German soldier inside a "Paris Canyon" smoking a cigarette, May 1, 1918. The “Paris Cannon” (Paris-Geschütz) was a type of German long-range artillery cannon used to bomb Paris during the “Great War”, designed in late 1916 by German arms technician Fritz Rausenberger and manufactured by the steel company Krupp.
The "Paris Canyon" was manufactured from the cannon of the 38 cm German artillery Lange Max, equipped with an extension tube, which gave the cannon a length of 34 meters. Seven cannons were built in total. The barrel was mounted on a concrete site with a swivel plate and weighed 256 tonnes.
The projectiles, which contained 7 kg of TNT, were initially 21.6 cm in diameter and 96 cm in length, weighing 106 kg. The missiles had a journey time of 182 seconds before being fired, in which they reached a speed of 1,640 m/s. Successive shots eroded the inner steel of the cannon, so larger projectiles were continued to be manufactured to adapt to the barrel of the cannon.
The "Paris Canyon" projectiles could reach a height of 39 km, literally to the stratosphere. Because of this, the Germans had to take into account the Coriolis effect when shooting it. The lack of air resistance in the stratosphere allowed the projectiles to have a range of 130 km.
Although impressive, the small TNT-weight ratio of its projectiles meant that the projectile effect was quite small, one registered projectile hole only reached 3.7m wide and 1.2m deep. For this reason, the purpose of the "Paris Canyon" was not to destroy Paris, but rather as a psychological weapon thinking about undermining the morale of France and the Parisians.
In early 1918, the “Paris Canyon” was ready and placed near Crépy, 121 km from Paris. On March 21, 1918, first day of the German Spring Offensive, the first missile hit Paris at 7:18 am.. Between 320 and 367 projectiles were fired in total, about 20 per day, with 15 minute intervals between each projectile.
In August 1918, the Germans withdrew the huge cannon due to Allied advances. By then, this weapon had killed 256 Parisians and injured 620.

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