13. Hitler’s Super Gun
In May of 1943, the Germans began work on new superguns, capable of firing hundreds of rounds an hour over an extremely long distance. An underground complex was dug in the Pas de Calais in northern France, across the narrowest stretch of the English Channel separating Nazi-occupied Europe from England, to house the Vergetlungswaffe 3 (“Vengeance Weapon 3”). Their name shortened to the V-3 Cannon, the super guns were to target London, which the Nazis hoped to destroy.
The underground V-3 complex was to include over 165 kilometers of tunnels, dug by German workers and slave laborers. The tunnel network was to be linked to 5 inclined shafts, in which 25 huge gun tubes were to be laid, all aimed at central London. The V-3s were to fire 10 projectiles a minute, 600 rounds per hour, 24 hours a day, raining devastation down upon and wrecking London. As Winston Churchill later commented, if the Nazis had pulled it off, it would have been history’s most destructive conventional attack ever against a city.
