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The 35.5 cm Haubitze M1 was a German siege howitzer.It was developed by Rheinmetall before World War II to meet the German Army's request for a super-heavy howitzer. Eight were produced between 1939 and 1944.
The German 105 mm howitzer-armed StuH 42 based on the StuG III, and the immense 152 mm howitzer-armed, Soviet ISU-152, both fully casemated in their design, are examples of this type of self-propelled artillery. Romanian Mareșal M-00 tank destroyer, armed with an M-30 howitzer. A Katyusha rocket launcher version also existed.
The weapon addressed the requirement for super-heavy field artillery capable of attacking heavily reinforced targets, like those likely to be found along Germany's Siegfried Line. The 240 mm howitzer M1 was designed together with the longer-ranged 8-inch gun M1, and they shared a related carriage. [3]
The howitzer could only be loaded at 11° elevation because the shells had to be rammed by a hand-powered winch with pushrod. The eight later weapons used the same carriage as the 24 cm Kanone M. 16 ; it had trunnion mounts for both types and the gun used the forward mounts while the howitzer used the rear ones.
203 mm howitzer M1931 (B-4) (Russian: 203-мм гаубица обр. 1931 г. (Б-4), GRAU index: 52-G-625) was a 203 mm (8 inch) Soviet high-power heavy howitzer. During the Second World War, it was under the command of the Stavka's strategic reserve. It was nicknamed "Stalin's sledgehammer" by German soldiers.
In March 1936 Rheinmetall made a proposal for a super-heavy howitzer to attack the Maginot Line.Their initial concept was for a weapon that would be transported by several tracked vehicles and assembled on site, but the lengthy preparation time drove them to change it to a self-propelled weapon in January 1937.
Historically, howitzers fired a heavy shell in a high-trajectory from a relatively short barrel and their range was limited but they were slightly more mobile than similar size field guns. Since the end of World War II , howitzers have gained longer barrels and hence increased range to become gun-howitzers .
Following a period of extensive testing, the weapons were assigned to the Artillery High Command reserve. There they remained in service until the military reforms of Nikita Khrushchev were enacted, favoring more effective missile systems over the super-heavy artillery and heavy tanks of the Stalinist era. [3]