Bring History to Life Collections Magazine

26 September, 2025

The world’s most powerful war machine After World War I, Germany was prohibited from rearming. But that didn’t bother Adolf Hitler in the least. The Nazi leader had barely gained power in 1933 before he began to mobilise factories for war. Within months they were rolling out state-of-the-art weapons – just six years later, Germany had developed the world’s biggest war machine. And the Germans were thinking big, literally. The Schwerer Gustav super gun had a barrel over 30 metres long that could hit targets up to 38 km away with armour-piercing shells. Eight shells from the steel monster were enough to lay waste to Sevastopol’s coastal batteries in 1942. The British, on the other hand, thought in terms of speed and manoeuvrability, and the latter proved crucial when the Spitfire found itself up against the – on paper – more powerful German Messerschmitt in 1940. In this special issue, discover more about Germany’s super gun, the legendary fighter planes and many other extraordinary weapons that appeared during World War II – some more successful than others.