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The new gun was first tested in 1913, and it weighed only 42.6 tons in firing position. Special motor tractors were built (by Daimler) to pull the gun, that was dismantled for transport into five loads when moved. In June 1914, a second copy was delivered by Krupp, and in September the same year first M-Gerät Battery (of two guns and 283 men) was put into action against the Liége forts. During the war 10 more were produced. These batteries were used both on the Eastern Front and in the West - were they among other things supported the German push against Verdun in 1916. It was in all respects an impressive gun. It could shoot a 810 kilo heavy HE grenade (Langgranate L/3.6) 9.300 meters. (Later there was also a lighter grenade, the Kurze M-Granate L/3.1, that increased the range to 12.250 meters.) The maximum rate of fire was 10 shots per hour. The M-Grät was used against fortifications and other static targets: its grenades could easily penetrate 1 meter of reinforced concrete. But it was not quite the Wunderwaffe that the German Propaganda claimed. If the grenades exploded prematurely they simply produced impressive craters but often nothing more. But if they entered into the target, the effects could be simply horrendrous, with one well-placed shell capable of knocking out an entire fort. So the respect it commanded was still not unfounded. My model is based on Fine Scale Factorys 1/72 scale White Metal kit. It has been extensively detailed, many kit parts rebuilt (like the shield or the crane) or simply discarded and new ones scratch-built (like the wheels). If you want to know more of this process, click here! Click on the thumbnails to see more views of this model:
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"Big Bertha"
(or properly Dicke Bertha, which means "Fat
Bertha") is arguably the most famous of all guns used during
the Great War. The problem is that very few know exactly which
artillery piece this name pertains to. Both the 21cm Cannon used to
shell Paris and the Austro-Hungarian 30.5cm Howitzer have been given
this name. But in reality there was only one Dicke Bertha,
and that was the German 42cm M-Gerät Howitzer.
The
M-Gerät started out as an attempt to make a very large mortar,
bigger than any of the other Minenwerfers that Germany Army fielded,
and also capable at attacking at a much longer range. The German
Army already had a very heavy howitzer in the shape of the 42cm Gamma-Gerät,
but that piece was extremely heavy and needed 10 railway cars to be
transported. The new gun was to use the shell from the Gamma-Gerät,
and also be lighter and easier to transport. 
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