Heavy artillery of the First World War. The weapon that started World War I. Service and combat use

21.09.2019

First World War gave life to super-heavy guns, one shell of which weighed a ton, and the firing range reached 15 kilometers. The weight of these giants reached 100 tons.

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Everyone knows the famous army joke about "crocodiles that fly, but low." However, the military was far from always erudite and far-sighted in the past. For example, General Dragomirov generally believed that the First World War would last four months. But the French military completely adopted the concept of "one gun and a single projectile", intending to use it to defeat Germany in the coming European war.

Russia, walking in line military policy France, also paid tribute to this doctrine. But when the war soon turned into a positional war, the troops dug into the trenches, protected by many rows of barbed wire, it turned out that the Entente allies were sorely lacking heavy guns capable of operating in these conditions.

No, a certain number of relative large-caliber guns troops had: Austria-Hungary and Germany had 100-mm and 105-mm howitzers, England and Russia had 114-mm and 122-mm howitzers. Finally, all the warring countries used 150/152 or 155-mm howitzers and mortars, but even their power was clearly not enough. “Our dugout in three rolls” covered with sandbags on top protected from any shells of light howitzers, and concrete was used against heavier ones.

However, Russia did not even have enough of them, and she had to buy 114-mm, 152-mm and 203-mm and 234-mm howitzers in England. In addition to them, the heavier guns of the Russian army were the 280-mm mortar (developed by the French company Schneider, as well as the entire line of 122-152-mm howitzers and cannons) and the 305-mm howitzer 1915 of the Obukhov plant, produced during the war years in only 50 units!

"Big Bertha"

But the Germans, preparing for offensive battles in Europe, very carefully approached the experience of the Anglo-Boer and Russo-Japanese wars and created in advance not just a heavy, but super heavy gun- 420-mm mortar called "Big Bertha" (named after the then owner of the Krupp concern), the most that neither is a real "hammer of witches."

The projectile of this super-weapon had a weight of 810 kg, and it fired for as much as 14 km. high-explosive projectile during the explosion, it gave a funnel 4.25 meters deep and 10.5 meters in diameter. Fragmentation shattered into 15 thousand pieces of deadly metal, preserving lethal force up to two kilometers away. However, the defenders of the same, for example, Belgian fortresses considered the most terrible armor-piercing shells, from which even two-meter ceilings made of steel and concrete could not save.

During the First World War, the Germans successfully used the Berthas to bombard well-fortified French and Belgian forts, and the Verdun fortress. At the same time, it was noted that in order to break the will to resist and force the fort's garrison of a thousand people to surrender, all it took was only two such mortars, a day of time and 360 shells. Not without reason, our allies on Western front called the 420-mm mortar "fort killer".

In the modern Russian television series The Fall of the Empire, during the siege of the Kovno fortress, the Germans fire at it from the Big Bertha. In any case, that's what it says on the screen. In fact, the "Big Bertha" was "played" by the Soviet 305-mm artillery mount TM-3-12 on the railway track, radically different from the "Berta" in all respects.

A total of nine such guns were built, they participated in the capture of Liege in August 1914, and in the battle for Verdun in the winter of 1916. Under the Osovets fortress, four guns were delivered on February 3, 1915, so the scenes of its use on the Russian-German front should have been filmed in winter, not summer!

Giants from Austria-Hungary

But on the Eastern Front, Russian troops more often had to deal with another 420-mm monster gun - not a German, but an Austro-Hungarian howitzer of the same caliber M14, created in 1916. And yielding German gun in the firing range (12700 m), it surpassed it in terms of the weight of the projectile, which weighed one ton!

Fortunately, this monster was much less transportable than a wheeled German howitzer. Tu, albeit slowly, but it was possible to tow. The Austro-Hungarian, every time you change position, had to be disassembled and transported using 32 trucks and trailers, and it took from 12 to 40 hours to assemble it.

It should be noted that in addition to the terrible destructive action, these guns also had a relatively high rate of fire. So, "Bertha" fired one shell in eight minutes, and the Austro-Hungarian - 6-8 shells per hour!

Less powerful was another Austro-Hungarian howitzer "Barbara", caliber 380 mm, which fired 12 rounds per hour and sent its 740-kilogram shells to a distance of 15 km! However, both this gun and the 305-mm and 240-mm mortars were stationary installations that were transported in parts and installed in special positions, which required time and a lot of work to equip. In addition, the 240-mm mortar fired only at 6500 m, that is, it was in the kill zone even of our Russian 76.2-mm field gun! Nevertheless, all these guns fought and fired, but we obviously did not have enough guns to answer them.

Entente response

How did the Allies in the Entente respond to all this? Well, Russia didn't have much choice: they were mostly the already mentioned 305-mm howitzers, with a projectile weighing 376 kg and a range of 13448 m, firing one shot in three minutes.

But the British released a whole series of such stationary guns of ever-increasing caliber, starting with 234-mm and up to 15-inch - 381-mm siege howitzers. Winston Churchill himself was actively involved in the latter, having achieved their release in 1916. Although this gun turned out to be not very impressive with the British, they released only twelve of them.

It threw a projectile weighing 635 kg to a distance of only 9.87 km, while the installation itself weighed 94 tons. And it was a net weight, without ballast. The fact is that in order to give this gun greater stability (and all other guns of this type), they had a steel box under the barrel, which had to be filled with 20.3 tons of ballast, that is, simply put, fill it with earth and stones.

Therefore, the 234-mm installations Mk I and Mk II became the most massive in the British army (a total of 512 guns of both types were fired). At the same time, they fired a 290-kilogram projectile at 12,740 m. But ... they also needed this very 20-ton box of earth, and just imagine the amount of earthwork that was required to install just a few of these guns in positions! By the way, today you can see it “live” in London at the Imperial War Museum, just like the 203-mm English howitzer exhibited in the courtyard Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg!

The French, on the other hand, responded to the German challenge by creating a 400-mm howitzer M 1915/16 on a railway transporter. The gun was developed by the Saint-Chamond company and already during the first combat use on October 21–23, 1916, it showed its high efficiency. The howitzer could fire both "light" high-explosive projectiles weighing 641-652 kg, containing about 180 kg explosives respectively, and heavy from 890 to 900 kg. At the same time, the firing range reached 16 km. Before the end of the First World War, eight 400-mm such installations were made, two more installations were assembled after the war.

As you know, the First World War was one of the largest and bloodiest in the entire First World War, it was very diverse. In combat operations, almost all existing types of weapons were used, including new ones.

Aviation

Aviation was widely used - at first it was used for reconnaissance, and then it was used to bombard the army at the front and in the rear, as well as to attack civilian villages and cities. For raids on the cities of England and France, in particular Paris, Germany used airships (often used weapons of the First World War, they were also called "zeppelins" - in honor of the designer F. Zeppelin).

Heavy artillery

The British in 1916 for the first time began to use a small number of armored vehicles (i.e. tanks) at the front. By the end of the war, they were already doing a lot of damage. The army from France was armed with a tank called the Renault FT-17, which was used to support the infantry. Armored cars (armored vehicles equipped with machine guns or cannons) were also used in those years. During the First World War, as is known, almost all powers were armed with easel machine guns as artillery means for conducting combat operations (close combat). The Russian army had at its disposal 2 models of such machine guns (modifications of the H.S. Maxim system, an American designer) and during the war years the number of used light machine guns(another common weapon of the First World War).

Chemical weapon

Back in January 1915, for the first time on the Russian front, chemical weapon. In pursuit of success, the participants in the hostilities did not stop at the violation of customs and laws - the First World War was so unprincipled. Chemical weapons were used on the Western Front in April 1915 by the German command (poison gases) - a new tool mass extermination. Chlorine gas was released from the cylinders. Heavy greenish-yellow clouds, creeping along the very ground, rushed towards the Anglo-French troops. Those who were in the infection radius began to suffocate. As a countermeasure, about 200 chemical plants were rapidly created in Russia. world war required modernization. To ensure the success of operations, artillery was used - simultaneously with the release of gases, artillery fire was opened. Photos of weapons of the First World War can be seen in our article.

Soon after both sides began using poison gases at the front, the famous Russian academician and chemist N.D. Zelinsky invented a coal gas mask that saved the lives of many thousands of people.

Navy weapons

The war, in addition to land, was also fought on the seas. In March 1915, the whole world learned the terrible news: a submarine from Germany sank a huge passenger ship"Lusitania". More than a thousand civilian passengers died. And in 1917, the so-called unlimited submarine war German submarines. The Germans openly declared their intention to sink not only the ships of opponents, but also neutral countries in order to deprive England of access to allies and colonies, thereby leaving her without bread and industrial raw materials. German submarines sank many hundreds of passenger and merchant ships in England and neutral countries.

Automobile transport

It should be noted that the Russian army at that time was poorly provided for. In total, at the beginning of hostilities there were 679 vehicles. By 1916, the army already had 5.3 thousand cars, and this year another 6.8 thousand were produced, because this was required by the First World War. Weapons and troops needed to be transported. These are quite impressive figures, however, for example, the French army, which was twice as small in size, had 90,000 vehicles by the end of the war.

Small arms of the First World War

Officer's pistol "Parabellum", 1908 The capacity of the magazine "Parabellum" according to the standard was 8 rounds. For the needs of the fleet, it was lengthened to 200 mm, and the naval version of the weapon also had a fixed sight. "Parabellum" was the main regular officer model. All Kaiser officers were armed with this weapon.
"Mauser" - a pistol of horse rangers. The magazine capacity was 10 rounds and the weight was 1.2 kg. The maximum range of the shot was 2000 m.
Pistol officer "Mauser" (application - World War I). The weapon was a small pocket type. Advantages - good accuracy of fire.
Soldier's pistol "Dreyze" (1912). Barrel length - 126 mm, weight - 1050 g without cartridges, drum capacity - 8, caliber - 9 mm. These weapons were quite heavy and complex, but powerful enough to provide the soldiers with the necessary self-defense in hand-to-hand trench combat.
Self-loading (1908) The caliber of this weapon is 7 mm, the weight is 4.1 kg, the magazine capacity was 10 rounds, and effective range- 2000 m. It was the first self-loading rifle in history used in battles. Oddly enough, the weapon was developed in Mexico, and the level of technical capabilities in this country was extremely low. The main disadvantage is the extreme sensitivity to pollution.
9 mm MP-18 submachine gun (1918). The magazine capacity was 32 cartridges, caliber - 9 mm, weight without cartridges - 4.18 kg, with cartridges - 5.3 kg, automatic fire only. This weapon was designed to increase the firepower of the infantry, to wage war in new conditions. It gave delays when firing and was sensitive to pollution, but showed a large combat effectiveness and density of fire.

1914: "Fatty Berta" and her younger sister.

In August 1914, in order to realize the long-planned blitzkrieg to crush France - the "Schlieffen plan", the German army should short time defeat Belgium. However, a serious threat to the promotion German troops represented by the Belgian defense system of 12 main forts built around the perimeter of Liège, which the Belgian press proudly called "impregnable." This turned out to be a delusion; the German army had a master key prepared in advance, opening the gates to France for it.
1. The beginning of the assault.

Liege was surrounded by the Germans and huge, hitherto unknown guns appeared on its outskirts, one of the witnesses - local residents compared these monsters with "gorged slugs". By the evening of August 12, one of them was put on alert and aimed at Fort Pontisse. The German gunners, having closed their eyes, ears and mouths with special bandages, fell to the ground, preparing for a shot, which was fired from a distance of three hundred meters with an electric trigger. At 18:30 Liege shuddered with a roar, an 820-kilogram projectile, describing an arc, rose to a height of 1200 meters and a minute later reached the fort, over which a conical cloud of dust, smoke and debris * rose.

2. Honey, I'll name a cannon after you!
Gun "Big Bertha" ( DickenBertha) was very touchingly named after the granddaughter of Alfred Krupp, the German "cannon king". Heavy, you see, the girl had a character.

Two prototypes of the famous gun: one of the first samples of the "Big Bertha" and Bertha Krupp herself ( Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach).
3. German 42.0 cm mortar, type M. .
The first prototype of the gun was developed in 1904 at the Krupp factories, by 1914 4 copies were built. The barrel caliber was 42 centimeters, the weight of the shells reached 820 kilograms, and the firing range was 15 kilometers. The rate of fire of "Berta" was to match the size, it was 1 shot in 8 minutes. To transport the gun over long distances, it was disassembled into 5 parts - for the transportation of a 58-ton monster at that time, such road transport simply did not exist.

When transporting, it turned out to be a small road train, these were special tractors: the first car carried a lifting mechanism, the second transported the base platform, the third carried a cradle (a mechanism for vertical guidance) and an opener (fastening the machine to the ground), the fourth carried the machine (its rear wheels were the wheels of the gun itself), the fifth - the barrel of the mortar. A total of 9 such guns were built, four mortars were involved in the assault on the Russian fortress of Osovets in February 1915, and later the Berts participated in the famous battle for Verdun in the winter of 1916.

Three types of shells were used, all of which had tremendous destructive power. A high-explosive projectile during the explosion formed a funnel 4.25 meters deep and 10.5 meters in diameter. Fragmentation shattered into 15 thousand pieces of deadly metal, retaining lethal force at a distance of up to two kilometers. Armor-piercing shells"killers of fortresses" pierced two-meter ceilings of steel and concrete. Krupp's Cyclops, in addition to his mobility, had another serious drawback - accuracy, or rather, its absence: during the shelling of Fort Wilheim, only 30 hits fell on 556 shots, that is, only 5.5%.
4. 30.5 cm heavy mortar M11 / 16 "Skoda"..
By this time, two 30.5-cm Skoda guns had already been delivered to Liege, which began shelling other forts. Despite its smaller size compared to the Krupp giants, this mortar proved to be a much more effective weapon.

The mortar was a completely modern weapon for that time, the order was made by the company " Skoda» at the factory in Pilsen. The breech had a horizontal-wedge gate, with several safety devices against an accidental shot. Two cylinders were located above the barrel - a recoil brake, below the barrel there were three other cylinders - a knurler, which returned the barrel to its original position after recoil. The barrel and cradle were superimposed on a carriage, which had a lifting mechanism of two geared arcs.

The gun also had an ironic nickname - " SchlankeEmma”, i.e. “slim Emma”. Austria-Hungary lost 8 guns to Germany - it still had 16 built copies, by 1918 the number of mortars reached 72. She was very similar to her "sister" in design, but did not have wheels, she weighed less - 20.830 kg. The mortar shell pierced two meters of concrete, an indirect effect of the consequences of the hit was that the gases and smoke from the detonation filled the casemates and corridors, forcing the defenders to leave their posts and even get to the surface. The explosion crater was approximately 5 to 8 meters in diameter, fragments from the explosion could penetrate hard cover within 100 meters and hit fragments within 400 meters.

Transportation of 30.5 cm heavy mortar M11 to a position on the Italian front.

For transportation, a 15-ton tractor was required Skoda-Daimler and three carts with metal wheels: a 10-ton platform-frame, an 8.5-ton barrel and a 10-ton platform support, machine and cradle.

« Skoda"- not only automobility. The projectile and the 30.5 cm mortar M11 itself in the Belgrade Military Museum, Belgrade Military Museum, Serbia

5. Shelling of forts.
Fort Pontisse withstood forty-five shots per day of bombardment and was so destroyed that it was easily captured by the German infantry on August 13. On the same day, two more forts fell, and on August 14, the rest, located to the east and north of the city, their guns were destroyed, the path to the north of von Kluck's 1st Army from Liege was free.

Ruins of Fort Loncin) after shelling"Big Bertha".

The siege weapons were then transferred to the western forts. One of the 420-millimeter guns, the Germans, partially dismantled, was taken to Fort Lonsin through the whole city. Celestin Demlblon, a deputy from Liège, was at that time in St. Peter's Square, when he suddenly saw "an artillery gun of such colossal proportions that one could not even believe his eyes." The monster, divided into two parts, was dragged by 36 horses. The pavement shook, the crowd silently, numb with horror, watched the movement of this fantastic machine, the soldiers accompanying the guns walked tensely, almost with ritual solemnity. In the park d "Avroy, the gun was assembled and aimed at the fort. There was a terrifying roar, the crowd was thrown back, the earth trembled, as if during an earthquake, all the windows flew out in the neighboring blocks in the houses.

Armored cap of a Belgian fort with traces of a shell.

By August 15, the Germans captured eleven of the twelve forts, only Fort Lonsin held out, on August 16, a Big Bertha shell landed in its ammunition depot and blew up the fort from the inside. Liege fell.

For thisThe "Big Bertha" war ended in November 1918.

6. Dora and Gustav. Was it worth it to make it so difficult?
was brewing new war, in 1936, the Krupp concern received an order to create super-powerful guns to destroy the French Maginot Line and Belgian border forts, such as Eben-Emael. The order was completed only in 1941, two real artillery masterpieces were built, called "Dora" and "Fat Gustav", the order cost the III Reich 10 million Reichmarks. True, they were not useful for the assault on the Belgian forts.
During the construction of Fort Eben-Emael, the Belgians took into account the sad experience of the First World War for themselves and designed it so that it would not fall under the blows of super-heavy artillery, as was already the case during the German offensive of 1914. They hid their cannon casemates at a depth of forty meters, making them invulnerable to both 420-mm siege guns and dive aircraft.
To re-invade Belgium in 1940, the Germans would have had to storm a powerful defensive center; according to all calculations, the Wehrmacht would need at least two weeks for this, they had to pull together a strong ground grouping, powerful artillery and bombers to the fort, the losses during the assault were estimated at two divisions.
May 10, 1940 a detachment of only 85 German paratroopers in cargo gliders DSF 230 was landed directly on the roof of an impregnable Belgian fort. Part of the group missed landing and came under fire, but the rest blew up the armored caps of the guns with shaped charges specially designed for the operation and threw the defenders of the fort who had taken refuge in it lower levels, grenades. The headquarters responsible for blowing up the bridges over the Albert Canal was destroyed by a Luftwaffe strike in the village of Laneken, and the garrison of Fort Eben-Emael capitulated.
Superguns were not needed.
________________________________________ __
* -B. Takman, "August guns", 1972, M
Sources:
Bertha Krupp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Krupp
Skoda 305 mm Model 1911: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skoda_305_mm_Model_1911
Capture of Fort Eben-Emal: http://makarih-203.livejournal.com/243574.html
30.5 cm heavy mortar M11/16:

More than a hundred years ago, Europe and America were convinced that big war impossible. The Chicago Tribune, in its issue of January 1, 1901, wrote: “The twentieth century will be the century of humanity and the brotherhood of all people.” The "age of humanity" turned into an unprecedented massacre.

The First World War, which began on July 28, 1914, brought a lot of technological, scientific and social innovations. Military aviation, tanks, machine guns, hand grenades, mortars and other weapons of murder during the First World War.

Warplanes, long-range artillery, tanks, machine guns, hand grenades and mortars - all these novelties appeared during the First World War. And before the war, German politicians and generals rejected many ideas that were implemented during the war. The flamethrower was patented by the Berlin engineer Richard Fiedler in 1901. But production was organized only during the war. It was launched during the Battle of Verdun in February 1916. A jet of flame hit 35 meters ... For more information about the new murder weapons that appeared during the First World War, we will read in the material "Ogonyok" by Leonid Mlechin.

Among the technological innovations that began to be used regularly during the First World War and changed the battlefield forever were machine guns. The Russian army at the beginning of the war had three models of machine guns "Maxim" / In the photo: 37-mm automatic cannon, "machine gun"

65 million people participated in the First World War. One in six died. Millions returned home injured or disabled. Western Europeans suffered in the First World War the biggest losses in their history, and it is this war that is called the "great". In World War I, twice as many British, three times as many Belgians and four times as many French died as in World War II.

During the First World War, women were officially enrolled in the ranks of the US military. The US Navy created a reserve force that allowed women to serve as radio operators, nurses, and other auxiliary military positions / Pictured: Rear Admiral Victor Blue (center left), head of the US Bureau of Shipping, 1918

They were afraid of each other

The more you read memoirs and books about the First World War, the more clearly you understand that none of the leading men understood where they were leading their country. They, so to speak, slipped into the war, or, to put it another way, stumbling like sleepwalkers, collapsed into it - stupidly! However, perhaps not only out of stupidity. I wanted a war - not so terrible, of course, but small, glorious and victorious.

German Kaiser Wilhelm, British King George V and Czar Nicholas II were cousins. They met at family celebrations, for example, at the wedding of the Kaiser's daughter in Berlin in 1913. So to some extent it was a fratricidal war...

At the beginning of the war, aircraft were used only for reconnaissance. 1915 changed the fate of military aviation. The French pilot Roland Garros was the first to install a machine gun on his Moran-Salnier monoplane. In response, the Germans developed the Fokker fighter, in which the rotation of the propeller was synchronized with firing from the onboard machine gun, which made it possible to conduct aimed fire. The appearance of the Fokkers in the summer of 1915 allowed German aviation to seize dominance in the sky

The fate of Europe that summer depended on several hundred people - monarchs, ministers, generals and diplomats. Very old people, they lived by old ideas. They could not imagine that the game was going according to new rules and that the new war would in no way resemble the conflicts of the bygone century.

All the great powers contributed to the outbreak of the First World War. Because they mainly cared about their own prestige, they were afraid of losing influence and political weight. France saw that it was losing the arms race with Germany and wanted to enlist the support of Russia. Germany was afraid of the rapid industrial growth of Russia and was in a hurry to deliver a preemptive strike. Nicholas II was worried: what if England switches sides? London feared that the development of the German Reich threatened the very existence of the British Empire. Germany supported Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, while Britain considered them adversaries. This was the tragedy of Europe: every action gave birth to reaction. You acquire an ally, an irreconcilable enemy is immediately revealed. And small states, like Serbia, pitted the great powers against each other and acted as a detonator.

"Flying team" of Siberians. Archive "Spark", 1914

Kaiser wrote a check

The Emperor of Austria-Hungary, Franz Joseph I, of course, was aware of the danger of Russian intervention on the side of the Slavic brothers in the event of an Austrian attack on Serbia. And he asked Germany for help. On July 5, 1914, the Austrian ambassador visited Kaiser Wilhelm at his new palace in Potsdam.

The traditional scenario of world politics was played out: a weaker country, Austria-Hungary, draws a strong ally, Germany, into a regional conflict. Vienna has made such attempts more than once. But the Germans had put on the brakes before.

But what about the summer of 1914?

In 1906, Emperor Franz Joseph I called useless an armored car with a rotating turret developed by Austro-Daimler (it had a coaxial Maxim machine gun). After 10 years, the British were the first to throw tanks into battle. British heavy tanks "Mark IV" (pictured), first participated in the battle on June 7, 1917, had a crew of 8 people. The armor thickness of the tank ranged from 8 to 16 mm, and was armed with a 2 × 57-mm (6-lb) Hotchkiss L / 23 gun and 4 × 7.7-mm Lewis machine guns

German generals preferred to strike quickly until Russia completed its rearmament program. "Better now than later" is the slogan of Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke. To quickly defeat France and Russia, and to agree with England - this is how the scenario was drawn by the German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg. Berlin assumed that London would remain neutral. And the British allowed the Germans to remain in a pleasant delusion for a long time.

The Kaiser perceived the world as a stage on which he could prove himself in his favorite attire - a military uniform. Otto von Bismarck called it a balloon, which must be held tightly on a string, otherwise it will be carried away no one knows where. But the Kaiser got rid of the iron chancellor. And there was no one else to restrain Wilhelm.

Dining with the Austrian ambassador, the Kaiser wrote him a check for any amount - he said that Vienna could count on the "full support" of Germany, and even advised Franz Joseph I not to hesitate to attack Serbia.

French President Raymond Poincare rushed to St. Petersburg. It seemed to him that Nicholas II was not determined enough. The president insisted: one should be firmer with the Germans.

Everyone understood that they were playing with fire, but they tried to extract some benefits from this dangerous situation. On July 29, the Austrian flotilla on the Danube opened fire on Belgrade. In response, Nicholas II announced a general mobilization.

First rank convoy. Archive "Spark", 1915

Forces were equal

Many wars have been fought in history different reasons. The war that broke out in Europe in the summer of 1914 was pointless; to justify it, the opposing sides immediately gave it an ideological dimension. The First World War is a time of unlimited myth-making: about the atrocities committed by sadistic enemies, and about the nobility of our own miraculous heroes in army overcoats.

Allied propaganda resented the heinous crimes of the "Huns". In the Entente countries, shops and restaurants owned by the Germans were smashed. A British publicist urged his readers: "If you, sitting in a restaurant, find that the waiter serving you is German, throw the soup right into his dirty face."

World War I was the first large-scale war during which most of the combat losses were caused by artillery. According to experts, three out of five died from shell explosions. Many could not withstand the shelling, jumped out of the trench and fell under destructive fire / In the photo: 75-mm gun in the service of the US military, 1918

The young writer Ilya Ehrenburg wrote from France to the poet Maximilian Voloshin on July 19, 1915: "I am reading Petit Nicois. Yesterday there was an editorial on the topic of German smells. the Germans were imprisoned, they have to be burned."

The famous American journalist Garrison Salisbury was then a boy:

"I believed all the stories invented by the British about the cruelties of the Germans - about nuns who were tied to bells instead of tongues, about the severed hands of little girls - for throwing stones at German soldiers ... A letter from Aunt Sue from Paris reported poisoned chocolates, and I was told never to take chocolate from strangers on the street".

No one expected that the war would drag on. But all the plans carefully developed by the General Staffs collapsed in the very first months. The forces of the opposing blocs turned out to be approximately the same. The flourishing of new military equipment multiplied the number of victims, but did not allow crushing the enemy and moving forward. Both sides fought to win, but neither offensive led to nothing.

The First World War was the debut of chemical weapons: in the spring of 1915, the German army staged the first gas attack on the Western Front. April 22 at half past five in the evening near the Flemish city of Ypres in Belgium, a cloud of asphyxiating gas covered enemy positions. Taking advantage of the wind that blew towards the enemy, they released 150 tons of chlorine gas from cylinders. The French soldiers did not understand what kind of cloud was approaching them. As a result, 1.2 thousand people died.

The Battle of the Somme lasted four and a half months. Having paid with the lives of 600 thousand soldiers and officers, France and England won back 10 kilometers. 300 thousand died near Verdun, and the front line remained practically unchanged. Almost half a million Russian soldiers died, were wounded or captured in the summer of 1916 during the Brusilov breakthrough east of Lvov, and won back no more than 100 kilometers.

Near Verdun, German artillerymen fired 2 million shells in the first eight hours of the battle. But when German soldiers went on the offensive, they ran into the resistance of the French infantry, who survived the artillery preparation and fought desperately. From a strategic point of view, it made no sense to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of their soldiers to capture the fortifications around Verdun. But it was equally not worth putting so many people to keep them ...

In 1916, the war exceeded the demographic and economic possibilities of countries to continue it. In Germany, France and Austria-Hungary, 80 percent of the men fit for military service were put under arms. An entire generation was sent to the battlefields.

10.

Russian soldiers try on French helmets at the Mailly camp near Chalons in France. Archive "Spark", 1916

New murder weapons

Warplanes, long-range artillery, tanks, machine guns, hand grenades and mortars - all these novelties appeared during the First World War.

And before the war, German politicians and generals rejected many ideas that were implemented during the war. The flamethrower was patented by the Berlin engineer Richard Fiedler in 1901. But production was organized only during the war. It was launched during the Battle of Verdun in February 1916. The jet of flame hit 35 meters.

In 1906, Emperor Franz Joseph I called useless the armored car with a rotating turret developed by Austro-Daimler (it was equipped with a coaxial machine gun "Maxim"). After 10 years, the British were the first to throw tanks into battle.

11.

Germany was the first to receive chemical weapons, since it had a more developed chemical industry. Great Britain, thanks to the colonies, did not need artificial dyes, and her industry fell behind. But a year after the attack on Ypres, the British caught up with the Germans. The beginning of the use of chemical weapons quickly led to the creation of protective measures, including the first gas masks.

The telephone has become the main means of communication. By 1917, the German army had laid 920,000 kilometers of telephone cable. But since it was easy to cut, army radio appeared. First " Cell phones Weighed 50 kilograms.

Submarines also presented a surprise. The First World War turned the food question into a political one. The blockade of Imperial Germany by the French and British fleets left the Germans almost starving. It is believed that about 600 thousand Germans and Austrians died from hunger in the First World War. The Allies did not expect that it was the submarine fleet that would be able to disrupt the British blockade of Germany.

12.

For the first time at this time, medical blood banks were established. Their author was US Army Captain Oswald Robertson, who showed that blood can be stored for future use and stored using sodium citrate to prevent clotting.

When the war began, the Kaiser had only 28 submarines - nothing compared to the huge fleet of the Entente. In Berlin, they did not understand how useful this novelty would be. Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz had a low opinion of the submarine fleet, calling submarines "second-class weapons."

The operational order, signed by the Kaiser on July 30, 1914, left the submarines with an auxiliary role. But when the U-boats sank three British cruisers, the new method of naval warfare sparked enthusiasm. Germany inflicted considerable damage on England as the British merchant fleet ships sank one after another, hit by German torpedoes.

Many volunteers wished to become submariners. Then it was almost a suicide mission. The sailing conditions were difficult: tiny compartments and terrifying stuffiness. The crews died if the torpedo turned out to be faulty and exploded right on board the boat. And the speed of the submarines was small. If they were discovered, they became an easy target. In World War I, 187 out of 380 German boats were lost.

13.

Submarines played a key role in naval strategy during World War I. Initially, Berlin did not understand how useful this novelty would be. German Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz had a low opinion of the submarine fleet, calling submarines "second-class weapons." But when the U-boats sank three British cruisers, the new method of naval warfare sparked enthusiasm. Germany inflicted considerable damage on England as the British merchant fleet ships sank one after another, hit by German torpedoes.

Gas debut

Germany owes its arsenal of poisonous gases to Fritz Haber, head of the Berlin Institute of Physical Chemistry. Kaiser Wilhelm. He was ahead of colleagues from other countries, which allowed the German army in the spring of 1915 to arrange the first gas attack on the Western Front.

April 22 at half past five in the evening near the Flemish city of Ypres in Belgium, a cloud of asphyxiating gas covered enemy positions. Taking advantage of the wind that blew towards the enemy, they released 150 tons of chlorine gas from cylinders. The French soldiers did not understand what kind of cloud was approaching them. 1,200 people died, 3,000 ended up in a hospital bed.

14.

Before the beginning mass application steel helmets, most of the soldiers of the First World War were forced to wear cloth headdresses / In the photo: the US military in France, 1918

Fritz Haber observed the action of the gas from a safe distance. Three weeks earlier, on April 2, the creator of chemical weapons tested it on himself. Fritz Haber passed through a yellow-green cloud of chlorine - at the training ground where military maneuvers were held. The experiment confirmed the effectiveness of a new way to destroy people. Haber became ill. He coughed, turned white, and had to be carried away on a stretcher.

The Germans underestimated their success, did not try to develop it immediately and missed the time. In the Entente countries, they quickly launched the production of a gas mask, which used activated charcoal. When the Germans again staged a gas attack, the Allies were already more or less ready. But people still died.

15.

Similar observation balloons were used for reconnaissance from the air along with aircraft.

Chemical weapons were launched late in the evening or before dawn, when atmospheric conditions were favorable for this and it was impossible to notice in the dark that gas attack started. The soldiers in the trenches, who did not have time to put on gas masks, were completely defenseless and died in terrible agony.

16.

For the first time during the First World War, aircraft carriers were also used. The first true aircraft carrier was the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, which entered service in 1915. The ship carried out bombardment of Turkish positions / In the photo: the British aircraft carrier HMS Argus

The Entente countries marked chemical munitions with colored stars. "Red star" - chlorine, "yellow star" - a combination of chlorine and chloropicrin. Often used " white star"- chlorine and phosgene. The most terrible were paralyzing gases - hydrocyanic acid and sulfide. These gases acted directly on nervous system which resulted in death within seconds. Mustard gas was the last to enter the Allied arsenal. The Germans called him " yellow cross", because shells with this gas were marked with a Lorraine cross. Mustard gas is also known as mustard gas - its smell resembles mustard or garlic.

In the last weeks of the First World War, from October 1 to November 11, 1918, the Entente countries constantly used mustard gas. 19 thousand German soldiers and officers became victims. During the entire war, 112 thousand tons of poisonous substances were used.

The use of poison gases meant the birth of weapons of mass destruction. Fritz Haber received captain's epaulettes for the attack on Ypres. They say he met the news of the title with tears of joy.

17.

The flamethrower was patented by the Berlin engineer Richard Fiedler in 1901. But production was organized only during the war. It was launched during the Battle of Verdun in February 1916. The jet of flame hit 35 meters.

neurosis and hysteria

When the war was just beginning, they went to the front as if for a walk. But the enthusiasm and enthusiasm quickly evaporated. It turned out that war is not a thrilling, exciting adventure, but death and mutilation. Blood-drenched land, corpses rotting on the battlefield, poisonous gases from which there is no escape ... The armies are bogged down in a positional war. Rats, lice and bedbugs ate the soldiers who had taken refuge in trenches, trenches and dugouts flooded with water.

Artillery shelling continued for hours. According to experts, three out of five died from shell explosions. Many could not withstand the shelling, jumped out of the trench and fell under destructive fire. Doctors saw that war destroys not only the bodies, but also the nerves of the soldiers. The paralyzed, the uncoordinated, the blind, the deaf, the mute, the tic-tremor-ridden, streamed through the psychiatrists' offices.

18.

The First World War contributed to the emergence of fighter pilots, one of the most successful of which was the American Eddie Rickenbacker (pictured)

German doctors considered it a sacred duty to return as many of their patients to the battlefield as possible. The order of the Prussian Ministry of War, issued in 1917, read: "The main consideration from which one should proceed in the treatment of nervous patients is the need to help them give all their strength to the front."

Doctors argued that artillery bombardments, explosions of bombs, mines and grenades lead to invisible damage to the brain and nerve endings. This explanation was readily accepted by the military authorities, who liked to believe that the soldiers were suffering from invisible wounds, and not at all from weakness of the nerves.

19.

Mobile x-rays were developed during the First World War to help doctors operate on the battlefield / Photo: Renault truck with x-ray equipment

Neurasthenia was placed on a par with decadence, masturbation and the emancipation of women. Soldiers diagnosed with hysteria were viewed as inferior creatures with degenerative brains. Weak nerves are evidence not only of the lack of moral qualities of a soldier, but also of a lack of patriotism.

20.

British heavy tank Mark IV models during the Battle of Cambrai, France

German psychiatrists called willpower "the highest achievement of health and strength." Stoicism, calmness, self-discipline and self-control are mandatory for a true German. Not best place to strengthen the nerves and cure nervous weakness than the front. They talked enthusiastically about the healing power of combat, that war would cure the entire nation of neuroses.

Kaiser Wilhelm told the cadets of the naval school in Flensburg: "War will require healthy nerves from you. Strong nerves will decide the outcome of the war."

21.

For the first time, field telephones and wireless communications began to be used regularly to coordinate military movements. By 1917, the German army had laid 920,000 kilometers of telephone cable. But since it was easy to cut, an army radio appeared / Pictured: German soldiers use telephone

But the doctors could not strengthen the spirit of the army in the field. Fear of death from artillery shelling and suffocating gases gave rise to a passionate desire to escape from the trenches. Since 1916, on both sides of the front line, people in overcoats have been talking about only one thing: when will the war end?

Not a single capital dared to admit that victory could not be won. Three emperors and one sultan were afraid that if they did not defeat the enemy, a revolution would break out. And so it happened. Four empires - Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman - collapsed.

22.

German Emperor Wilhelm II and Emperor Franz Joseph. Signature under the card - "Security in fidelity"

Perhaps Germany was not such a threat to Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, historians today say. The aggressive speeches of Berlin politicians and generals, the cock-like manners that unnerved the neighbors, were rather an attempt to warn more strong powers from the intention to expand their empires, neglecting the interests of Berlin. The Kaiser and his entourage were morbidly afraid of appearing weak and indecisive. They acted brazenly, masking the weakness of their positions. In Berlin, they wanted to weaken their rivals and guarantee their economy European resources and the European market, they were more afraid of losing than expected to win.

However, 100 years ago, no one noticed these nuances.

Leonid Mlechin
Ogonyok, No. 27, p. 22, July 14, 2014 and Kommersant, July 28, 2015

At midnight on July 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum presented to Serbia in connection with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand expired. Since Serbia refused to fully satisfy it, Austria-Hungary considered itself entitled to begin fighting. On July 29, at 00:30, the Austro-Hungarian artillery located near Belgrade “spoke” (the Serbian capital was almost on the very border). The first shot was fired by the gun of the 1st battery of the 38th artillery regiment under the command of Captain Wödl. It was armed with 8-cm M 1905 field guns, which formed the basis of the Austro-Hungarian field artillery.

In the second half of the 19th century in all European states the doctrine of the field use of artillery provided for its use in the first line for direct support of the infantry - the guns fired direct fire at a distance of no more than 4–5 km. The key characteristic of field guns was considered to be the rate of fire - it was precisely over its improvement that the design idea worked. The main obstacle to increasing the rate of fire was the design of the carriages: the gun barrel was mounted on trunnions, being rigidly connected to the carriage in the longitudinal plane. When fired, the recoil force was perceived by the entire carriage, which inevitably knocked down the aiming, so the crew had to spend precious seconds of the battle restoring it. The designers of the French company Schneider managed to find a way out: in the 75-mm field gun of the 1897 model they developed, the barrel was movably installed in the cradle (on rollers), and the recoil devices (rollback brake and knurler) ensured its return to its original position.

The solution proposed by the French was quickly adopted by Germany and Russia. In particular, three-inch (76.2 mm) rapid-fire field guns of the 1900 and 1902 models were adopted in Russia. Their creation, and most importantly, the rapid and massive introduction into the troops caused serious concern for the Austro-Hungarian military, since the main weapon of their field artillery - the 9-cm cannon M 1875/96 - was no match for the new artillery systems of a potential enemy. Since 1899, new samples were tested in Austria-Hungary - an 8 cm gun, a 10 cm light howitzer and a 15 cm heavy howitzer - however, they had an archaic design without recoil devices and were equipped with bronze barrels. If for howitzers the issue of rate of fire was not acute, then for light field gun he was key. Therefore, the military rejected the 8-cm gun M 1899, demanding from the designers a new, faster-firing gun - "no worse than the Russians."

New wine in old wineskins

Since the new gun was required “for yesterday”, the specialists of the Vienna Arsenal took the path of least resistance: they took the barrel of the rejected M 1899 gun and equipped it with recoil devices, as well as a new horizontal wedge gate (instead of a piston one). The barrel remained bronze - thus, during the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian army was the only one in which the main field gun did not have a steel barrel. However, the quality of the material used - the so-called "Thiele bronze" - was very high. Suffice it to say that in early June 1915, the 4th battery of the 16th field artillery regiment used up almost 40,000 shells, but not a single barrel was damaged.

"Bronze Thiele", also called "steel-bronze", was used to make barrels according to special technology: punches of a slightly larger diameter than the barrel itself were sequentially driven through the bored bore of the barrel. As a result, precipitation and compaction of the metal occurred, and its inner layers became much stronger. Such a barrel did not allow the use of large charges of gunpowder (due to its lower strength compared to steel), but it did not corrode and tear, and most importantly, it cost much less.

In fairness, we note that field guns with steel barrels were also developed in Austria-Hungary. In the years 1900-1904, the Skoda company created seven good examples of such guns, but they were all rejected. The reason for this was the negative attitude towards steel of the then inspector general of the Austro-Hungarian army, Alfred von Kropachek, who had his share in the patent for the Thiele bronze and received a substantial income from its production.

Design

Caliber field gun, which received the designation "8 cm Feldkanone M 1905" ("8-cm field gun M 1905"), was 76.5 mm (as usual, in official Austrian designations it was rounded). The forged barrel was 30 calibers long. The recoil devices consisted of a hydraulic recoil brake and a spring knurler. The rollback length was 1.26 m. initial speed a projectile of 500 m / s, the firing range reached 7 km - before the war this was considered quite sufficient, but the experience of the first battles showed the need to increase this indicator. As often happens, the soldier's ingenuity found a way out - they dug a recess under the bed in the position, due to which the elevation angle increased, and the firing range increased by a kilometer. In the normal position (with the frame on the ground), the vertical aiming angle ranged from −5 ° to + 23 °, horizontal - 4 ° to the right and left.

By the beginning of the First World War, the 8-cm gun M 1905 formed the basis of the artillery park of the Austro-Hungarian army
Source: passioncompassion1418.com

The gun ammunition included unitary shots with two types of shells. A shrapnel projectile was considered the main one, which weighed 6.68 kg and was equipped with 316 bullets weighing 9 g each and 16 bullets weighing 13 g each. It was supplemented by a grenade weighing 6.8 kg, equipped with an ammonal charge weighing 120 g. Thanks to unitary loading, the rate of fire was quite high - 7-10 rds / min. Aiming was carried out using a monoblock sight, which consisted of a level, goniometer and sight.

The gun had a single-beam L-shaped carriage typical of its time and was equipped with an armored shield 3.5 mm thick. The diameter of the wooden wheels was 1300 mm, the track width was 1610 mm. In the combat position, the gun weighed 1020 kg, in the stowed position (with a limber) - 1907 kg, with full equipment and crew - over 2.5 tons. The gun was towed by a six-horse team (another such team towed a charging box). Interestingly, the charging box was armored - in accordance with the Austro-Hungarian instructions, it was installed next to the gun and served as additional protection for the servants, which consisted of six people.

The regular ammunition of the 8-cm field gun consisted of 656 shells: 33 shells (24 shrapnel and 9 grenades) were in the limber; 93 - in the charging box; 360 - in the ammunition column and 170 - in the artillery park. According to this indicator, the Austro-Hungarian army was at the level of other European armed forces(although, for example, in the Russian army, the regular three-inch ammunition consisted of 1000 shells per barrel).

Modifications

In 1908, a modification of the field gun was created, adapted for use in mountain conditions. The gun, which received the designation M 1905/08 (the abbreviated M 5/8 was more often used), could be disassembled into five parts - a shield with an axle, a barrel, a cradle, a carriage and wheels. The mass of these units was too large to be transported in horse packs, but they could be transported on special sledges, delivering the gun to hard-to-reach mountain positions.

In 1909, using the artillery part of the M 1905 cannon, a gun for fortress artillery was created, adapted for mounting on a casemate gun carriage. The gun received the designation "8 cm M 5 Minimalschartenkanone", which can literally be translated as "the gun for the minimum size of the embrasure". applied and short designation- M 5/9.

Service and combat use

The development of the M 1905 gun dragged on for several years - the designers for a long time could not achieve the normal operation of the recoil devices and the shutter. Only in 1907 did the production of a serial batch begin, and in the fall next year The first cannons of the new model were delivered to the units of the 7th and 13th artillery brigades. In addition to the Vienna Arsenal, the production of field guns was established by the Skoda company (although bronze barrels were supplied from Vienna). Quite quickly, it was possible to re-equip all 14 artillery brigades of the regular army (each brigade united the artillery of one army corps), but later the pace of deliveries slowed down, and by the beginning of the First World War, most of the artillery units of the Landwehr and Honvedsheg (Austrian and Hungarian reserve formations) were still in service "antique" 9 cm guns M 1875/96.

By the beginning of the war, field guns were in service with the following units:

forty-two field artillery regiments (one per infantry division; originally had five six-gun batteries, and after the outbreak of war an additional sixth battery was created in each regiment);
nine divisions of horse artillery (one per cavalry division; three four-gun batteries in each division);
reserve units - eight landwehr field artillery divisions (two six-gun batteries each), as well as eight field artillery regiments and one horse artillery division of the Honvedsheg.

As in the era Napoleonic Wars, at the beginning of World War I, Austro-Hungarian artillerymen tried to fire direct fire from open firing positions
Source: landships.info

During the First World War, 8-cm field guns were widely used by the Austro-Hungarian army on all fronts. Combat use revealed some shortcomings - and not so much the gun itself, but the concept of its use. The Austro-Hungarian army did not draw proper conclusions from the experience of the Russo-Japanese and Balkan wars. In 1914, the Austro-Hungarian batteries of field guns, as in the 19th century, were trained to fire only direct fire from open firing positions. At the same time, by the beginning of the war, Russian artillery already had a proven tactic of firing from closed positions. The Imperial-Royal field artillery had to learn, as they say, "on the go." There were also complaints about the damaging properties of shrapnel - its nine-gram bullets often could not cause any serious injury to enemy personnel and were completely powerless even against weak shelters.

During the initial period of the war, field gun regiments sometimes achieved impressive results, firing from open positions as a kind of "long-range machine guns." However, more often they had to suffer defeats - as, for example, on August 28, 1914, when the 17th field artillery regiment was completely defeated in the battle of Komarov, losing 25 guns and 500 people.

Not being a specialized mountain gun, the M 5/8 gun was widely used in mountainous areas.
Source: landships.info

Taking into account the lessons of the first battles, the Austro-Hungarian command "shifted the focus" from cannons to howitzers capable of firing on hinged trajectories from closed positions. At the beginning of the First World War, guns accounted for approximately 60% of field artillery (1734 guns out of 2842), but later this proportion changed significantly not in favor of guns. In 1916, compared with 1914, the number of batteries of field guns decreased by 31 - from 269 to 238. At the same time, 141 new batteries of field howitzers were formed. In 1917, the situation with guns changed slightly in the direction of increasing their number - the Austrians formed 20 new batteries. At the same time, 119 new howitzer batteries were formed in the same year (!). In 1918, the Austro-Hungarian artillery underwent a major reorganization: instead of homogeneous regiments, mixed regiments appeared in it (each with three batteries of 10-cm light howitzers and two batteries of 8-cm field guns). By the end of the war, the Austro-Hungarian army had 291 batteries of 8 cm field guns.

During the First World War, 8-cm field guns were also used as anti-aircraft guns. To do this, the guns were placed on various kinds of improvised installations, which provided a large elevation angle and circular fire. The first case of using the M 1905 cannon for firing at air targets was noted in November 1915, when it was used to protect an observation balloon near Belgrade from enemy fighters.

Later, on the basis of the M 5/8 gun, a full-fledged anti-aircraft gun was created, which was a field gun barrel superimposed on a pedestal installation developed by the Skoda plant. The gun received the designation "8 cm Luftfahrzeugabwehr-Kanone M5 / 8 M.P." (The abbreviation "M.P." meant "Mittelpivotlafette" - "carriage with a central pin"). In a combat position, such an anti-aircraft gun weighed 2470 kg and had circular horizontal fire, and the vertical aiming angle ranged from -10 ° to + 80 °. The effective range of fire against air targets reached 3600 m.