Quote Originally Posted by edyzmedieval
Correct me if I am wrong: Weren't the Krupp cannons the most powerful in WWI?

If your speaking of the Big Bertha's then you are correct.

Quote Originally Posted by encloypia



Big Bertha
Updated - Saturday, 2 August, 2003

Although the name was commonly applied to a whole variety of large-calibre German artillery guns the "Big Bertha" ('Dicke Berta') actually referred to a single siege gun, at that time the world's largest and most powerful.

Produced by the German firm of Krupp the Big Bertha was a 42cm howitzer, model L/14 designed in the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 on behalf of the German Army. It was initially used as a means of (successfully) demolishing the fortress towns of Liege and Namur in August 1914, the war's first month (and subsequently as Antwerp). It was thereafter used to similarly reduce other enemy strong-points as the need arose.

The somewhat unflattering name itself arose from association with the wife of Gustav Krupp, owner of the Krupp factory. Her name was Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach.

Only four Big Bertha howitzers were produced, the first two rolling off the production line a mere matter of days after the onset of hostilities, on 9 August 1914. Once constructed these huge guns, whose shells weighed 820kg each, were shipped in their constituent parts by tractor to their destination point where they were once again reassembled by a huge crew of as many as 1,000 men.

With a range of 15km their 420mm shells proved devastating and all four were used during the German assault upon Verdun from February 1916.

Once the Verdun offensive was called off in failure (leading to the replacement of German Chief of Staff Erich von Falkenhayn who had initiated the battle) the Big Bertha guns were decommissioned, since Allied artillery developments had resulted in guns with a longer range.
Now if you review the advances in artillery from about 1860 forward - I believe you will find that some of the tech developed by Krupp was included in the rifling tech used on almost all early howitzers and cannons. There were others as this site mentions - but if I remember correctly Krupp came up with the most combination that provided for the best accuracy and range.


Quote Originally Posted by linked site
1850-1860 Woolwich, Parrott, Armstrong, and Krupp respectably come up with their own "rifled" cannons. This design made use of spiraling grooves on the lining of the bore to create spin with ammuntion and more accurate and straighter firing. This rifling added distance to how far projectiles could travel and had more power than the smoothbore. This type of bore required hard metal that wasn't brittle so the rifling grooves wouldn't wear down.
http://web.bryant.edu/~ehu/h364proj/...on/page_4.html