The German Bear of WW2
The successor of venerable Küstenverteidigungspanzer II, Küstenverteidigungspanzer III is a leap in design philosophy among German war machinery where lessons from the earlier design were implemented and later officially nicknamed "Bär" (Bear).
Main info: Cannon is modified 21 cm Kanone 39 with muzzle brake and capable of around 30km range and 730m/s of muzzle velocity. Total mass is 91.5 tons, maximum speed of 33km/h while operated by 8 crew members: Driver, Radio operator, Commander, Gunner, Range Layer and 3 Loaders. Turret has 60 degrees of possible movement and cannon can go up to 45 degrees. Reload time is 43 second. Armour is mainly comprised of 40 and 35mm plates at front and and 30mm plates at sides and back.
Additional non important info info:
-Total Ammo storage is 20 rounds which is not a lot but due to operating with designated trucks it was noted as more than enough.
-The Engine is Maybach HL-230 same as in all the Tigers and Panthers which makes this the heaviest vehicle to use it and also very faulty in operations.
-The Recoil Plow in the back is required to disperse most of the recoil more effectively into the recoil due to turrets location and as such firing without it deployed would almost certainly immobilize the entire vehicle due to suspension breaking.
-Same as Küstenverteidigungspanzer II it has a Ladder which is equipped for all vehicles of this type.
-Back of the hull is significantly reinforced due to problems in it's predecessor.
-It is equipped with upgraded Rangefinder allowing for far superior operations while defending the coast or if needed at the frontlines.
-Due to the cannon which originally was intended as Heavy Siege cannon the Bär was used in plethera if missions of both Indirect and Direct fire.
\/ Rant about it's history \/
Following the soccess of Küstenverteidigungspanzer II in operations but also noting it's short comings the Army decided to order a new Vehicle with larger cannon and better design around it's operations which was done in Mid-Late Months of 1940. The project was finalized in April and was unveiled at Adolf Hitlers Birthday which was a great success.
After the great unveiling and start of production the vehicles were put to use on the Eastern front with 8 of them being used during the last moments at Siege of Sevastopol where the Machines exemplified an astonishing accuracy and destructive power. High command officially gave the Küstenverteidigungspanzer III name of "Bär" on 20th of September.
On the Eastern front the Bärs were one of the most feared war machines by the Soviet army due to their long range, quick repositioning and destructive power combine with accuracy made them a force to be reckoned with. However Soviet army quickly learned that these Artillery pieces were pretty well visible from the planes and so that was the main method of eliminating these war machines. However a larger problem for Wehrmacht was the logistical strain and maintanance of these Bärs which were extremly expensive and resource draining. One of the most intriguing events during the war in regards to these vehicles was the "Engine War" which lasted around 5 Months after the unveiling of the Bär and as name suggests the main topic was the aquisition of the HL 230 Engines which were in high demand for these monsters but also were required for Tiger production and Later on also for Panthers. However it was resolved by Albert Speer.
When Battle of Kursk began the Germans were able to deploy staggering 56 of these Artillery pieces to great effect as they formed 8 Batteries with 7 Vehicles in each battery which allowed for constant barrage onto the enemy. The 4th Battery even was deployed onto the frontlines to serve as super heavy tank killers to test their capabilities in battle which was followed by great streak of eliminations due to enemy not expecting these cannons to be so close and accurate. But Soviet forces quickly adapted and tried to focus on takingthem out first in which they were successful and eliminated 4 of the frontline Küstenverteidigungspanzer III. In total during the Battle of Kursk 77 Küstenverteidigungspanzer III were used with 9 of them destroyed beyond repair.
When information about possible Allied Landings in France began to appear the German High command ordered most of the Küstenverteidigungspanzer III to be stationed on the Coast and hid from enemy spy planes, for this reason these Artillery pieces only were deployed at their stations at night and quickly hid so that Allies could not spot them. In total 124 of these Machines were deployed in France during Normandy landings but only 6 of them were able to fire at Allied forces when invasion began with the rest needing to relocate which wasted great amount of time. But even with such a loss the German Artillery was able to inflict horrendous toll on the Invading Allies with Allies answering with their Planes. In total 71 of the Bärs were destroyed in Normandy.
Later on they were part of the Siegfried Line as heavy artillery units and halted some of the Allied operations. However the Allies breached the Line in October and captured one of the Küstenverteidigungspanzer III which was later sent to London for Evaluation. On the Eastern front the Bärs began using autonomous operations more to make it harder for Soviet forces to locate them.
During the battle of the Bulge 14 of the Bärs were present which allowed for great fire against Allied forces and makingit possible to breakthrough in certain points of the frontlines for the Panzers. However this battle was followed by loss of another 7 Küstenverteidigungspanzer III. In Battle of Berling 3 of them were present but all of them were used as static Artillery pieces to take out Soviet Armour and infantry, all of them were destroyed due to their light armour and heavy Soviet fire.
In total 409 of Küstenverteidigungspanzer III Bär were produced by Third Reich during the Entire War while today only 5 examples survive, and even though their effect were barely visible in grand strategy they were still greatly appreciated by their German Allies and feared by Foes while giving nightmares to the German logisticians.
After the War it was discovered the Germans were testing in late 1943 and early 1944 a special shell for the 21cm cannons on Küstenverteidigungspanzer III. They were rocket assisted munitions using RDX (Hexogen) instead of TNT for increased explosion yield. However the experiments even though successful and with good results were discarded from production due to costs and late war constraints while the standard shells were more than adequate for Küstenverteidigungspanzer III Bär. Those experiments gave increased insight into how rocket assisted munitions worked following the war and even slightly paved a way for future space cannon experiments.