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The 28cm Küstenhaubitz was a naval version of the German army's 28-cm howitzer and was originally produced for coastal defence, although it ended up being used on the Western Front during the First World War.
The majority of coastal defence guns were normal naval guns mounted in gun batteries, but the Germany navy also copied a wider fashion for using howitzers. These heavy weapons would be placed in fixed emplacements, and be pre-registered on key choke points in the approaches to German harbours and naval dockyards, allowing their high trajectory shells to hit very precise targets, and for their plunging fire to hit the less heavily armoured decks of their opponents. The army's 28cm howitzer was a rather clumsy, immobile weapon, designed to smash heavy fortifications, but that didn't matter to the Navy, which didn't really plan to move them at all.
Both versions of the weapon used the same emplacement. A massive foundation had to be built. The heavy turntable was then mounted on top of this foundation, and the gun platform on top of the turntable. The barrel was carried in a heavy cradle on top of the main gun platform. The weapon weighed over 63,000kg, and fired a 283mm/ 11.14in shell. It had a simple recoil mechanism - the barrel and cradle were mounted on short rails which absorbed some of the force, while the sheer bulk of the emplacement absorbed the rest. Unlike most other German artillery weapons of this period, the howitzers both used bagged propellants and a screw breech (normal German guns used cartridge cases and a sliding breech). They were also equipped with a crane to lift the heavy shells and charges up to the breech. Although they fired a useful heavy shell, the 28-cm howitzers suffered from a comparatively limited range - 11,400m/ 12,465 yards.
The 28-cm Küstenhaubitze was pressed into service on the Western Front, despite the huge amount of effort required to actually move them. They were normally moved to the main battle of the period, and thus saw service at Verdun and other major battles. Some remained in service during the Second World War, when they were used during the siege of Sevastopol of 1942 and during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.
Name |
28-cm Küstenhaubitze |
Calibre |
283mm (11.14in) |
Barrel Length |
3.40m (11ft 1.9in)/ L/12 |
Weight for transport |
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Weight in action |
63,600kg/ 140,214lb |
Elevation |
0 to 65 degrees |
Traverse |
360 degrees on turntable |
Shell Weight |
350kg/ 771.6kg |
Muzzle Velocity |
350-379m/ 1,148-1,243ft per second |
Maximum Range |
11,400m/ 12,465 yards |
Rate of Fire |
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