Gustav was destroyed by the Germans near the end of the war in 1945 to avoid capture by the Red Army. Their purpose was to destroy heavy fortifications, especially in the French Maginot Line. The two guns were developed in the late 1930s by Krupp, the famous German arms manufacturer. Schwerer Gustav This was the name given to a German 80 cm railway gun, a huge piece of artillery designed to be shot from a railway wagon. Schwerer Gustav was a German 80-centimetre (31.5 in) railway gun. The kit contains of nearly 100 sprues with about 3000 parts. He bought the kit some years ago for more than 500,- Euro. It was developed in the late 1930s as siege artillery for the explicit purpose. I thought this is a good chance to post some pictures and informations about the largest 1/35 scale kit available. Schwerer Gustav (English: Heavy Gustav) was a German 80-cm (31.5 in) railway gun. The gun was moved to Leningrad, and may have been intended to be used in the Warsaw Uprising like other German heavy siege pieces, but the rebellion was crushed before it could be prepared to fire. Schwerer Gustav (English: Heavy Gustaf, or Great Gustaf) and Dora were the names of two huge World War II German 80 cm K (E) railway siege guns. A friend of mine asked me for help with a modeling project. Gustav was later employed in the Soviet Union at the siege of Sevastopol during Operation Barbarossa, where among other things, it destroyed a munitions depot buried in the bedrock under a bay.
However, this weapon was still under construction in 1944 (it was originally expected in 1943) when irreparably damaged by Allied aerial bombs.
The gun was designed in preparation for the Battle of France, but was not ready for action when the battle began, and in any case the Wehrmacht's Blitzkrieg offensive through Belgium rapidly outflanked and isolated the Maginot Line's static defenses, eventually forcing the French to surrender and making their destruction unnecessary. The third, and last, gun in the series - 'Langer Gustav' - was a proposed refinement of the original and set to feature a longer 52cm (520mm) caliber barrel for an all-new, longer-ranged projectile type. The fully assembled gun weighed nearly 1,350 tonnes, and could fire shells weighing seven tonnes to a range of 47 kilometres (29 mi). Sworn to Secrecy: Secrets of War (1998 ) Episode.
It was developed in the late 1930s by Krupp as siege artillery for the explicit purpose of destroying the main forts of the French Maginot Line, the strongest fortifications then in existence. Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword schwerer-gustav-rail-gun 1. "Schwerer Gustav was the name of a German 80 cm (31.5 in.) railway gun.