Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: JEWELLLW@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU (Larry W. Jewell) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: V-3's (no Bull) Message-ID: <1991Feb20.054847.3041@cbnews.att.com> Date: 20 Feb 91 05:48:47 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 25 Approved: military@att.att.com From: "Larry W. Jewell" The NOVA show spoke about the V-3 as being a super-gun al la Gerald Bull and I remebered what I'd read in "The Wizard War" by R.V. Jones. Chap- ter 46 is titled "V-3" and starts off by talking about massive concrete structures England had marked for "special attention". "We felt the same way about yet another great concrete structure, that at Mimoyecques, near Calais. It was heavily bombed, and could probably never have come into action, but we did not divine its exact purpose until our forces overran it. Under the name of 'HochDruckPumpe" (High Pressure Pump) it was to contain 50 smooth-bore barrels approximately 6 inches (15 centimetres) in diameter and 416 feet (127 meters) long, firing finned pro- jectiles, each weighing about 300 lbs. at a combined rate of up to ten per minute at London. A final muzzle velocity of about five thousand feet per second was to be achieved by igniting further propellant charges in side- ports up the main barrel, as the projectile passed them on its way out. The development of the scheme was pursued enthusiastically in Germany but, fortunately, it hit a basic snag; above about 3,300 feet per second the projectile became unstable and 'toppled', and thus fell badly short. This fact was only discovered after twenty thousand shells had been partly manufactured." The article goes on the mention that A.H. had the site built even after the proven failure to distract Bomber Command.