Impressum/Contact | About me

60 cm mortar "Karl"

Another great gun is the 60 cm mortar "Karl". It was a tracked vehicle which was self-propelled and it had got an engine with 427 kW. It weighed 124 tons and so the speed was only 10 km/h. Despite the broad chains the ground pressure was very high. Its concrete grenade weighed 2.2 tons and could fly over a distance of 4.3 km. 6 mortars were built. They were called "Adam", "Eva", "Odin", "Thor", "Loki" uand "Ziu". "Thor" and "Odin" were used against Sevastopol. The other guns were used against Warsaw and Brest-Litowsk. 1936 the Heereswaffenamt gave the company Rheinmetall the order a build such a gun. On a train this gun could be transported in one piece. To transport it on the road it had to be divided into a few pieces. When the 60 cm pipes were worn out then longer pipes with a caliber of 54 cm were built. Now the maximum range was 10.5 km. The use of this modified version is unknown.

Technical data about the 60 cm mortar "Karl"
Type of weapon	Self-propelled gun carriage
Manufacturer	Rheinmetall
Caliber	60 cm
Total mass	124 t
Length	11.15 m
Width	3.16 m
Height	4.78 m
Maximum speed	10 km/h
Engine power	427 kW
Armoring	12 mm
Ammunition	High-explosive grenade/Concrete grenade
Projectile mass -High-explosive grenade -Concrete grenade	1.7 t 2.2 t
Muzzle speed -High-explosive grenade -Concrete grenade	280 m/s 220 m/s
Maximum range -High-explosive grenade -Concrete grenade	6.6 km 4.3 km

Author and Webmaster: Lukas Czarnecki

If you have got questions about the 60 cm mortar "Karl" you can send me an e-mail under the following adress:
webmaster@hpwt.de

Back to World War II page

Back to Main page
Last Update: 15.12.2004