At that same moment Gladiator’s destruction was confirmed, the existence of Piecemaker to the west of Dover was also discovered upon its first firing, and again the information was relayed back to the battery commanders from their observer’s high above The Channel. Having fired its ranging shot on Sceneshifter, Gustav was once more directed onto this new target as it began to reload while Dora — now halfway through its own reloading cycle — was assigned to Sceneshifter, its crew waiting patiently for notification of the fall of shot so further corrections could be made.
“All crews! Left one minute… up two hundred… fire for effect!” At the observation post atop Shakespeare Cliff, points of impact were noted on the fall of both shells, and the captain in charge of fire direction called in final corrections, bellowing his orders into the radio. The only advantage Sceneshifter and Piecemaker now possessed against the two behemoths on the opposite side of The Channel was their substantially greater rate of fire, and their crews intended to put that to use. Each shell fired from France might well be almost ten times the weight of theirs, but they could fire ten rounds in return in the time it took Gustav and Dora to fire two. Their task now would be to make sure that volume of fire was used to good effect.
The men of the Royal Marine Siege Regiment went through their reloading processes with the kind of precision expected of professional artillerymen, and both guns had fired again before Gustav’s first shot on Sceneshifter had landed. To the relief of all concerned, it impacted harmlessly in the harbour a thousand metres short, launching a huge geyser of water into the sky as it exploded, but actually doing no real damage whatsoever. None of the crew had any illusions however as to any deficiencies in the training of their opponents, and they all knew the next shell coming their way would undoubtedly be much closer.
There was nowhere for the POWs to hide — digging tools and heavy machinery were no shelter whatsoever in the face of a bombardment from naval guns — and many more were killed and badly wounded as the second British salvo landed directly ahead of Gustav’s main protective blast walls. The thick barrier of earth and reinforced concrete wasn’t affected in the slightest by the detonations however, although the reloading process was slowed somewhat as the crew were showered by a rain of earth and debris thrown up by the twin explosions.
A third salvo landed forty seconds later, also to no great effect, as Dora finished her next loading cycle and fired again, this time on Sceneshifter, and four more 13.5-inch shells would land in the time it took Dora’s next shot to fire and cross The Channel. None would have any more effect on the pair of huge guns, although several light AA emplacements nearby were destroyed and a small magazine explosion ensued, killing many in the immediate area.
There was no time for congratulation of any kind however as Dora’s second shell howled in unerringly on its target. At ranges of over thirty-five kilometres, vagaries of wind and errors in observation meant it was difficult, if not impossible to obtain pinpoint accuracy from any long-range artillery piece. The majority of the weight of any normal artillery shell was predominantly ‘dead’ weight due to the thickness required in the shell walls to withstand the pressures of firing and by the stress of being propelled along a rifled barrel at great speed.
In the case of the British 13.5 inch gun for example, the nominal weight of the ‘light’ HE shell was 567kg however the actual ‘bursting charge’ of explosive within the projectile was just eighty kilos. This could certainly produce a quite lethal blast, but the size of actual charge was nevertheless comparatively quite small in comparison to an aircraft bomb of similar size, where there were no such pressures placed on the weapon and far more of its overall weight could be dedicated to explosive power. The same applied to the shells fired by Gustav and Dora, however it was all a matter of scale, and in the case of a projectile weighing five tonnes, the bursting charge stood at around 700kg: almost ten times the destructive force of its opponents’ weapons. This constituted a substantial amount of high explosive, producing a massive blast and shockwave, and as such there was no pressing need for pinpoint accuracy.
The second shot on Sceneshifter landed just 150 metres short of its intended target and was also rather unfortunately a direct hit on the historic Archcliffe Fort. The main buildings disintegrated, and the resultant blast was also powerful enough to collapse a number of houses on Archcliffe Rd and shatter the nearby viaduct across the rail lines. Wreckage and debris from the explosion rained down over a huge area as a pall of thick, black smoke rolled slowly skyward.
Sceneshifter was far too close to escape unscathed. As the fortifications above were obliterated, the shock of the impact and resultant crater were such that a section of the retaining wall below the fort instantly collapsed and spilled violently out onto the tracks ahead of the gun. The overpressure from the detonation and the masses of shrapnel that came with it were more than sufficient to topple the gun from its tracks and kill or severely maim every crewman into the bargain. Those few left alive — barely — were given little opportunity to consider their fate as the ammunition wagon behind was subjected to that same blast wave and its contents exploded a split second later, reducing what was left of the weapon and its locomotive to ragged lumps of twisted metal in the process.
General Sir John Dill, standing with his aide and several artillery officers inside the observation post atop Shakespeare Cliff, watched through the large telescope in futile anguish as a continued shower of British shells fell all around the German battery across The Channel yet failed to have any appreciable effect. The news of Gladiator’s destruction had barely been reported just moments before, and even as he watched, the huge plume of a muzzle blast rose through the haze of smoke now shrouding the target area, clearly signalling that one of the huge enemy guns had fired again.
It had taken just two shells to despatch Gladiator, and another ranging shell had already fallen into Dover Harbour near Sceneshifter, clearly indicating the second of their three guns was now in grave danger. It was a call he was loath to make, but the continued risk of losing their remaining assets in what was quickly proving to be an ineffectual barrage was something he wasn’t willing to accept any longer.
“Jameson!” He lifted his eye from the eyepiece and turned toward the captain beside him, who was staring through the lens of a similar telescope. “Advise both units to cease firing immediately and withdraw to safety!” There was no mistaking the urgency in his tone as he gave the orders. “Get them out of there!”
Captain Jameson instantly picked up the microphone of a radio placed on a small bench to his left and began relaying the change of orders to the gun commanders on site. Piecemaker responded with confirmation within seconds, however there was no reply from Sceneshifter whatsoever despite several attempts to raise them directly. It was a minute or two later before news came in over the same radio from another source notifying of the loss of the second weapon, along with the destruction of a substantial section of residential Dover and the demolition of Archcliffe Fort.