AHC: Have a Ratte Used In Combat

With a PoD no earlier then January 1st, 1941, you're challenge is to do to do the impossible, the unthinkable, the unholy:

Have at least one use in combat (not training; actual combat) of a P. 1000 Ratte.
 
Hitler overrides Speer's cancellation of the project in 1943. In 1944, as the Russians enter Germany Proper, it is rushed to the front. In transit, it is destroyed by bombing from Soviet airpower.
 
This can't be real. It just can't be a serious idea.

:eek:

I mean, there's wonder weapons, and then there's "The Fuhrer desires to compensate for something."

How did this even get to the blueprint stage? What possible purpose would this have? How does this even begin to make sense?
 
This can't be real. It just can't be a serious idea.

:eek:

I mean, there's wonder weapons, and then there's "The Fuhrer desires to compensate for something."

How did this even get to the blueprint stage?

Are you really so impressed?

BE IMPRESSED NO MORE!!

landc.gif


I present to you the P.1500 Monster, a motorized version of the 800mm cannon.
 
...

Wow. Just...wow.

You couldn't make something this impractical up if you tried.

I mean, there's a fine line between "super heavy artillery" and "super deranged tank design".
 
...

Wow. Just...wow.

You couldn't make something this impractical up if you tried.

I mean, there's a fine line between "super heavy artillery" and "super deranged tank design".

Tank design?

No.

The P. 1000/1500 was based on U-Boat design...
 
Ah, well I'm not really a sci-fi buff.

I'm not debating your point (not being a fan of WH40K myself), I'm just saying what it looked like to me.

In any event, the Ratte was a real design that Speer cut in 1943. It was to have 2 280mm guns and a set of heavy AA guns on the back.

The Monster, in addition to its 800mm cannon, would have had either 2 88mm guns or 2 128 mm guns.
 
I'm not debating your point (not being a fan of WH40K myself), I'm just saying what it looked like to me.

In any event, the Ratte was a real design that Speer cut in 1943. It was to have 2 280mm guns and a set of heavy AA guns on the back.

The Monster, in addition to its 800mm cannon, would have had either 2 88mm guns or 2 128 mm guns.

That sounds like enough to mess with a battleship.
 

loughery111

Banned
That sounds like enough to mess with a battleship.

Well, sorta... the last generation of fast battleships usually mounted 406 mm guns, IIRC. On the other hand, they mounted nine of them and had both fleet air support for reconnaissance and dedicated indirect fire capability. The Monster had neither of the latter, really. It's unlikely that it'd have the rate of fire to even get off ranging shots before plunging fire from an Iowa-class would remove it from the face of the earth.

No my only question is, what the FUCK in WWII required an 800 mm cannon to destroy?
 
Well, sorta... the last generation of fast battleships usually mounted 406 mm guns, IIRC. On the other hand, they mounted nine of them and had both fleet air support for reconnaissance and dedicated indirect fire capability. The Monster had neither of the latter, really. It's unlikely that it'd have the rate of fire to even get off ranging shots before plunging fire from an Iowa-class would remove it from the face of the earth.

No my only question is, what the FUCK in WWII required an 800 mm cannon to destroy?

Hitler and Stalin's egos?:confused:
 
Well, sorta... the last generation of fast battleships usually mounted 406 mm guns, IIRC. On the other hand, they mounted nine of them and had both fleet air support for reconnaissance and dedicated indirect fire capability. The Monster had neither of the latter, really. It's unlikely that it'd have the rate of fire to even get off ranging shots before plunging fire from an Iowa-class would remove it from the face of the earth.

No my only question is, what the FUCK in WWII required an 800 mm cannon to destroy?

Quoting from the Wikipedia list of targets for the 800mm railway gun Schwerer Gustav:
Wikipedia said:
  • 5 June
    • Coastal guns at a range of 25,000 m. Eight shells fired.
    • Fort Stalin. Six shells fired.
  • 6 June
    • Fort Molotov. Seven shells fired.
    • "White Cliff" aka "Ammunition Mountion": an undersea ammunition magazine in Severnaya ("Northern") Bay. The magazine was sited 30 meters under the sea with at least 10 meters of concrete protection. After nine shells were fired, the magazine was ruined and one of the boats in the bay sunk.[3]
  • 7 June
    • Firing in support of an infantry attack on Sudwestspitze, an outlying fortification. Seven shells fired.
  • 11 June
    • Fort Siberia. Five shells fired.
  • 17 June
    • Fort Maxim Gorki and its coastal battery. Five shells fired.
By the end of the siege on 4 July the city of Sevastopol lay in ruins, and 30,000 tons of artillery ammunition had been fired. Gustav had fired 48 rounds and worn out its original barrel, which had already fired around 250 rounds during testing and development. The gun was fitted with the spare barrel and the original was sent back to Krupp's factory in Essen for relining.
The gun was then dismantled and moved to the northern part of the eastern front, where an attack was planned on Leningrad. The gun was placed some 30 km from the city near the railway station of Taizy. The gun was fully operational when the attack was cancelled. The gun then spent the winter of 1942/43 near Leningrad.
 
A volcanic eruption in 1942 releases an enormous amount of naturally occurring LSD into the ocean. The water supplies in the world are contaminated. The war takes a really weirdturn after that.
 

loughery111

Banned
Quoting from the Wikipedia list of targets for the 800mm railway gun Schwerer Gustav:

Ok, allow me to clarify: What the FUCK in WWII requires a mobile, armored, 800 mm gun platform to destroy that cannot be taken out perfectly well by massed concentrations of smaller artillery or tanks with much more economic and military efficiency? I mean, it's not like they're going to be fighting Bolos or something.
 
Ok, allow me to clarify: What the FUCK in WWII requires a mobile, armored, 800 mm gun platform to destroy that cannot be taken out perfectly well by massed concentrations of smaller artillery or tanks with much more economic and military efficiency? I mean, it's not like they're going to be fighting Bolos or something.

...Europe's virginity needs to be destroyed by Hitler's "Look I have a big penis"-kampfwagen?

;)

More seriously, there is no reason save having the biggest muthafuckin tank possible. Like most of Hitler's dreams, it was ridiculous, logistically improbable, and not elegant in the slightest.
 
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