World's second largest cannon ever to be mounted on land

[oksnevad_2]

This is a post regarding "Kristiansand Cannon Museum" in Norway, here you will find the world's second largest cannon ever to be mounted on land.
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The thing is that there are plans of building buildings almost on top of this great museum! The cannon is fully functional and runs on its own power! Help us in the fight against these building plans!
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--- The page is only in Norwegian at the moment but soon in English---
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Also take a look at these pages:
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Kristiansand Kanonmusem

Møvik fort - Wikipedia

Events at Møvik Fort and the Kristiansand Kanonmuseum - Home

YouTube - WW2 Batterie Vara - Intervju with Norwegian soldier that served here after the war (HD)
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History:
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Welcome to the Kristiansand Cannon Museum, the "Vara Battery". Here you will find the world's second larges cannon ever to be mounted on land. The reason why these gigantic cannons came to Møvik was that on the occupation of Norway and Denmark in 1940 the Germans needed to guard the shipping lanes of the Skagerak. 38 cm cannons were planned here at Møvik and across the shortest distance over the Skagerak to Hanstholm in Denmark, some 116 km away. At Møvik construction commenced in the spring of 1941. At the initial stage the work force of 1.400 compriced of 750 Norwegians, 350 Danes and 300 Germans. From early 1943 200 russian prisoners-of-war were also used, and they remained here until the end of the war in 1945. As construction proceeded and guns were completed, the battery crew of 600 Germans arrived. Due to the fact the "Batterie Vara" was a naval gun battery, 450 of these soldiers were naval-gunnery personell, while 150 of these were army soldiers for close defence. Trial rounds were fired by cannons 2 and 3 on March 12. 1942, from cannon 4 November of the same year. By then, the cannon wells and the bunker for cannon 1 had been completed, but the cannon itself was yet to be delivered. It was not until summer 1944 that work on cannon 1 was taken up again. First the cannon well cover, the casemate, was in place with 4.5 meter thick roof, and 3.8 meter thick walls. It was built within a period of 10 weeks. Then the process of delivering the cannon parts was started.
By the beginning of 1945 all the parts were in place, by exeption of the barrel, wich was the heaviest single part of the cannon. The barrel is 19.76 meters long, and weighs 110 tons. It was shipped the "Porto Alegre" from Germany in February 1945. On the night of February 22. it was sunk in the Kattegatt by a British air attack. In addition to the main cannons, there were 16 smaller guns, as well as a countless number of bunkers, defence posts, tunnels, barracks and a 2.6 kilometer railway network for transportation of the ammunition from the 2 large storerooms positioned aproximately 1 kilometer to the rear of the cannons. The "Batterie Vara" was named after a German engineer general who was killed at sea on his way to one of the Channel Islands in 1941. The battery was then dismanteled, and in 1962 cannons 3 and 4, as well as the existing parts of cannon 1 were broken for scrap. Fortunately cannon 2 was saved, and is today the only remaining example of this type.
The ammunition consisted of 3 parts. First the shell, 170 cm long and weighing 800 kg. Then a cartridge with 97.75 kg explosives, and then a charge of 114.25 kg explosives.
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THX

[Steve T]

Now that is impressive.

Many thanks for sharing.

Steve T

[hassiman]

A number of test fired projectiles from the world's largest canon were recently unearthed in Germany. They were from the 800cm DORA railgun. In comparison they make these projectiles look like 22 long rifle bullets.

[mr.dirt]

Reminds me of the 385 vickers guns taken from a spanish battleship that broke its back when run aground on uncharted subsea rocks.
They were mounted in land emplacements to protect the Northern Spanish harbors. the guns are gone to museums in Madrid but the abandoned emplacements remain and are quite impressive. Due to spains post Franco demilitarization, many Spanish bases on the northern coast have been vandalized and are now threatened by modern development.

Here in new york city, I live 1/2 mile from Fort Totten, which had a battery of "dissappearing" guns that were installed in the early part of the 20th century to defend the river access across the East river at the Throgs Neck. There were forts on both sides of every river - Forts Hamilton and Wadswoth protected the Hudson at the Verrizano Narrows, Fort Tilden protected the East and Hudson river while Forts Shyuler and Totten protected the East river passage to the Long Island Sound. Some date back to the War of 1812.
I know that they were outmoded designs by WW2 and don;t really compare to the size/scope of European batteries but they are still quite impressive.
Fort Wadsworth, Totten, Schuyler are active Reserve stations, Fort Hamilton was converted to a VA Medical center (a very good hospital that does a damn fine job of taking care of active duty and retired military).

[hassiman]

Here in San Diego we had a set of "dissappearing" large calibre cannon whose mounts are still in place. The weapons were only fired a few times during WWII but broke so many windows with their blast that they were quite unpopular with the local residents.