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High Pressure Pump
This was the cover name for a German long-range gun intended to be fired
across the English Channel into the Greater London area.
It was also known as Busy Lizzie' and The Millipede', both expressions arising
from its configuration. It was designed as a multiple chambered gun of 15 cm
calibre with a barrel 150 meters long; there was a conventional breech and a
chamber at the rear end, and several auxiliary chambers arranged at 450 to the
barrel at intervals of about 40 meters. The theory was that a fin-stabilized
shell would be loaded into the breech. together with a propelling charge and
additional propelling charges would be loaded into the side chambers. The first
charge would fire and start the projectile up the bore; as it passed the first
auxiliary chamber, the charge therein would be fired, producing additional gas
to boost the velocity of the shell; this would be repeated as the shell passed
all the chambers.
With all these additional boosts, the shell would leave the muzzle at extremely
high velocity something in the order of 5000 ft sec was forecast and would thus
be projected into the stratosphere, where the lessened air resistance would
permit the projectile to reach a range of about 175 miles.
The idea was not new; it was first proposed by two Americans in the 1880s, Lyman
and Haskell, and a gun built to their specification was fired. It proved
unsuccessful, since the propelling gases from the first charge passed around the
shell and ignited the auxiliary charges before the shell had reached them,
giving an effect opposite to that desired.
The idea reappeared at intervals, without having any better success, but the
German proposal was put up by Engineer Conders of the Rochling Stahiwerke AG in
1941.
By May 1943 he had built a 20 mm prototype which appeared to work well and he
had managed to get the ear of Hitler, who approved of the project and authorized
Conders to proceed on his own, without the knowledge of the Army Weapons Office
(who would have undoubtedly killed the idea on the spot).
Full-caliber experimental guns were built and tried, all of which burst or
underwent other disasters, while hundreds of workmen were set to work installing
a fifty barrel weapon in a hillside near Calais. Eventually the Weapons Office
had to be called in to provide some expertise, and they managed to get the
weapon working, after a fashion.
However, by this time the Allied advance from Normandy had overrun the
installation at Calais and the project was no longer viable. Hitler had hoped to
make it his 'V-3' Vengeance Weapon, but only two shortened versions of the gun
were built.
These were hurriedly deployed during the Ardennes battle in December 1944 and
fired one or two shots without recorded result, after which they were blown up
and abandoned. Fragments of the experimental gun are said to be still in
existence on the Baltic coast.
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