page_title: Paris Gun
section_title: In popular culture
hierarchical_section_title: Paris Gun / In popular culture
caption_attribution_description: Great_Dictator_-_The_Big_Bertha_-_Cannon_in_the_First_World_War
context_page_description: The Paris Gun was the name given to a type of German long-range siege gun, several of which were used to bombard Paris during World War I. They were in service from March to August 1918. When the guns were first employed, Parisians believed they had been bombed by a high-altitude Zeppelin, as the sound of neither an aeroplane nor a gun could be heard. They were the largest pieces of artillery used during the war by barrel length, and qualify under the formal definition of large-calibre artillery.
  Also called the "Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz", they were often confused with Big Bertha, the German howitzer used against the Liège forts in 1914; indeed, the French called them by this name, as well. They were also confused with the smaller "Langer Max" cannon, from which they were derived; although the famous Krupp-family artillery makers produced all these guns, the resemblance ended there.
  As military weapons, the Paris Guns were not a great success: the payload was small, the barrel required frequent replacement, and the guns' accuracy was good enough for only city-sized targets.
context_section_description: A parody of the Paris Gun appears in the Charlie Chaplin movie The Great Dictator.  Firing at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the "Tomanians" (the fictional country that represented Germany) succeed in blowing up a small outhouse. The destruction of the St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church inspired Romain Rolland to write his novel Pierre et Luce.
caption: "Big Bertha" in the Charlie Chaplin film The Great Dictator.[15]
exif: {}