The K5 railway gun emplacement in the Calais area.
It's peculiar how the Germans seem to have a soft spot for gigantic cannons. In World War I, they deployed the Paris Gun, with a 210mm caliber and a barrel length of 36 meters, but due to technological limitations at the time, the Paris Gun had poor accuracy, serving more as a weapon of intimidation than as a tactically valuable high-power gun. (The Paris Gun's barrel could only fire about 50 rounds before needing factory refurbishment to expand the bore. Thus, the caliber started at 210mm, later increased to 240mm, and finally reached 260mm. Additionally, the hit rate of the shells was extremely low; over 140 days from March 23 to August 9, 1918, the German Paris Gun bombarded the Paris area 44 times, with 183 shells landing in the city, 120 in the suburbs, causing 256 deaths and over 600 injuries, without hitting a single strategic target. In terms of casualties and effectiveness, the impact was negligible.)
Twenty years later, the Germans launched another super cannon project. They first commissioned Krupp to manufacture an 800mm railway gun (the famous Gustav Gun), followed by a request to Rheinmetall in 1937 to design and build a self-propelled heavy mortar on tracks, known as the "Karl Mortar". They even considered mounting a gun under the belly of a twin-engine bomber to attack battleships and cruisers, with a caliber of 355.6mm! This was quite an extravagant design, considering the main guns of the "Bismarck"-class battleships were only 381mm.
Wilhelm had no interest in these grandiose and impractical ideas; he only wanted the most practical K5 railway gun. This railway gun was designed with the timeliness and range of support fire in mind, while also considering the mobility and versatility of the gun itself, making it one of the best among Germany's numerous railway guns.
During World War II, the Battle of Anzio was where the K5 railway gun proved its worth. In January 1944, the Allies decided to attack Germany's soft underbelly, launching the Anzio landing operation. The first phase of this nighttime attack went smoothly, with most German prisoners still in their pajamas; however, the Germans quickly rallied, deploying troops to encircle and sending two K5 trains to the combat zone.
The arrival of the K5s caused significant problems for the Allied forces at Anzio. With its extraordinarily long range, it could cover all of Anzio's battle zones, providing support anywhere, and each shell could devastate an area the size of a football field, instilling a sense of despair in the Allies. Once, a 767-man attack force was hit by K5 shelling, with only 6 men returning to base, the rest killed by the heavy artillery.
The Allies, relying on air superiority, sent planes to search for the K5 whenever it fired, with regular patrols as well. Air force actions limited the K5's operations, forcing it to emerge from tunnels for brief firing sessions before retreating. Although the Allies pinpointed the K5's general location, bombers and attack aircraft were unable to destroy these two K5s for many days.
Finally, the Allies won the Battle of Anzio at great cost, breaking through the Gustav Line, ending the siege of Anzio, and cutting off the K5's escape route. The two captured guns were later sent to the U.S. for testing and evaluation.
Wilhelm's ultimate purpose for building the K5 railway gun was as a secret weapon for the invasion of Britain, providing artillery support for the landing troops. Perhaps these railway guns could later be used in Crimea, replacing the Gustav Gun to bombard the Sevastopol Fortress. However, it was clear they couldn't achieve the feat of destroying a Soviet giant ammunition depot 30 meters underground with a single shot. (In late May 1942, during Manstein's attack on Sevastopol Fortress, the "Dora Gun" was brought in, firing 43 rounds at several ammunition depots within the fortress, one of which had a delayed fuse that penetrated 30 meters underground, triggering an explosion of stored munitions.)
In any case, Wilhelm's secret weapon not only performed its role but did so with some excess force. The targets were pre-mapped fixed areas; hitting within these zones was considered an effective attack. A single shell could overturn all the bunkers around the impact point.
After destroying all the designated targets, the 22 railway guns began barraging with shells, each impact point spaced 100 meters apart, creating a 2-kilometer-wide clear path for the landing troops.
After each firing, soldiers rushed to remove the shell casings, clear the barrels, load new shells, adjust the gun's elevation, and then fire on command, repeating the cycle.
Cameras were placed in every corner of the firing positions, recording this spectacular scene from all angles without blind spots.
This was also Wilhelm's idea; such a grand spectacle was not common, and preserving it would make for excellent cinematic material, usable for at least fifty years.
As for the famous Gustav Gun, Wilhelm had no intention of building it; he simply handed its blueprints over to Natasha's intelligence officer to take back to her.
He later learned that Stalin had secretly met with Natasha, warmly praising her for her outstanding work in intelligence and her contribution to the motherland, even personally bestowing an award on her.
It's unknown how Natasha, with her evidently twisted psyche, resisted the urge to attack Stalin on the spot, but afterward, she quickly rose to become the second-in-command in the intelligence department.
"Go to hell with holding on to the last! If you're so tough, come here and defend this!" After receiving Churchill's reply, the garrison commander cursed out loud. In that short time, the once-proud impregnable fortress of the British had turned into a tattered rag. Many of the frontline soldiers were already dead or injured, some blown to bits by German large-caliber shells, leaving no trace.
The garrison commander, left with no choice, ordered the remaining frontline troops to abandon their positions and retreat to the second line of defense.
However, the German's terrifying heavy artillery, having destroyed the frontline, now slowly advanced.
The 2-kilometer-wide barrage seemed like a boiling wall of fire, crushing, tearing, and burning everything in its path.
Watching the barrage approach closer, the garrison commander cursed. "Damn it, how far does their gun range go? At this rate, even the second line won't be safe!"
Just then, the phone on his desk rang.
"Commander, German paratroopers have appeared behind us; they're attacking our lines like madmen!"