Big Bertha, Germany's World War I top secret mobile artillery piece,
easily destroyed French and Belgian forts, helping set the stage for
trench warfare.
In the first days of World War I, Germany unveiled a new weapon - the
mobile 42cm (16.5 inch) M-Gerät howitzer. At the time, it was the
largest artillery piece of its kind in the world and a closely guarded
secret. When war broke out, two of the howitzers were rushed directly
from the factory to Liege where they quickly destroyed two forts and
compelled the fortress to surrender. After repeat performances at Namur,
Maubeuge and Antwerp, German soldiers christened the howitzers 'Grosse'
or 'Dicke Berta' (Fat or Big Bertha) after Bertha von Krupp, owner of
the Krupp armament works that built the howitzers. The nickname was soon
picked up by German press which triumphed the 42cm howitzers as
Wunderwaffe (wonder weapons), and the legend of Big Bertha was born. To
the Allies, the existence of the howitzers came as a complete surprise
and the sudden fall of the Belgian fortresses spawned rumors and
misinformation, adding to the 42cm howitzer's mythology.
In reality, 'Big Bertha" was but the last in a series of large-caliber
siege guns designed by the German Army for the purpose of destroying
concrete fortifications. It was also only one of two types of 42cm
calibre howitzers built for the army by Krupp and only a small part of
the siege artillery available to the German Army at the outset of the
war. Such were the successes of the German siege guns that both the
French and British Armies decided to field their own heavy siege guns
and, after the German guns handily destroyed Russian forts during the
German offensives in the east in 1915, the French Army abandoned their
forts. However, by 1916, as the war settled into a stalemate, the
effectiveness of the siege guns diminished until, by war's end, 'Big
Bertha' and the other siege guns were themselves outmoded.
This book details the design and development of German siege guns before
and during World War I, to include four models of 30.5cm mortars, two
versions of 28cm howitzers, and two types of 42cm howitzers (including
'Big Bertha'); in total, eight different types of siege guns.
Accompanying the text are many rare, never before published, photographs
of 'Big Bertha' and the other German siege guns. Colour illustrations
depict the most important aspects of the German siege artillery.
