Arms and the Man: Dr. Gerald Bull, Iraq and the Supergun

Sidney Allinson is the editor at the Royal Canadian Military Institute
and author of The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I.

An Israeli Secret Service agent murdered Dr. Gerald Bull in 1990, just
10 months before the start of the Gulf War. His death brought out a
true-life story of espionage, intrigue, and international arms-dealing
every bit as fantastic as any florid scriptwriter’s scenario.
Biographer Lowther tells a remarkable tale, really, considering it
revolves around a Canadian scientist, not usually the stuff of drama.

Born in North Bay, Ontario, Bull was the greatest gun scientist of our
time—a genius at designing long-range artillery in an age when
military favor had switched to guided missiles. Once a highly valued
24-year-old wunderkind employed by the Canadian and American governments
on top-secret weapons research, Bull suddenly found himself out of a
job. He started his own company, designing innovative artillery pieces.
After one of them, the 155 mm G–6 Rhino, had been rejected by every
Western power, it was proven spectacularly effective in combat by South
African forces. However, it was Bull’s sale of some ammunition to
South Africa that cost him six months in jail for violating sanctions.
Lowther makes a good case for believing that this U.S. prison term so
affected Bull that he diverted on a course that led almost inevitably to
his death.

Lowther has done a fine job of researching the man behind the
scientist, bringing out the insights of his subject’s family, friends,
and enemies. But in this account, Bull’s final design—a long-range
super-gun code-named “Project Babylon”—almost overshadows its
creator, seeming to take on a sinister personality of its own. This
gigantic artillery system (200 m long, with a 1 m bore) was Saddam
Hussein’s personal dream. The dictator saw it as the ultimate weapon
of spite, intended to bombard Israel with high-explosive shells the size
of industrial garbage cans. Israeli agents carried on a war of nerves
against Bull for months, trying to scare him off further work on the
weapon. When he persisted in developing the gun for Iraq, Tel Aviv’s
patience ran out. The Baghdad Gun died with Gerald Bull when he was shot
at the door of his Brussels apartment.