

[@DeePal072]

The result of Krupp bribing 🤷‍♂️

[@magisterrleth3129]

Germans love their super-artillery. From opening WWI with the largest siege mortars in the world, to the Paris Gun, to this thing, they've got a history with these things.

[@alexb6821]

It was more for morale comraderie and propaganda

[@Kianoho]

KZbin channel: Exists. Simon Whistler: I'll host it.

[@willardSpirit]

NAZI's: The mega gun is highly impractical to move, operate and maintain. Let's build a even bigger one

[@Celtopia]

an

[@dx1450]

Meanwhile the Allies were dropping far more tons of bombs than Germany was shooting with these mega guns.

[@Dagrizzb]

"If we can't get the gun there, we will hit the target from here."

[@totallynotabot5880]

They simply need to build a gun that shoots from so far away it's out of the range of the planes

[@Dagrizzb]

@@totallynotabot5880 2 words....SPACE GUN! It's constantly in orbit, moving thousands of miles per hour. And can use that momentum to toss projectiles without combustion.

[@WhiteThunder121]

German Military: "Its terrible innefficient." Hitler: "So anyway i started blasting."

[@zoethegreatfish]

nice

[@mandpbeatsglock]

Well done!

[@robinsacht5667]

@snipe69 Historical Correct representation , WW2 German Invading Russia xD

[@afeeqvirus1]

Ratte Mause Elephaun

[@anoninunen]

G R O S S E S E I S E N

[@virginiaorganbuilder]

I am a pipe organ builder, and I thought I might suggest doing a video on pipe organs. The instrument is more than 2,000 years old, and large ones are surprisingly complex and interesting. The two largest organs in the world (Atlantic City Convention Center in New Jersey and Macy's -formerly Wanamaker's- department in Philadelphia) each have 30,000 or more pipes, and may be a good subject for one of your excellent videos. Love all of your channels!

[@vermilion7777]

The pronounciation of schwerer Gustav was actually quite good.

[@rickcales38]

My grandfather is the second from left holding his helmet in the picture showing the troops lined up on top. So naturally I’m quite fascinated with the cannon. Very interesting piece of history that had the potential to do so much more.

[@arthurdaffos1490]

But thankfully it didnt, i mean its a technological and engineering feet that was mindblowing at the time. But it was aimed to kill and destroy, but i get you dont mean no wrong by your statement

[@cyberpunkprussian]

"Who in the modern day doesn't love Scary Nazi War Machines?" Yep that's pretty much true.

[@theprogram863]

Arguably, even at the time that's true. The limited resources that might have bought them more infantry, tanks, artillery, and airplanes (and by that I mean not just money but also time, engineering talent, manufacturing infrastructure) were instead diverted into zany super-weapons that looked cool to politicians but were of limited value even if they had worked. Bad as they were, the Nazis would have been even more dangerous if they'd been just as evil but even slightly more sensible. The whole Nazi philosophy was that their system could create stuff like this: super-weapons that may not make sense in capitalist terms but which harnessed the power of a society guided by one vision... blah blah blah. Spoiler: it didn't work. For which we should be very thankful. So in a sense I'm glad that there were lunatic ideas like this, because they unknowingly hastened the Germans' defeat. And, hell, even the average ordinary German probably had a better life than they would have had if the Nazis had won the war.

[@caseylimbert266]

It's true, the Germans had all the best shit... if they had the resources to back it up, they'd have won for sure

[@BlueTeam-John-Fred-Linda-Kelly]

Including your units favorite, the mg-42.

[@xjunkxyrdxdog89]

@@theprogram863 I dont believe im about to "devils advocate" the nazis... To be fair, America did build a superweapon that essentially did "end" the war, so the idea of building a futuristic weapon instead of just putting resources into more traditional warfare wasnt totally flawed. They failed to produce a world changing weapon, but the same line of thinking *did* work for America.

[@harrymills2770]

@@caseylimbert266 : There are great advantages and disadvantages to top-down political economy. Western Civ is too top-down at the moment. Too easy for the few to cause mischief for the many. We became that way to oppose that way.

[@MichaelLouis13]

In English: Dora the Explorer In German: Dora the Exploder.

[@davidperrier6149]

Dora the Destroyer

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

@john smith >>> Ditto! 😄😄😄

[@Werrf1]

So in other words, it was like every other German mid- to late-war weapon: Highly ambitious, highly aggressive, highly specialised, and totally unsuited to the war it ended up fighting.

[@edwardcardona717]

It's what they were best at! Over-engineering and just throwing themselves at whatever they could think of. Was the Maus (Panzer VIII) ever going to legitimately work as a tank? No way. Did that stop the Germans? Never

[@Werrf1]

@@edwardcardona717 One needn't go all the way up to the Maus - even the Panzer VI, the Tiger tank, was the wrong weapon for the war. It was designed to be a breakthrough tank, to hit Russian fortified positions and break through them. It was designed for short, sharp actions, with plenty of time between engagements for maintenance and repairs. But that's not the kind of war Germany was fighting - they needed something simple and reliable that could quickly reposition instelf.

[@vonfaustien3957]

@@edwardcardona717 eh the maus was nothing compared to the Ratte it never got off the drawing board for obvious reasons but the plan was to make a tank with the main cannon from a heavy cruiser for the main gun it would have been 5 time heavy than the maus

[@ferky123]

Also upgrade your tanks every 5th one so that none of the parts can be used for the repairs of others.

[@robertnichols4833]

Hitler's meddling guaranteed failure regardless of the weapons available. As soon as they took on Russia without finishing off England first, it was all over but the fighting. Compounding that fatal error was Hitler's decision to get distracted with dicking around in Greece, which cost them months of delay before invading Russia in June 1941, causing the failure of that blitzkrieg, since it meant they ran out of good weather only a few weeks before they would have gotten to Moscow, if not stopped by Mother Russia's finest ally the Russian winter (see Napoleon).

[@peterwright4647]

The WW I German siege mortars were also terrifying weapons. 420mm with a much shorter range and smaller shell but they were much more mobile and wreaked havoc on Belgian and French forts. There were about a dozen built.

[@Tiberon098]

The second gun should be called “Dora the Destroyer.”

[@theofficialsikris]

Or Dora the Exploder.

[@atomicskull6405]

Pales in comparison to the M65 atomic cannon. It "only" had a range of 24 miles but it fired nuclear shells.

[@BackSlash711]

@@atomicskull6405 Eh That is just the ammunition. Could you imagine a 7ton nuke shell from gustav.

[@maisiesummers42]

@@BackSlash711 The Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki was about 5 tons (10,300 pounds). Considering the need to protect the workings from being damaged by the concussive blast that propels the shell, I'd say a 7 ton nuke at that time would be equivalent to Fat Man.

[@ericfoxprime]

"Dorothea der Zerstörer"

[@DeputatKaktus]

Fun fact: One part of the former Krupp plant in Essen, Germany is now a car park of a Ikea branch. It still has the iron girder and brick structure from back then. Another part of the Krupp plant now houses a music theatre. The headquarters of modern ThyssenKrupp are just a few minutes walking distance from there.

[@scottthewaterwarrior]

When thinking about rail guns I always remember that mission in the first Medal of Honor game where you had to sneak past enemy lines to blow one of them up.

[@MrHazzard12345]

So sad to know this monster just disappeared. Would have been incredible to see in person.

[@alt7488]

the models are 6 foot long ...apparently

[@bobkonradi1027]

There are some pics and videos of large scale models of Gustav and Dora floating around. We're talking about models that are 10-ft long so there's a lot of detail. So me model maker companies produce plastic and wood models of it, though it might take some searching to come up with one these days.

[@driftertank]

Would have liked to see Simon's reaction to Gustav's most impressive attack at Sevastopol; the ammunition magazine sited under Severnaya Bay, 30m below sea level, with at least 10m of concrete protecting it. So, the shells fell through the water, through the bedrock, and through more than 2 stories worth of solid concrete and blew up the ammunition magazine.

[@sophiam2095]

THat ammo dump was UNDER the bay? Oh my God that is SO COOL!

[@philhatfield2282]

Yep, and it also damaged a frigate that was in the bay at the time.

[@Vlad_-_-_]

Still not nearly enough to worth so much resources wasted and so much manpower. If that is ALL it did and that is all it did, that cannon was a failure. And it was.

[@ric84]

@@Vlad_-_-_ But it's so fucking cool tho.

[@archwaldo]

Credits to the guy that figured out 800mm was the magic number.

[@steins-bricks4957]

"I've got other channels..." well thats a bit of an uderstatement isn't it

[@thedarkdragon1437]

he still needs another blaze channel where he can blaze about anything, not just business ;)

[@ChristophersMum]

@Internet Police ...''Highlight History''

[@thedarkdragon1437]

@Internet Police Ebery channel?

[@EvanRustMakes]

***allegedly***

[@avakining]

@TheDark Dragon That’s just business blaze though… half the videos there aren’t business related :p

[@alexandraa8683]

Simon's surprise at how far the ordinance travels is just further proof that he never reads the scripts ahead of time lmao

[@jeffagain7516]

The best book I've ever read on the incredible guns the Krupp industry built is simply titled "The Arms Of Krupp" by William Manchester (who also wrote "American Caesar" on McArthur). It details the entire family history of the Krupps (and their weapons of course) dating back to prior to the Franco-Prussian war of 1871. Highly recommended!

[@ChiefMiddleFinger]

General Hoffenbrau: Private Hans, you've been selected to be the first person to fire a new gun. Private Hans: Yes Sir ! General Hoffenbrau: We will just stand at the observation platform about "a mile behind you" and will radio the command to fire.

[@AColonelPanic]

Don't play dumb, you're not as good as I am 🤣

[@paulmustermann7068]

Everybody gangsta until the Land Cruiser shows up.

[@phalanx3803]

Land Cruiser > every other 4x4.

[@rommelcorbito808]

P1000 Landcruiser Ratte

[@fenriders7008]

The Ratte wouldn’t have ever made it to a battlefield. Roads couldn’t support it properly, bridges were a no-go and it was far too large for rail. Allied CAS Pilots would’ve been living the dream with a target that size. Hell it was to have been so large and slow strategic bombers would have had a fair shot of hitting it and no matter how thick its armour once a single tall boy or grand slam hit it it was toast.

[@JohnFrumFromAmerica]

Land Cruiser crew would be gangsta for about 5 min until tactical bombers show up.

[@djnigellove]

Lada [laughs in off road Russian]

[@GR1MRACER]

War Thunder : "WRITE THAT DOWN WRITE THAT DOWN!"

[@ThewhYChannel999]

Schwerer Gustav: It’s a really big gun Every sixty seconds in Africa, a minute passes.

[@freakingknoght-7450]

Business Blaze's Simon is slowly melting into MegaProject's Simon.... That is Awesome

[@mandpbeatsglock]

It's making it better!

[@metalmatt3431]

Dunno about that, I like my Simon Whistler in Biographics etc. mode...

[@DemitriVladMaximov]

Why do I get the feeling that a WW2 era Transformers comic that this would be Megatron's altform?

[@oqsy]

Unless it was made in Germany. Then it would be Optimus Prime. 😎

[@chrissmith3587]

I like to think that the pre war transformers just got distracted and stayed in vehicle form, and thats how we got Thomas the tank engine

[@Smellbringer]

No, but it would probably be Trypticon's arm cannon.

[@JabbaBricks]

7:28 Dora only shot 48 times at Sewastopol - not 300

[@lkrnpk]

German gunners: ''Ve can destroy ze Maginot line in 1 year's time'' In two months German infantry and tanks go around Maginot line and are in Paris ''Zay what?"

[@gimpytheimp]

When it came to Germany breaking the Maginot Line it came down to France relying on multiple factors: That Belgium would be mobilized to defend (as they agreed to be part of this defense pact with France) and that the forested area that made up a big chunk of it that no one could get through would stay that way thinking tanks couldn't get through it because they couldn't in WW1. The French never bothered to think that tanks would evolve to become a lot better than they were and the German tanks just went through the forest, essentially unopposed. German tanks were also using radio to communicate while everyone else was still using guys with flags sticking our of their tanks to relay orders, so they could react a lot quicker to enemy movements.

[@keraysun]

And also France didn't extend the Maginot Line (unlike Siegfried Line) all the way to the English Channel as heavily fortifying Belgian border would have indicated that France was not going to defend Belgium in case of an invasion.

[@theprogram863]

@@keraysun Exactly. That was the major reason. The French military wanted the Maginot line to extend that far, and that was the original plan. After all, the generals all remembered when this exact same thing happened in WW1. But the diplomatic corps disagreed and so the compromise was leaving that back door to central France open. The diplomats correctly assessed that France couldn't defeat Germany without the assistance of Great Britain. The British refused to make a firm alliance; they were hoping to resolve differences with the Germans peacefully and blamed alliances for WW1 breaking out. Also, they read the panicked French attempts in the 20s to restrain Germany as dangerous expansionism on FRANCE'S part (which sounds crazy to modern ears but before WW2 made plenty of historical sense). The big irony is that even a maginot line behind them would have helped protect the Belgians. The main strategic value of Belgium for Germany is that it's on the way to France. If you can't easily get to France through Belgium, then there's no point in invading it in the first place. There was talk about building the Maginot line in front of them, but the Belgians weren't willing to commit to that, so the proposal (and the Line) went nowhere. It's a recurring theme in the run-up to WW2: passionate ideology shouting down cold-blooded calculation, and everything the allies did to prevent the war just made it more inevitable and terrible.

[@Reddotzebra]

Not to mention that the French tanks were a bit lacking in the turret design area. Forcing the commander to multitask to a ludicrous degree whereas the Germans could delegate.

[@danielmocsny5066]

France also under-invested in its air force. An important element in early German success in World War II was the Stuka dive bomber. It was highly effective as "flying artillery" and as a psychological weapon with its screaming sirens but was a sitting duck when facing an enemy with state-of-the-art fighter aircraft and enough of them. France's investment in the Maginot line comes in for criticism, but it did the job it was built to do: it stopped the Germans from trying to invade directly across it. A probably bigger mistake was the French Navy, which ended up doing next to nothing for the war effort other than having to be scuttled after the surrender or sunk by the British to keep it out of Nazi hands. If France had abandoned the naval arms race and put those resources into building a real air force, what soon afterward became the (air) Battle of Britain might have been fought over France instead. In the event, the British weren't about to send aircraft to France that they needed to conserve for home defense, and the French didn't have enough airplanes to challenge the Luftwaffe. The general pattern in land warfare during WWII was that the side with the airpower advantage was usually advancing, and the side with less airpower was correspondingly retreating. The Germans and Japanese had the airpower advantage early and the Allies had it later.

[@hannesromhild8532]

Well the Germans DID come through the Ardennes in WW-1 and even quite a bit further then just that. Also do you think they just drove through an actual forest in ww-2? the Ardennes are a low mountainrange heavily forrested. The Germans used the only decent road to get past it not some offroad action.

[@akiramasashi9317]

France: "Nothing can get past the Maginot line!" German panzer divisions: **teleports behind them** "heh, nothing personnel kid"

[@ryanhampson673]

WW1 Germany: We’ll go through Belgium! France: Ok let’s build a line of forts on the border with Germany. ....Well they came through Belgium last time so how about across their border too? ...What?! Like they’d do the same thing twice!

[@gaiusjuliuspleaser]

@@ryanhampson673 That was the plan, though. Board up their border with Germany and force them to take the long way around. Belgian neutrality was a pretty glaring flaw in the plan, though.

[@Vulcano7965]

It however was indeed, very personal.

[@22Epic]

@@gaiusjuliuspleaser There are the Ardennes though, not as easy as simply "going around a wall"

[@deusexaethera]

The Maginot Line was extremely effective along the French-German border. France's downfall was trusting Belgium to put up a fight when Germany decided to circumvent the Maginot Line instead.

[@Lucustard359]

The “Verne Gun” or Space Guns would be a great video. Project Babylon and SHARP are both super interesting!

[@Sauron...]

I like that when he says Hitler for the first time a picture is shown as if we don't know who Hitler is.

[@CULatte]

1000 tons Naval Warships: am I a joke to you Laughs in 80cm Yamato: sad 46cm noises

[@Strothy2]

Don''t forget that the Germans seriously considered floating 500mm guns in 4x2 arrangement, that would have been bonkers

[@Brobu]

@@Strothy2 What ship would that be?

[@badhippo]

@@Brobu a fucking scary one.

[@MrPobanz]

@@Strothy2 They also had the genius plan to tow V2 rockets via U-Boot to the U.S. coast to bomb their cities.

[@giantred]

@@Strothy2 then the Russians get a 501mm because Russian Naval Bias #WorldOfWarships :P

[@geoffreyentwistle8176]

I'm surprised that there was no mention of the Lankreuzer "Ratte" - that insane idea for a tank with a naval main battery for a turret...

[@PaulMcElligott]

@Kung Fu Money Bee Nope. The Ratte was the P.1000, not the P.1500. The Monster was a different beast altogether, basically a Gustav on tank treads instead of rails.

[@simongeard4824]

​@@PaulMcElligott I suspect he's conflating the two, since he describes the P.1500 as a tank, not as an artillery gun...

[@ChakatBlackstar]

That would deserve a video of it's own, though it never got off the drawing board and many are now questioning how serious it was as a concept.

[@Bangcat]

Welcome to the Warhammer 40K: Imperium of Man Train Set. The Imperial Guard parade float is much like the army type. Large, expensive, very large cannons, and yet still remains stuck getting railed.

[@billyb4790]

4:31 I love the man in the front acting like he's pulling the gun all by himself LMAO

[@sirjammer]

"Who in the modern day doesn't love Scary Nazi War Machines?" ----Simon Whistler, 2020

[@nathanthomas8184]

My 3d printer can make a bigger ONE with a silencer, & use Menulog drivers 4 locations around the globe YOU JUST ASK IT COVID MAKES A CASKET

[@JohnFrumFromAmerica]

Except the more you read the more you realize most were a waste of resources

[@WilliamJones-Halibut-vq1fs]

JohnFrumFromAmerica The super guns actually destroyed a lot of targets. A 7100kg shell that could penetrate 100m into the ground in 1940 and demolish the Maginot line. Bombers couldn’t do the same till 1945. Ratte was never seriously considered but was no larger than modern earth moving machinary. The Elefant tank could be moved across any river to any location by rail. In small numbers it would work.

[@zenogias01]

@@WilliamJones-Halibut-vq1fs Or just building more bombers, fighters, and Pz 4s (or fix the transmission of the Leopard so that it doesn't fall about every hundred miles, or fix the Tiger so it doesn't keep catching fire), because at the end of the day US manufacturing was measure in bombers/hour, carriers/week, and tanks/minute, so a few bigass guns would be mean exactly jack and shit. Hell, I remember an anecdote saying something like how Shermans wanted better than two-to-one odds to take on a Tiger, which was fine because there were something like a thousand Shermans for every Tiger.

[@greenrena8503]

@@zenogias01 Eh, we never had a chance to out-produce the US or russians. We had to do quality! And retooling the lines in the middle of the war couldn't realy be done if you only have so many anyway. Of curse it's not so simple if you have a Führer who fucks half your projects up. For example: we had the first Jet figther who could have given us the full air control over europe. And what does the little painter do? "Put bombs on it to bomb london!" WTF!? The FASTES figther in the war. And he wanted to make it slow enought that prop planes could catch it with the bombs, of witch it could not carry enougth to bomb effective of course, and send it over england where it could shoot down and studied.

[@xandarch1043]

Nazis going around the Maginot line is a joke as old as literal going around the Maginot line, but what if I told you the very point of Maginot line WAS to make Germans go around it? It stopped at the Belgian border, where the French concentrated most of their troops freed from manning the area covered by ML. But Belgians declared neutrality and basically doomed this plan (French and Brit troops couldn't move into Belgium to meet the Germans, which gave Germans a massive head-start). Even so, ML basically did its job - made the Germans go around it and funnel them through the Benelux.

[@davidchicoine6949]

It was a joke since it consume half of the military budget of france yet did not prevent the downfall of france and belgium too had fortied line still tanks moved around them ..

[@jw2442]

And the "impenetrable" Arden forest. Not when Guderian was around.

[@BlooCollaGal]

I shall continue to "reverse advance"

[@jw2442]

@@c.jakobsen1335 Appeasement - a very temporary pain relieve. Although....at times...stuck between two rocks and a hard place.

[@eliminshrintar]

Why do people just make up shit? This is absolutely false in every regard. You wanna cite your research there?

[@stoneshrink]

So very true, "there is no problem that an even bigger gun cannot solve" even my wife agrees with this.

[@andrewallen9993]

The shells weighed less than a Lancasters bomb load and didnt have even 3% of the range but cost a lot more.

[@ChickenLiver911]

Thomas the tank engine’s best pal, Gustav the railgun.

[@sillypinkewe]

Glad to see you're okay.

[@Ronirvan]

I can only imagine the smile hidden by the gentlemen mustache of the soldier who shote this cannon. FEUER DIE KANONE!

[@tobetrayafriend]

Excellent comment sir!

[@benjamin112]

Lol 😂😂 80cm ego boost

[@KennethRivenes]

der kanon, good sir, as a matter of grammar :) A canon is off course a male article..

[@HaroldKuilman]

@@KennethRivenes then why name it Dora? 🤔

[@Skulgrimm]

@@KennethRivenes The article is to the problem it is correct in German canon is female. The problem is he forgot the "t". It should read: "FeuerT die Kanone!"

[@bobkonradi1027]

While neither of the big gun assemblies were recovered, the U.S. Army did find several shells for the weapons. There is/was one on display at the U.S. Army tank museum and firing range at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. I was in the area once on some company business and went over to the site and was able to check the round out. There was a large collection of tanks going back to WW1 and the interwar period. The army had a German 10-12 inch railway gun on display as well. It had the name "Robert" on the barrel, as I recall.

[@shawnpenny2738]

I had several uncles on both sides of my family that fought in WW2. Several of them were at places that came under fire by railroad guns. They said it was frightening as hell. They said it sounded like a freight car screaming through the air. You forgot to mention Anzio Annie.

[@Assassinus2]

Listening to the litany of these projects, I can imagine Albert Speer quietly banging his forehead on his desk, wondering where everything had gone wrong. I also imagine the Schwerer Gustav’s gun crew forming suicide pacts for whenever the barrel had been shot out.

[@skwervin1]

Could you imagine having to crawl inside to clean it?

[@UnDeaDCyBorg]

I think he rather knew where things had gone wrong. It was in many places. For the better, no doubt.

[@MikkelKjrJensen]

Considering that Speer designed such absurd buildings as the Volkshalle (which once occupied by people would have had its own climate), I don't have much sympathy for him on that account. Also, he worked to glorify Nazi Germany, so he should be given zero sympathy in any case.

[@bryanskrantz]

Fun Fact. Destroying this gun was a mission in Commandos behind enemy lines.

[@chazhartwayne6493]

Well THATS a Blast from the past. Always loved the Commandos games.

[@Snaakie83]

Shit...I suppose there's no HD version yet? 😂 Must play now...

[@choughed3072]

Brilliant game.

[@HMSConqueror]

technically you are incorrect. the mission was to destroy "Thor" which was a heavy mortar used by the nazis.

[@bryanskrantz]

@@HMSConqueror Well back then it looked like this gun lmao.

[@neom472]

I’ve just been binge watching all these videos as I’m sat at my desk working from home, thank you for keeping me occupied

[@CYWNightmare]

This dude is amazing. His voice makes me want to listen to what he says and sounds very serious about what he's talking about while having a sense of humor at the same time

[@N.I.R.A.T.I.A.S.]

"What a good Nazi." - Simon Whistler, 2020

[@robothunter1035]

I built one of these. I'm just waiting for all those people who've been talking about me behind my back to gather in one place . . . somebody's getting a party invitation.

[@wwiiinplastic4712]

Which kit did you build? I build only 1/35, and can't justify paying $900+ for the Soar Models kit. At any rate, the K5e railway gun itself eats up a lot of shelf space and I have no clue where I would put the Dora.

[@Live-Life-Freely]

This is why the YT comment section is at times better than the videos.

[@garfieldsmith332]

@@wwiiinplastic4712 I would love that kit. Thing is something like 53 inches long. Check my local hobby shop about getting one when it came out. It would have been 1500 bucks Canadadian plus taxes. and the metal barrel and other add-ons would have put me in the poor house.

[@prepperjonpnw6482]

Great comment lol. I actually laughed out load for real lol

[@simoc24]

Remind me not to come to your party

[@thomasbishop3494]

Germany: makes giant railway artillery to smash Maginot. Rommel: haha Panzers go vroom through the Ardennes.

[@bigguy1164]

Manstein

[@nevinmcintyre7860]

it was Manstein not rommel that planned the Ardennes attack

[@jmalmsten]

Me: "But could the same effect not be made with lots of tinier guns that could be transported, aimed and reused more easily?" Excited german engineer: "Ja, but thiz one goez to ELF!" Me: "That is true."

[@MegaGothrocker]

Excellent reference right there XDDD

[@flaviusclaudius7510]

The Maginot Line was never meant to be impenetrable: it was meant to hold off the German army long enough for the French military to fully mobilise in case of an attack.

[@Celtopia]

i see you watch youtube a lot

[@flaviusclaudius7510]

@@Celtopia My guilty pleasure

[@Celtopia]

@@flaviusclaudius7510 hahahaha

[@Ootlander]

Project Babylon would be good for Megaprojects or perhaps Gerald Bull for Biographics.

[@rileygawronski5985]

^This!^

[@zapfanzapfan]

I second that motion!

[@themoddingprodigy577]

Love this channel! I wanted to learn about these huge engineering feats and you do it in such an entertaining way! Please consider making a video on SOSUS

[@stevenwhoward87]

An idea: the Soviet's N1 rocket. Great references to use are: "Russia In Space" by Anatoly Zak, "For the Moon and Mars N-1" by Matthew Johnson and Nick Stevens

[@briancox2721]

"What a good Nazi." And demonetized again.

[@wyndhamcoffman8961]

I saw a distinctly right-wing political ad at the start of this video; it just changing the demographic statistics around.

[@briancox2721]

Yup. I didn't see any ads.

[@D4rkn3ss2000]

All my adds were about a Startrek game @_@

[@adventuresinmodelrailroading]

The way Simon said that line put a mental image of a puppy wagging its tail in my mind.

[@IneptOrange]

Johnny Sins career has taken a really weird turn recently

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:40 - Chapter 1 - Why was schwerer gustav made ? 3:25 - Chapter 2 - Missing the invasion of France 4:15 - Chapter 3 - Shortcomings of schwerer gustav 7:15 - Chapter 4 - War history 7:50 - Chapter 5 - The fate 9:10 - Chapter 6 - Dora , the 2nd super gun 10:30 - Chapter 7 - Langer gustav 11:20 - Chapter 8 - Landkreuzer P.1500 monster project 12:45 - Chapter 9 - Conclusion

[@TomRedlion]

Interesting addition. The Krupp K5 railway guns. One of them can be found in a War Memorial park in northern France. Another can be found at the US Army Ordinance Center in Ft Lee, Virginia.

[@SinKimishima]

a great rival to the Paris Gun

[@mjnyc8655]

That's worth a video of its own.

[@duncanmcgee13]

Dwarfs it

[@drewcipher896]

@@duncanmcgee13 I'm pretty sure the Paris gun had a much longer range.

[@jreimer9487]

Paris gun much smaller caliber more of a harassment weapon, not to mention it's own quality and design short comings. Totally inferior, but a valid predecessor to the Gustav. So lucky those Nazi bastards went in for boondoggles like that rather than jet propulsion or say atomic weapons.

[@duncanmcgee13]

@@drewcipher896 thats all the Paris Gun has on it. Maybe even the ability to traverse. But if we're talking about range, the Langer Gustav barrel would have made it outrange the Paris gun by roughly 10km. The German K-12 coastal guns that hit Dover had a range roughly 10km less than the Paris Gun. And theres the V3 canon that could outrange all of them.

[@abraarmohammadshafi1779]

Simon has been laughing a lot and cracking jokes on the channel recently😂. The lockdown has got to him

[@RosiePosey5150]

I like it so hopefully he never finds it

[@lewzero]

I think he's just letting the Business Blaze influence get to him, lol

[@tylersm360]

I'm pretty sure that's business blaze just leaking into all his other channels

[@corndoghead1]

Haven't seen him in a blaze? He the guy with the blaze

[@nonoagain6547]

He's been blazing too much

[@woesteloepi.]

It also is a level in the game Call of Duty! And it's a perfect copy, realy nice made.

[@machdaddy6451]

I think that it's amazing that a barrel this big.could even be created, back then or even today.

[@wingcommanderjetson5660]

You seem much happier, I love the new gumption you’re showing. Thanks for all the videos, your channels have taught me so much. I don’t understand how you guys make so many videos! Thanks to you Simon and all the other people associated with your wealth of channels., - from a lurker since the early days of “today I found out”

[@californiumblog]

Simon: I speak English not German. America: You're welcome. (Lol just kidding but it's Independence Day weekend here and couldn't pass up the joke!)

[@EmpPeng2k7]

Probably more of a side projects thing, but speaking of Monster, how about a video on the absolutely batshit tanks that german engineers imagined, for example, there was basically a tank of similar size to monster intended to carry 2 battleship cannons

[@PolariusKarnun]

Love the double-feature-like format in this one!

[@anchorbait6662]

11:45 not 150x heavier.... I think you ment to say 150% heavier. Or 1.5x heavier. 150X would have made it bigger then aircraft carriers.

[@ChristiaanHW]

i'm pretty sure he says "150 tonnes heavier", but it does sound a lot like "150 times heavier".

[@colebizwell5407]

Hitler: rolls up to LS Customs Krupp: what can the finest mechanic in LS do for you? Hitler: pass the b o o m son Literally the entire german command: Ach, sheiße. jetzt geht es wieder los.

[@bostedtap8399]

Megaproject suggestion: Iraqi Supergun. Built by a company in England, and involved a truck driver. Great vlog, thanks for sharing.

[@francoisvallee-bernard4741]

Designed by a Canadian Gerald bull! +1 for this megaproject

[@Ryoushi_Akanagi]

I like how he concluded the monster was "too impractical" considering all the guns that came before it.

[@cedricrobertson2893]

Someone had it small There is just no other explanation

[@fore8564]

Krupp: So how big do you want your gun to be? Nazi General Staff: *J a*

[@RonLaws]

Ja*

[@_Abjuranax_]

It was mainly Hitler and not the General Staff. It wasn't until later in the war that Hitler had replaced them all with "yes men", and Kietel was such a kiss ass that he was known as "the lackey".

[@roguemerlin1969]

Don't know if it exactly fits this channel but would love to hear your take on the U.S. M 65 Atomic Cannon. I know, who would think it was a good idea to fire atomic bombs out of a cannon? It was tested, built, and actually deployed. Test firing in Nevada had a 15KT yield at a range of 7 miles. 7 miles isn't very far and because the detonation would have been a ground strike, very dirty, lots of radioactive fallout.

[@wardentraijnor5660]

I built one of these for a tabletop wargaming campaign, instantly became a major target for everything

[@AvoidTheCadaver]

Now that you've said it, Simon, please do a video on rail guns

[@mlc4495]

It's not really a megaproject though. There's only one example of a railgun in development and that is more just a R&D thing by the US Navy.

[@christopherderrah3294]

Clever of Krupps, giving the Nazis a free gun, that uses a proprietary replacement barrel regularly. I would wonder how much they charged for the barrel?

[@mirador698]

Christopher Derrah The gun may have been vanished but the business model survived in the form of ink printers.

[@severinpridal1355]

All Guns need Barrel exchange after a Number of shot. How often depends on the Energy of the Cartridge...

[@douglasburnside]

@@severinpridal1355 Seems to me it might have been easier just to make the cartridges a little bit bigger to compensate as the barrel became worn.

[@oompalumpus699]

Kinda sounds like a Free-to-play scheme don't it?

[@ProjectFlashlight612]

Sebastopol got to know Gustav very well. As for the Maginot Line, well, the Germans thought about it then said "Let's just go round it."

[@Jasruler]

The best megaproject videos are when the writing and presentation is light hearted and fun, such as this one.

[@gorrillawarfair]

I love how they built a giant gun to punch through the line then after it was built they were like "lets just walk around it..."

[@wannabecriminalman]

The perfect weapon for WW1.

[@cneumayer]

0:04 Speaking as a german native speaker, you did great on all the german pronounciation. I especially liked the "Landkreuzer", which translates as "Land Cruiser" (Cruiser as in naval ship type, not as in car) anyway.

[@randolphsmith7552]

Dora says “swiper, no swiping!!” 💥 as Boots fire the gun lol

[@flyingpeter]

what i would like to see is the factory and the lathe in wich the cannon was machined

[@robertnichols4833]

Almost wonder at that size if the workpiece was stationary and the tooling moved around it. Interested in details if anyone knows.

[@psammiad]

"I think we're getting to that". Obviously Simon doesn't do anything so mundane as read the script before starting a video 😄

[@livethefuture2492]

Who needs a script?

[@TheStevedie]

Honestly I prefer that. I just want him to ramble on. Lol

[@nunyobidniz]

Yeah, shades of Business Blaze creeping in.👍 Speaking of, how about a bit of meme accountancy? Luckily, I can count to one Rimshots:1 Allegedly:1 Total:2 Love your work, Simon😉

[@zogian5991]

Because he's a legend

[@si2foo]

it is better when he doesn't to be honest

[@nathanokun8801]

To those who like the 80cm gun, the US Army has, originally at its tank museum (not sure where it is now) an EVER BIGGER GUSTAVE projectile A-N-D ITS BRASS CARTRIDGE CASING (it also had bag charges with the brass casing next to the breech-block, being designed just like the 14.96" (38cm) Krupp guns used by battleships BISMARCK and TIRPITZ)! I visited the Army Tank Museum at Aberdeen, Maryland (it has moved since then) and was walking around the exhibits just behind the main building, near the rows of tanks from various armies and time periods. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge brightly-shining open-topped brass cylinder sitting on its flat base right next to the trash containers. I said to myself, "What a strange trash can!" I went over to it and looked inside and it was empty with just some water on the bottom. It was then that again out of the corner of my eye I saw what looked like a large fin-less V-2-shaped rocket lying on it side near the brass "trash can". I went over to it and, as my hobby was "Armor and Ordnance of the Age of Ironclads or How to Punch Holes in Battleships" (a major reason for my visit), I instantly recognized it as an extra-large version of the 38cm Psgr.m.K. L/4,4 (14.96" Armor-Piercing HE (APHE) Shell with AP Cap Length 4.4 Calibers) which had obviously been fired from some gun (the driving band was grooved diagonally) and a new windscreen (hollow streamlined nose add-on) welded onto its now-bare nose. It had a base crack and no base plug so that you could look into the empty explosive filler cavity. My hair stood on end as I realized that the brass trash can and rocket were from the 80cm GUSTAV/DORA cannon!! I walked to the museum curator's office, who was there, and asked about the shell next to the trash - they weren't trying to throw it away, were they? He said no, they were eventually going to display them both, but had never gotten around to it since WWII (quite a delay!). This shell was not the 7-ton concrete-piercer, but an experimental 9-ton (!!!!!) capped AP shell that was indeed an enlarged 38cm/40cm APC used by the German Navy in WWII. I had no idea why they needed an AP cap on a shell of this size (what armor did they think it would hit that needed one?), but Krupp was a perfectionist and an enlarged APC shell was copied exactly, cap and all. So, the US Army has this somewhere, as well as one of those super-long-range K-18.guns that they shot across the English Channel from France at Britain. I do hope that they get those 80cm items on display eventually...

[@nathanokun8801]

A funny note: When this GUSTAV cannon was first tested using the 7-ton shells, a lot of German government and military personnel, including Hitler, were there to watch. One of them was Hans Guderian, the highly-competent German tank commander. Guderian watched the test and walked up to some Krupp Company personnel who were talking about the gun. Guderian asked them, what was this gun for (he had no knowledge of its history). Thinking fast and knowing who Guderian was, the Krupp technician quickly blurted out, "You could fire it at tanks!" Guderian turned to the gun, which took 45 minutes between shots and the huge amount of support it needed to fire even a single round and just stared at it. I firmly believe that for a moment at least the thought 'We are going to lose this war!' flashed through his head. I know it would have done that to me...

[@danf321]

This gun...sort of like many high-end German automobiles, over-engineered beyond practicality.

[@godhatesusall85]

Really! It seems ridiculous now, what with ICBM's that can hit anything on earth without an army of people building railroad tracks in front of them

[@danf321]

Dylan Perry Yes you are correct, but this was in the early 40’s when the Nazis were obsessed with big, huge, powerful war machines. And back then, this giant gun could bomb a target 25 miles away. This was a 40’s version of an ICBM.

[@joshuapatrick682]

This man has never owned an Audi...

[@cgefkens4065]

Weird comparison. High end german cars are the best in the world and not that complex

[@danf321]

Joshua Patrick Ummm...yes I’ve owned two Mercedes and two Audi’s. Both Audi’s were electrical nightmares. The A5 was finally covered under the Lemon Law.

[@cheaterman49]

Hey team, I just wanted to say, I don't know if Simon fixed it in pre- or if it's just in post- but the lighting looks fantastic now :-) it used to be a bit dark! So, thanks a lot, and sorry if I'm noticing late - you don't notice things until they're wrong haha!

[@alexdasliebe5391]

Like how you ask for help finding something at the grocery, when you’re next to it. 🤣 RE “You don’t notice things until they’re wrong”

[@TheAmishEngineer]

The armor piercing version of the shell had the kinetic energy of 945 pounds of dynamite exploding.

[@MrTrevortxeartxe]

"Assembly and disassembly took a team of 250 men!" (An additional 2500 men were required to lay track, as well.)

[@AtaraxiaaixaratA]

You didn't talk about the awesome engineering that went into the gun : / The ammo was carried by a 'mini' railway system cars created to load it. Railways with railways...meta rail. SOO German. This weapon was a fantastic for morale of the Germans as well. Kinda missed a couple other cool points...

[@securityguy1984]

Hmm masive tanks ehh try these Simon !, T-29/ T-95 superheavy tank destroyer And the germans maus tank as well as the landcruiser tank Or mabey even the longest operational battle ship Iowa , my neighbor actually worked the guns on it during Operation desert Storm

[@budwilliams6590]

I used these weapons quite effectively while playing Panzer General.

[@burtturdison4445]

"So... Why is this thing so huge?" "Well, Sir, it makes a gigantic BOOM." "I'm intrigued!"