Hello everyone, I'm searching for scale drawings (1/35?) of the WW1 German "Big Bertha" mortar. Anyone have these or have any ideas? Thanks!!! -Mark

Sorry I can't help with plans, although I do recall they were published in Military Modelling a few years ago.

But this site may be of some help. Big Bertha

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
David

Yes, that's the one. Actually, that particular website was the inspiration for me to begin searching for plans for Bertha. I think it would be an awesome scratchbuild project and a great way to begin experimenting with turning aluminum barrels. I've sought out info on Bertha in books and on the web and have only found grainy pics but no scale plans. I've commited myself to the project so I'll keep searching and any help out there is appreciated. Thanks for the reply David and I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year also.

-Mark

Many months late, so this may be of no use, but I helped write the article on Landships, and provided many of the photos. I've been in ccontact with various artillery experts in Europe and elsewhere and no-one has any original drawings of the Big Bertha. The drawings in Military Modelling many years ago were not very accurate, I'm afraid. I know someone of great talent who is working on producing a set (he has an unrivalled collection of photos of the gun), but as he's very busy progress is slow. Still, I'll drop him a line.

English sources on the Big Bertha are very poor, and usually reproduce the same IWM photo everyone has seen a million times. A good German source is the Waffen A r s e n a l* 'Dicke Berta' Special Band 31 by Axel Turra. It's very easy to get cheaply.

*The word had to be spaced out as, unbelievably, the first four letters were auto-censored!