![]() ![]() Each barrel would be 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter. The HDP would have a smooth barrel over 100 metres (330 ft) long, along which a 97-kilogram (214 lb) finned shell (known as the Sprenggranate 4481) would be accelerated by numerous small low-pressure detonations from charges in branches off the barrel, each fired electrically in sequence. Coenders proposed the use of electrically activated charges to eliminate the problem of the premature ignition of the subsidiary charges experienced by previous multi-chamber guns. In 1942, August Coenders, inspired by previous designs of multi-chamber guns, suggested that the gradual acceleration of the shell by a series of small charges spread over the length of the barrel might be the solution to the problem of designing very long-range guns. ![]() Long-range guns were not a new development, but the high-pressure detonations used to fire shells from previous such weapons, including the Paris gun, rapidly wore out their barrels. The newly designed gun, codenamed the Hochdruckpumpe ("High Pressure Pump", HDP for short) and later designated as the V-3, was one of the V-weapons – Vergeltungswaffen ("retaliation or vengeance weapons") – developed by Nazi Germany in the later stages of the war to attack Allied targets. In May 1943 Albert Speer, the Reich's Minister of Armaments and War Production, informed Adolf Hitler of work that was being carried out to produce a large-calibre gun capable of firing hundreds of shells an hour over long distances. The prototype Hochdruckpumpe gun in 1942 at Laatziger Ablage ( Misdroy), today Zalesie ( Międzyzdroje), Poland. ![]() It continues to be open to the public as a vast underground museum complex. A nature conservation organisation acquired the Fortress of Mimoyecques in 2010, and La Coupole (a museum near Saint-Omer housing a former V-2 rocket base) took over its management. It was later reopened by private owners, first in 1969 to serve as a mushroom farm and subsequently as a museum in 1984. The complex was partly demolished just after the war on Churchill's direct orders (and to the great annoyance of the French, who were not consulted), as it was still seen as a threat to the United Kingdom. It fell to the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division on 5 September 1944 without resistance, a few days after the Germans withdrew from the area. The Germans halted construction work at Mimoyecques as the Allies advanced up the coast following the Normandy landings. 617 Squadron RAF, who used ground-penetrating 5,400-kilogram (12,000 lb) " Tallboy" earthquake bombs to collapse tunnels and shafts, entombing hundreds of slave workers underground. The rest was partly destroyed on 6 July 1944 by No. Construction work was seriously disrupted, forcing the Germans to abandon work on part of the complex. Mimoyecques was targeted for intensive bombardment by the Allied air forces from late 1943 onwards. The Allies knew nothing about the V-3 but identified the site as a possible launching base for V-2 ballistic missiles, based on reconnaissance photographs and fragmentary intelligence from French sources. The guns would have been able to fire ten dart-like explosive projectiles a minute – 600 rounds every hour – into the British capital, which Winston Churchill later commented would have constituted "the most devastating attack of all". The complex consists of a network of tunnels dug under a chalk hill, linked to five inclined shafts in which 25 V-3 guns would have been installed, all targeted on London. It was constructed by a mostly German workforce recruited from major engineering and mining concerns, augmented by prisoner-of-war slave labour. Originally codenamed Wiese ("Meadow") or Bauvorhaben 711 ("Construction Project 711"), it is located in the commune of Landrethun-le-Nord in the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France, near the hamlet of Mimoyecques about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Boulogne-sur-Mer. It was intended to house a battery of V-3 cannons aimed at London, 165 kilometres (103 mi) away. The Fortress of Mimoyecques ( French pronunciation: ) is the modern name for a Second World War underground military complex built by the forces of Nazi Germany between 19. Opened as museum 1984, reopened 1 July 2010Ībteilung 705 (English: firing detachment 705) ![]()
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