The 24-cm-Kanone 3 (24 cm K 3) was a German heavy siege gun used in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

by the first battalion of Artillerie-Regiment 84. Four were in service when

Germany invaded Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...

, assigned to the first two batteries of I./AR 84, and in the Battle of France. By

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

all three batteries were equipped with two guns apiece. This situation did not change for the next two years.

Design and history

The gun for the K 3 was of standard construction while the carriage was considerably more innovative. Rheinmetall placed a lot of emphasis on ease of assembly. It did not require a crane because it used electric winches, mounted on the carriage, to pull various parts through a system of inclined ramps, guide rails and runways. It also used the Rheinmetall's dual-recoil system, first seen on the 21 cm Mörser 18. The barrel recoiled normally in its cradle, but, in addition, the whole top carriage, which carried the barrel and its cradle, recoiled across the main part of the carriage. This system damped out the recoil forces and made for a very steady firing platform. The K 3 was transported in six loads consisting of the firing platform, carriage, cradle, barrel, breech and an electric generator. The Wehrmacht was not content with the gun's performance: "It was felt to be wasteful of time and manpower, the transport arrangements were cumbersome and the performance was not considered to be commensurate with the size of weapon."Hogg, p. 104 These led to experiments by Krupp and Rheinmetall to extend the range. These included "pre-grooved" projectiles which showed no significant improvement, squeeze-bore,

discarding sabot Armour-piercing discarding sabot (APDS) is a type of spin-stabilized kinetic energy projectile for anti-armour warfare. Each projectile consists of a sub-calibre round fitted with a sabot. The combination of a lighter sub-calibre projectile wi ...

and even a

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. History Early firearms had smoothly bored barrels that fired projectiles without signi ...

version. None of these reached beyond the experimental stage.

Notes

References

* Engelmann, Joachim and Scheibert, Horst. ''Deutsche Artillerie 1934–1945: Eine Dokumentation in Text, Skizzen und Bildern: Ausrüstung, Gliederung, Ausbildung, Führung, Einsatz''. Limburg/Lahn, Germany: C. A. Starke, 1974 * Gander, Terry and Chamberlain, Peter. ''Weapons of the Third Reich: An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms, Artillery and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939-1945''. New York: Doubleday, 1979 * Hogg, Ian V. ''German Artillery of World War Two''. 2nd corrected edition. Mechanicsville, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997
Weapon Production Totals on Sinews of War
{{DEFAULTSORT:24 Cm Kanone 3 World War II artillery of Germany Siege artillery 240 mm artillery Krupp Rheinmetall Military equipment introduced in the 1930s