60cm Karl-Gerät siege mortar 'Ziu' in action during the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944

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"Karl-Gerät", also known as Mörser Karl, was a World War II German self-propelled siege mortar (Mörser) designed and built by Rheinmetall. Its heaviest munition was a 60cm diameter, 2,170kg shell. Seven guns were built, six of which saw combat between 1941 and 1945. It was used in attacking the Soviet fortresses of Brest-Litovsk and Sevastopol, bombarded Polish resistance fighters in Warsaw, participated in the Battle of the Bulge, and was used to try to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge during the Battle of Remagen.

On 13 August 1944 in Warsaw a battery was ordered to be created immediately with one 54 cm Karl-Gerät and sent to the 9th Army to help it suppress the August Uprising that had started on the first day of the month. The next day the Kommando für Sonder-Geräte formed the Army Artillery Battery (Static) 638 Heeres-Artillerie Batterie (bodenständige) with 60 cm Karl-Gerät Nr. VI "Ziu" since no 54 cm weapon was available and a firing table had not yet been computed. It arrived at the Warsaw West railway station at 07:00 on 17 August 1944; the ammunition train arrived the following morning.

The mortar "Ziu" was settled in the Sowiński Park near the statue of general Józef Sowiński in Wola district. The 600mm caliber mortar shells were designed to destroy bunkers. Often they did not explode when they hit buildings or soft ground in Warsaw. On 18 August 1944 a shell fired from mortar "Ziu" hit the building at Moniuszki 10 street, where the famous Warsaw restaurant "Adria" was located. The shell broke through several stories of the building, roof and floor of the restaurant and finally stopped in the basement, but it did not explode. Sappers of Polish Home Army disarmed the dud shell and removed the explosive charge. The explosive was used to produce hand grenades (Filipinkas) for Polish soldiers. The empty shell was left in the basement. In the mid-1960s during removal of ruins of the restaurant the shell was found. It was moved to the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw, and is a part of the museum's outdoor exhibition.

On 30 August 1944, another dud shell from mortar "Ziu" was found in the basement of Prudential building located at Napoleon Square 9 (Plac Napoleona 9, now Plac Powstańców Warszawy). This shell was also disarmed by sappers of Polish Home Army.

After World War II a few more 600mm dud shells were found in Warsaw. The most recent one was found on 28 August 2012 about 10m below surface of the ground in the neighborhood of Plac Powstańców Warszawy during construction of the second metro line in Warsaw.

On 24 August 1944 OKH noted that it had been very successful in combat and ordered another Karl-Gerät sent to Warsaw. A second battery, numbered 428, was formed two days later by the Kommando für Sonder-Geräte, but it did not arrive at the Warsaw West railway station until 12:57 on 7 September 1944. A third Karl-Gerät 040 was shipped to Warsaw on 10 September and incorporated into Battery 428. "Ziu" needed repairs and was shipped on 22 September back to Jüterbog. At some point a fourth Karl-Gerät was shipped to Warsaw as it was reported as operational on 25 September.