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| The Church Today |
Located at 13 rue des Barres in the 4th Arrondissement, St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church suffered a great tragedy on Good Friday, 1918. During their spring offensives of 1918, the German military deployed a terror weapon against Paris. The Krupp arms works had developed an early "super gun" that could bombard Paris from 75 miles away. The officially designated Wilhelmgeschütz (Kaiser Wilhelm Gun) was one of the most remarkable artillery pieces ever built.
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| One of the Paris Guns |
Commonly known as the "Paris Gun" (not "Big Bertha"), shells from the three pieces deployed rode to 25 miles in the stratosphere before plunging to earth. Consequently, it was very inexact as to where they would land. From March through August of 1918, three of the guns shot 351 shells at Paris from the woods of Crepy. Casualties of the gun's use are estimated at 256 deaths and 620 wounded within the city.
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| The Damaged Church |
Of this total, 88 killed and 68 wounded on 29 March 1918 alone when a shell landed on the church of St-Gervais-et-St-Protais, causing its collapse while a Good Friday service was in progress. A memorial in the church remembers the victims that day.
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| Memorial to the Dead of That Day |
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