German "Karl" 600mm self propelled mortar

[Iyaayas184]

Does anyone know what happened to the 2 German "Karl" self propelled 600mm mortars (one was 600 the other was 540) that were captured by the U.S. in 1945? Are they in a museum somewhere?

Robert

 

[maddawg308]

I can confirm that one of the Karl mortars is in the Kubinka Tank Museum in Kubinka, Russia.

As for the ones captured by the US, I cannot confirm where either of them are. If they still exist, bet that one is in the hands of the Patton Armor Museum in Radcliff, KY, the other in the Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, MD. That's IF they still exist. They could have been used for range practice or melted down for scrap metal after the war.

 

[ajg6989]

Aberdean has the rail car cannon that the germans used in Italy againist the beach heads. They also have the atomic cannon

 

[jimk]

I have a WWII video clip of it getting loaded,elevated, fired and the target, all times 2 or 3. It is 500K, B/W , no sound, maybe 15 seconds, no apparent copyright tag.

I can e-mail it (after a few days to collect all addresses PM to me, then will send combined) or can add to video gallery. It is a MV.

Chris, care to comment?

JimK

 

[DDoyle]

From my book......" Enormous consumers of resources, not only in production but also logistically, only seven of the huge mortars were built, with the last one being completed in 1942. With such a low production number, and being such a huge machine, there was a certain amount of variation between the units."

No survivors in the US. Immediately aften WWII huge numbers of captured (now rare) vehicles were scrapped. During the Korean War many historic vehicles in Aberdeen's museum collection were scrapped for space/metal (so were aircraft earmarked for the Smithsonian). And in the late 70s early 80s many of the German vehicles in Aberdeens collection were returned to Germany (where arguably they have been given infinitely better preservation than the relics at Aberdeen get).

But in any event, none of the huge mortars have survived in this country.

HTH,
David Doyle

 

[bugei]

i just got a copy of a catalog called "military isse", web site www.militaryissue.com , and they have a model of the 600 mm version, die cast, 12" long what a great looking toy. (pg 20) since i guess most of you also got this catalog too. they sure have some cool stuff, but not as cool as the duece sitting in my front yard.