The Pariskanone was supposed to be turned over to the Allies following the armistice but never was. The design was eventually modified as a railway-gun for use in the East during the Second World War, and this cannon was call "Big Gustav." Here's a really interesting excerpt from William Manchester's 'The Arms of Krupp' about the Pariskanone: "What made the Pariskanone extraordinary was its range. Originally it had been designed as a naval gun. In the autumn of 1914 Rausenberger, working at Meppen with a primitive model, had perfected a barrel which would fire thirty-one miles. In forty-one months of experimentation he had increased this to eighty-one miles. At the same time he had improved its accuracy, so that although the Laon sailient was seventy-seven miles northeast of the capital, the first shell burst in the very center of the Place de la Republique. The German navy still regarded the weapon as its own, and it was serviced by a crew of sixty seamen commanded by a full admiral. All had been carefully trained for this one task, for their 150-ton prodigy required exceptional care. The thirty-pount disparity in shells was deliberate. The sailors had been taught that each projectile must be "vorgewarmt" (pre-heated) in an underground chamber before firing, and that after every round the barrel must be slung from blocks and "gerade gebogen" (straightened). But even the most painstaking attention to detail could not repeal metallurgical laws. Firing expanded the bore slightly. Therefore the tapered projectiles were numbered, each slightly longer and thicker than the last. The caliber was never constant. Although officially listed at 8.3 inches, in practice it varied between 8.2 and 8.4 inches. After 65 firings a barrel was useless and had to be replaced. Appointing a flag officer to one gun may seem absurd, but he presided over an instrument panel as large as a warship's. Extensive exercises in higher mathematics preceded the launching of every shell. The commanding officer and his staff pored over last-minute data on atmospheric pressure, humidity, temperature, and the curvature of the earth's surface. Because no artillery observer could see eighty miles, reports from spies within Paris told them whether or not they were enjoying good shooting, and if not, where they were off. When countdown time came, a special telephone alerted thirty sounding batteries, who opened fire to confuse Allied teams trying to pinpoint the Pariskanone's location, and forty Fokker pursuit planes were held in readiness on a nearby airfield against the possibility that the teams might succeed anyhow and send bombers over."

The gun was devastating but militarily ineffective. It ate up resources for little gain, and because its target was civilians, in the words of Gert von Klass "it only made Germany more hated than ever."