There was a tendency in American military engineering during the Second World War: to test aerial bombs, use large-caliber gun barrels that had been removed from service. However, the size of the shells soon increased, and the huge installations lost their relevance. But they were not forgotten about them at all, but simply found another application. This is how the famous Little David appeared - the largest-caliber gun in the world.
Already from the beginning of 1944, the Americans, together with the allied forces, more and more intercepted the initiative from the Japanese in the Pacific theater of operations. In the United States, they even began to think about the occupation of the country of the rising sun itself. Therefore, it was decided to develop weapons capable of quickly and effectively destroying the Japanese fortification lines.
Among other projects, there was a mortar of a caliber unprecedented until that time - 36 inches, or 914 mm. The gun, which received the original name Little David ("Little David", or "Little David"), surpassed in barrel size even the German monstrous "Dora" - its caliber was 807 mm.
The mortar was designed on the basis of the same systems for testing large-caliber bombs. Therefore, despite the diameter of the barrel, the gun itself turned out to be rather small, especially in comparison with the German giants.
The Little David design consisted of a 7-meter rifled barrel weighing more than 40 tons, which was mounted on a 46-ton static "box". In addition to the gun itself, a projectile was developed separately, of the total mass of which (1700 kg) the explosive was 700 kg in weight.
However, the very first tests were unsuccessful and showed all the ineffectiveness of the huge weapon. Checked "Little David" at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds since October 1944. The tests stretched for many months - neither the firing range, nor the accuracy of the shells hit satisfied the developers and the command. And, no matter how much they fought over the weapon, they could not come to the desired results.
The war, meanwhile, ended, and although American military engineers were still working on the modernization of the mortar for some time, the project was ultimately closed in 1946. And "Little David", and remained in a single copy, became part of the exposition of the Aberdeen Museum.
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