Big Bertha (howitzer)

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For other uses of the term, see Big Bertha (disambiguation).

Model of the mobile "M-Gerät" version. Note the ladders for size comparison

Actual "Big Bertha" in action

Gamma-Gerät - the railway-mounted variant of the "Big Bertha"

Big Bertha (German: Dicke Bertha; literal translation "Fat Bertha") is the name of the L/14 model of heavy mortar-like howitzers built and used by Imperial Germany during World War I.

This howitzer may have been named after the wife of Gustav Krupp's, as was later the Schwerer Gustav after himself, or simply been alphabetically numbered designs according to the German phonetic alphabet, which contains Berta, Dora, Gustav, but not Adolf, Karl, Leopold, Max or Robert, as other big guns were baptized.

In addition, the name "Big Bertha" is often mistakenly applied to other railway guns, like the battleship guns of "Langer Max" or the long-distance "Paris Gun".

Designed in 1904 and produced by the Krupp factories in Essen, Germany, in 1914, the L/14 howitzer was a portable 42 centimeter mortar with shells weighing 820 kg each and a maximum distance of 12 km, with a maximum elevation grade of 80 degrees. "Big Bertha" was available as a mobile "M-Gerät" mounted on wheels, and as railway-mounted "Gamma-Gerät".

Only 6 of them were available at the beginning of the war, to be used to destroy Belgian forts in Liège, Namur, Siege of Maubeuge and Antwerp, and French forts in northern France. It proved very effective against older constructions, destroying 10 forts in a few days, like e.g. Fort Loncin which exploded after taking a direct hit into the ammunitions chamber.

Due to its early impressive successes which was exploited by propaganda, "Big Bertha" gained a strong reputation on both sides of the lines. As one of the first "Wunderwaffe", is said that surrendering enemies claimed that resistance was futile to her, even when not having been attacked with the "Big Bertha" Howitzer model at all.

On the other hand, when used during the German assault upon Verdun from February 1916, it proved ineffective as the newer construction of this fort, made from concrete reinforced with steel, could withstand the large grenades.

Even though all active-duty Big Berthas had been destroyed in or after the war, one of them survived on Krupp's test ground, and was used again in World War II in the Battle of Sevastopol, along with the even larger, modern Schwerer Gustav. The Sturmtiger and the Mörser Karl were two other machines that re-proposed the concept of the siege mortar.