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Artillery during WWII Part I

M. Zenkevich

Soviet artillery was created during the years of the civil war and went through two stages in its pre-war development. Between 1927 and 1930 the modernization of the artillery weapons inherited from the tsarist army was carried out, as a result of which the main tactical and technical characteristics of the guns were significantly improved in accordance with the new requirements, and this was done without great expense on the basis of the existing weapons. Thanks to the modernization of artillery weapons, the firing range of artillery has increased by an average of one and a half times. The increase in firing range was achieved by lengthening the barrels, increasing the charges, increasing the elevation angle and improving the shape of the projectiles.

The increase in the power of the shot also required some alteration of the gun carriages. In the carriage of a 76-mm gun mod. In 1902, a balancing mechanism was introduced, muzzle brakes were installed on the 107 mm and 152 mm guns. For all the guns, a single sight of the 1930 model was adopted. After the modernization, the guns received new names: 76-mm gun of the 1902/30 model, 122-mm howitzer mod. 1910/30 etc. Of the new types of artillery developed during this period, the 76-mm regimental gun mod. 1927 The beginning of the second stage in the development of Soviet artillery dates back to the early 1930s, when, as a result of the accelerated development of heavy industry, it became possible to begin a complete re-equipment of artillery with new models.

On May 22, 1929, the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR adopted the system of artillery weapons developed by the Main Artillery Directorate (GAU) for 1929-32. It was an important policy document for the development of Soviet artillery. It provided for the creation of anti-tank, battalion, regimental, divisional, corps and anti-aircraft artillery, as well as artillery of the High Command Reserve (RGK). The system was adjusted for each five-year plan and was the basis for the development of new tools. In accordance with it, in 1930, a 37-mm anti-tank gun was adopted. The carriage of this gun had sliding beds, which provided a horizontal firing angle of up to 60 ° without moving the bed. In 1932, a 45-mm anti-tank gun, also on a carriage with sliding beds, was put into service. In 1937, the 45-mm gun was improved: semi-automatic was introduced into the wedge gate, suspension was used, ballistic qualities were improved. Great work was carried out to re-equip divisional, corps and army artillery, as well as artillery of high power.

As a divisional gun, a 76-mm gun mod. 1939 with a semi-automatic wedge breech. The carriage of this gun had a rotating upper machine, high-speed lifting and turning mechanisms, sliding beds. The undercarriage with suspension and rubber weights on wheels allowed transportation speeds of up to 35-40 km / h. In 1938, the 122-mm howitzer mod. 1938. According to its tactical and technical data, this gun far surpassed all foreign models of this type. The 107-mm cannon mod. 1940 and 152 mm howitzer mod. 1938

The composition of the army artillery included: 122-mm gun mod. 1931/37 and 152 mm howitzer mod. 1937 The first sample of the 122 mm gun was developed in 1931. The 122 mm gun mod. 1931/37 was obtained by imposing the barrel of a 122-mm gun mod. 1931 on a new carriage arr. 1937, adopted as a single carriage for a 122 mm gun and a 152 mm howitzer. For all guns of divisional and corps artillery, a sight was adopted, independent of the gun, which made it possible to simultaneously load and aim the gun at the target. The problem of creating high-capacity Soviet artillery was also successfully resolved.

In the period from 1931 to 1939. accepted for service: 203-mm howitzer mod. 1931, 152 mm gun mod. 1935, 280 mm mortar mod. 1939, 210 mm gun mod. 1939 and 305 mm howitzer mod. 1939 Carriages for 152 mm guns, 203 mm howitzers and 280 mm mortars are of the same type, on caterpillar tracks. In the stowed position, the guns consisted of two wagons - a barrel and a gun carriage. In parallel with the development of the materiel of artillery, important measures were also taken to improve ammunition.

Soviet designers developed the most advanced long-range projectiles in form, as well as new types of armor-piercing projectiles. All shells were equipped with fuses and tubes of domestic production. It should be noted that the development of Soviet artillery was affected by such a widespread idea abroad at that time as universalism. It was about creating the so-called universal or semi-universal guns, which could be both field and anti-aircraft. For all the attractiveness of this idea, its implementation led to the creation of overly complex, heavy and expensive guns with low combat qualities. Therefore, after the creation and testing of a number of samples of such guns in the summer of 1935, a meeting of artillery designers was held with the participation of members of the government, at which the inconsistency and harmfulness of universalism were revealed and the need for specialization of artillery according to its combat purpose and types was pointed out. The idea of ​​replacing artillery with aircraft and tanks did not find support in the USSR either.

For example, the German army followed this path, placing the main emphasis on aviation, tanks and mortars. Speaking in 1937 in the Kremlin, I.V. Stalin said: “The success of the war is decided not only by aviation. For the success of the war, an exceptionally valuable branch of the army is artillery. I would like our artillery to show that it is first class.”

This line on the creation of powerful artillery was strictly implemented, which was reflected, for example, in a sharp increase in the number of guns for all purposes. If on January 1, 1934 there were 17,000 guns in the Red Army, then on January 1, 1939 their number was 55,790, and on June 22, 1941, 67355 (without 50-mm mortars, of which there were 24158). In the prewar years, along with the rearmament of rifled artillery, extensive work was carried out to create mortars.

The first Soviet mortars were created in the early 30s, but some leaders of the Red Army considered them as a kind of "surrogate" for artillery, of interest only to the armies of underdeveloped states. However, after the mortars proved their high efficiency during the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-40, their mass introduction into the troops began. The Red Army received 50-mm company and 82-mm battalion mortars, 107-mm mining and 120-mm regimental mortars. In total, from January 1, 1939 to June 22, 1941, over 40 thousand mortars were delivered to the Red Army. After the start of the war, along with the solution of tasks to increase the supply of artillery and mortar weapons to the front, design bureaus and industrial enterprises developed and introduced into production new artillery systems. In 1942, the 76.2-mm divisional gun mod. 1941 (ZIS-3), the design of which, with high combat performance, fully met the requirements of mass production. To combat enemy tanks in 1943, a 57-mm ZIS-2 anti-tank gun was developed on the carriage of a 76.2-mm gun mod. 1942

A little later, an even more powerful 100-mm cannon mod. 1944. Since 1943, 152-mm corps howitzers and 160-mm mortars began to enter the troops, which became an indispensable means of breaking through enemy defenses. In total, during the war years, the industry produced 482.2 thousand guns.

351.8 thousand mortars were manufactured (4.5 times more than in Germany, and 1.7 times more than in the USA and the countries of the British Empire). In the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army also widely used rocket artillery. The beginning of its use can be considered the formation in June 1941 of the First Separate Battery, which had seven BM-13 installations. By December 1, 1941, there were already 7 regiments and 52 separate divisions in the field rocket artillery, and at the end of the war, the Red Army had 7 divisions, 11 brigades, 114 regiments and 38 separate rocket artillery divisions, for the armament of which more than 10 thousand .multiple self-propelled launchers and more than 12 million rockets.

volley "Katyusha"

ZIS-3 76-MM GUN 1942 SAMPLE

A few weeks after the defeat of the Nazis near Moscow on January 5, 1942, the ZIS-3, the famous 76-mm divisional gun, received the go-ahead.

“As a rule, we received tactical and technical requirements for the development of new guns from the Main Artillery Directorate,” says the well-known designer of artillery systems V. Grabin. But some guns were also developed on our own initiative. This was the case with the divisional 76-mm gun ZIS-3 .

Caliber 76 mm - 3 inches - from the beginning of our century was considered the classic caliber of a divisional gun. Cannon powerful enough to engage enemy manpower from closed positions, suppress mortar and artillery batteries and other fire weapons. A cannon that is mobile enough to move across the battlefield by the combat crew and accompany the advancing units not only with fire, but also with wheels, crushing bunkers and bunkers with direct fire. Experience of the First World War. showed that when the trench defense is saturated with fire weapons, the advancing units need battalion and regimental close combat artillery. And the appearance of tanks required the creation of special anti-tank artillery.

Equipping the Red Army with military equipment has always been at the center of attention of the Communist Party and the Soviet government. On July 15, 1929, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks made a historic decision to create new military equipment, including artillery. fulfilling the program outlined by the party, Soviet designers were working on the creation of both close combat artillery and anti-tank artillery (37 and 45-mm guns). But when by the end of the 30s there was a gap between the capabilities of these anti-tank guns and the armor of tanks, the Main Artillery Directorate (GAU) developed a tactical and technical task for a 76-mm divisional gun capable of fighting against tanks.

Solving this problem, a team of designers, headed by V. Grabin, in 1936 created a 76-mm F-22 divisional gun. Three years later, the F-22 USV was adopted. In 1940, the same team developed a 57 mm anti-tank gun. And finally, in 1941, having placed a 76-mm barrel on the improved carriage of this gun, the designers (A. Khvorostin, V. Norkin, K. Renne, V. Meshchaninov, P. Ivanov, V. Zemtsov, etc.) created the famous ZIS -3, - which was highly appreciated not only by our allies, but also by opponents.

... "The opinion that the ZIS-3 is the best 76-mm gun of the Second World War is absolutely justified," said the German professor Wolf, the former head of the artillery structures department at Krupp. "It can be said without any exaggeration that this is one of the most brilliant structures in the history of cannon artillery.

ZIS-3 was the last and most advanced 76-mm divisional gun. Further development of this class of guns required a transition to a larger caliber. What is the secret of the success of the ZIS-3? What, so to speak, is the "highlight" of its design?

V. Grabin answers these questions: "In lightness, reliability, convenience of combat work of the calculation, manufacturability and cheapness." And indeed, not containing any fundamentally new components and solutions that would not be known in world practice, the ZIS-3 is an example of a successful design and technical formation, an optimal combination of qualities. In ZIS-3, all non-working metal has been removed; for the first time in domestic serial 76-mm divisional guns, a muzzle brake was used, which reduced the length of the recoil, reduced the weight of the recoil parts and lightened the gun carriage; riveted beds were replaced by lighter tubular ones. The leaf springs in the suspension device were replaced by lighter and more reliable spring ones: A carriage with sliding beds was used, which sharply increases the angle of horizontal fire. For the first time, a monoblock barrel was used for such a caliber. But the main advantage of the ZIS-3 is its high manufacturability.

The design team headed by V. Grabin paid special attention to this quality of guns. Working on the method of accelerated design of artillery pieces, in which design and technological issues are solved in parallel, engineers systematically reduced the number of required parts from sample to sample. So, the F-22 had 2080 parts, the F-22 USV - 1057, and the ZIS-3 - only 719. Accordingly, the number of machine hours required to manufacture one gun also decreased. In 1936 this value was 2034 hours, in 1939 - 1300, in 1942 - 1029 and in 1944 - 475! It is thanks to the high manufacturability of the ZIS-3 that it went down in history as the world's first gun put into mass production and conveyor assembly. By the end of 1942, only one plant was producing up to 120 guns per day - before the war, this was its monthly program.

ZIS-3 in tow T-70M

Another important result achieved when working according to the accelerated design method is wide unification - the use of the same parts, assemblies, mechanisms and assemblies in different samples. It was the unification that made it possible for one plant to produce tens of thousands of guns for various purposes - tank, anti-tank and divisional. But it is symbolic that the 100,000th gun of the 92nd plant was precisely the ZIS-3 - the most massive gun of the Great Patriotic War.

Projectile type:		Initial speed, m/s	Distance straight. shot at a target height of 2 m, m
high-explosive fragmentation
armor-piercing
Sub-caliber armor.
Cumulative

A-19 122-MM GUN 1931/1937 MODEL

“In January 1943, our troops had already broken through the blockade and fought stubborn battles to expand the breakthrough at the famous Sinyavinsky Heights,” recalls Marshal of Artillery G. Odintsov, formerly commander of the artillery of the Leningrad Front: “The firing positions of one of the batteries of the 267th Corps Artillery Regiment were in a swampy area, disguised by thick bushes. Hearing ahead the roar of a tank engine, the senior on the battery, having no doubt that the tank was ours, and fearing that he would crush the cannon, decided to warn the driver. But, standing on the gun carriage, he saw that a huge, unfamiliar tank with a cross on the turret is moving right at the gun ... The shot was fired from some 50 m. ran without even having time to turn off the engine.Then our tankers pulled out the enemy vehicles.

A serviceable "tiger" passed through the streets of besieged Leningrad, and then both tanks became exhibits of a "trophy exhibition" in the Moscow Gorky Park of Culture and Leisure. So the 122-mm corps gun helped to capture intact one of the first "tigers" that appeared at the front, and helped the personnel of the Soviet Army to find out the vulnerabilities of the "tigers".

The First World War showed what a high price France, England and Russia had to pay for neglecting heavy artillery. Counting on mobile warfare, these countries relied on light, highly mobile artillery, believing that heavy guns were unsuitable for swift marches. And already during the war, they were forced to catch up with Germany and, making up for lost time, urgently create heavy guns. Nevertheless, at the end of the war, the United States and England considered corps artillery to be generally unnecessary, while France and Germany were satisfied with the modernized corps guns of the end of the First World War.

The situation was quite different in our country. In May 1929, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic approved the system of artillery weapons for 1929-1932, and in June 1930, the 16th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided to accelerate the development of industry in every possible way, and primarily defense industry. The industrialization of the country has become a solid basis for the production of modern military equipment. In 1931, in pursuance of the approved weapons system, a 122-mm A-19 gun was manufactured at the artillery plant No. 172. This gun was intended for counter-battery combat, for disrupting the control of enemy troops, suppressing his rear, preventing the approach of reserves, the supply of ammunition, food, etc.

"The design of this gun, says Major General of the Engineering and Technical Service N. Komarov, was entrusted to the design bureau of the All-Union Gun Arsenal Association. The working group headed by S. Shukalov included S. Ananiev, V. Drozdov, G. Vodohlebov, B Markov, S. Rykovskov, N. Torbin and I. The project was done quickly and the drawings were immediately sent to the 172nd plant for the manufacture of a prototype. plant capabilities.

In terms of projectile power and firing range, the gun surpassed all foreign guns of this class. True, she came out somewhat heavier than them, but the large weight did not affect her fighting qualities, since she was designed for mechanical traction.

The A-19 differed from the old artillery systems in several innovations. The high initial velocity of the projectile increased the length of the barrel, and this, in turn, gave rise to difficulties in vertical aiming and in transporting the gun. To unload the lifting mechanism and facilitate the work of the gunner, we used a balancing mechanism; and in order to protect the critical components and mechanisms of the gun from shock loads during transportation, the attachment mechanism in the stowed way: before the campaign, the barrel was separated from the recoil devices, pulled back along the cradle and fastened with stoppers to the carriage. recoil devices allowed the mechanism of mutual closure. For the first time on guns of such a large caliber, sliding beds and a rotating upper machine were used, which ensured an increase in the angle of horizontal fire; suspension and metal wheels with a rubber tire rim, which made it possible to transport the gun along the highway at speeds up to 20 km / h " .

After extensive testing of the A-19 prototype, it was adopted by the Red Army. In 1933, the barrel of a 152-mm gun of the 1910/1930 model was placed on the carriage of this gun, and the 152-mm gun of the 1910/1934 model was put into service, but work on improving the single carriage continued. And in 1937, two corps guns on a unified carriage were adopted by the Red Army - a 122-mm cannon of the 1931/1937 model and a 152-mm howitzer - a cannon of the 1937 model. In this carriage, the lifting and balancing mechanisms are divided into two independent units, the elevation angle is increased to 65 °, a normalized sight with an independent aiming line is installed.

The 122-mm gun gave the Germans a lot of bitter minutes. There was not a single artillery preparation in which these wonderful guns would not take part. With their fire, they crushed the armor of the Nazi "Ferdinands" and "Panthers". It is no coincidence that this gun was used to create the famous ISU-122 self-propelled gun. And it is no coincidence that this gun on April 20, 1945 was one of the first to open fire on fascist Berlin.

122 mm gun model 1931/1937

B-4 203-MM HOWitz 1931 MODEL

Shooting direct fire from high-powered howitzers of the artillery of the reserve of the main command (ARGC) is not provided for by any shooting rules. But it was precisely for such shooting that the commander of the battery of 203-mm howitzers of the guard, Captain I. Vedmedenko, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On the night of June 9, 1944, on one of the sectors of the Leningrad Front, to the sound of a firefight that drowned out the roar of engines, tractors dragged two huge massive tracked guns to the front line. When everything calmed down, only 1200 m separated the camouflaged guns from the target - a giant pillbox. Reinforced concrete walls two meters thick; three floors going underground; armored dome; approaches covered by the fire of flank bunkers - this structure was not without reason considered the main node of enemy resistance. And as soon as dawn broke, Vedmedenko's howitzers opened fire. For two hours, 100-kilogram concrete-piercing shells destroyed two-meter walls, until finally the enemy fortress ceased to exist ...

“For the first time, our gunners began to shoot direct fire at concrete fortifications from high-powered ARGC howitzers in battles with the White Finns in the winter of 1939/1940,” says Marshal of Artillery N. Yakovlev. “And this method of suppressing pillboxes was born not within the walls of headquarters, not in academies, but on the front line among the soldiers and officers who directly serve these wonderful weapons."

In 1914, the mobile war, which the generals counted on, lasted only a few months, after which it took on a positional character. It was then that the field artillery of the warring powers began to rapidly increase the number of howitzers - guns that, unlike cannons, were capable of hitting horizontal targets: destroying field fortifications and firing at troops hiding behind terrain folds.

Howitzer; as a rule, conducts mounted fire. The damaging effect of a projectile is determined not so much by its kinetic energy at the target, but by the amount of explosive contained in it. The muzzle velocity of the projectile, which is lower than that of a cannon, makes it possible to reduce the pressure of powder gases and shorten the barrel. As a result, the wall thickness decreases, the recoil force decreases and the gun carriage becomes lighter. As a result, the howitzer turns out to be two to three times lighter than a cannon of the same caliber. Another important advantage of the howitzer is that, by changing the amount of charge, it is possible to obtain a beam of trajectories at a constant elevation angle. True, the variable charge requires separate charging, which reduces the rate of fire, but this disadvantage is more than offset by the advantages. In the armies of the leading powers, by the end of the war, howitzers accounted for 40-50% of the entire artillery fleet.

But the trend towards the construction of powerful field-type defensive structures and a dense network of long-term firing points urgently required heavy guns with increased range, high projectile power and fire weight. In 1931, following the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Soviet designers created a domestic high-powered B-4 howitzer. It began to be designed at the Artkom Design Bureau in 1927, where the work was headed by F. Lender. After his death, the project was transferred to the Bolshevik plant, where Magdesiev was the chief designer, and Gavrilov, Torbin and others were among the designers.

B-4 - 203-mm howitzer of the 1931 model - was intended for the destruction of especially strong concrete, reinforced concrete and armored structures, for combating large-caliber or enemy artillery sheltered by strong structures and for suppressing distant targets.

In order to speed up the equipping of the Red Army with a new weapon, production was organized simultaneously at two factories. Working drawings in the process of development were changed at each plant, adapting to technological capabilities. As a result, almost two different howitzers began to enter service. In 1937, unified drawings were worked out not by changing the design, but by arranging individual parts and assemblies that had already been tested in production and operation. The only innovation was the installation on a caterpillar track. allowing shooting directly from the ground Without special platforms.

The B-4 carriage became the basis for a whole family of high-power guns. In 1939, the 152 mm Br-19 gun and the 280 mm Br-5 mortar completed a number of intermediate designs. These works were carried out by a team of designers. plant "Barricade" under the leadership of the Hero of Socialist Labor I. Ivanov.

Thus, the creation of a complex of high-powered ground guns on a single carriage was completed: guns, howitzers, and mortars. The tools were transported by tractors. To do this, the guns were disassembled into two parts: the barrel was removed from the gun carriage and placed on a special gun cart, and the gun carriage, connected to the limber, made up the gun cart.

Of all this complex, the B-4 howitzer was most widely used. The combination of a powerful projectile with a high elevation angle and a variable charge, giving 10 initial speeds, determined her brilliant fighting qualities. For any horizontal targets at a distance of 5 to 18 km, the howitzer could fire along the trajectory of the most advantageous steepness.

B-4 justified the hopes placed on it. Having started her combat path on the Karelian Isthmus in 1939, she passed through the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, participated in all major artillery preparations, storming fortresses and large cities.

203 mm howitzer model 1931

Projectile type:		Initial speed, m/s
Concrete-breaking
high explosive
Concrete-breaking

ML-20 152-MM HOWitz-GUN 1937 MODEL

“When they ask me what type of artillery fire makes the highest demands on the art of personnel,” says Marshal of Artillery G. Odintsov, “I answer: counter-battery combat. It, as a rule, is conducted at long ranges and usually results in a duel with the enemy, who fires back, threatening the shooter.The greatest chance to win a duel is with someone who has higher skill, more precisely a weapon, a more powerful projectile.

The experience of the fronts showed that the 152-mm howitzer-gun of the 1937 model ML-20 turned out to be the best Soviet weapon for counter-battery combat.

The history of the creation of the ML-20 dates back to 1932, when a group of designers of the All-Union Gun and Arsenal Association - V. Grabin, N. Komarov and V. Drozdov - proposed to create a powerful 152-mm corps gun by imposing the barrel of a 152-mm Schneider siege gun on a gun carriage 122 mm A-19 guns. Calculations have shown that such an idea when installing a muzzle brake that takes away part of the recoil energy is real. Tests of a prototype confirmed the validity of the admitted technical risk, and the hull 152-mm gun of the 1910/34 model was put into service. In the mid-30s, it was decided to modernize this gun. The modernization work was headed by a young designer F. Petrov. Having studied the features of the gun carriage of the A-19 gun, he identified the main drawbacks of this gun: the lack of suspension at the front end limited the speed of movement; the lifting and balancing mechanism was difficult to fine-tune and provided an insufficiently high vertical pickup speed; it took a lot of energy and time to transfer the barrel from traveling to combat position and back; a cradle with recoil devices was difficult to manufacture.

Having re-developed a cast upper machine, dividing the combined lifting and balancing mechanism into two independent ones - a sectoral lifting and balancing mechanism, designing a front end with suspension, a sight with an independent aiming line and a cradle with a cast trunnion clip instead of a forged one, the designers created, for the first time in world practice, an intermediate-type tool with properties and guns and howitzers. The elevation angle, increased to 65 °, and 13 variable charges made it possible to obtain a gun that, like a howitzer, has hinged trajectories and, like a cannon, high initial projectile velocities.

A. Bulashev, S. Gurenko, M. Burnyshev, A. Ilyin and many others took an active part in the development and creation of the howitzer-gun.

"The ML-20, developed by us in 1.5 months, was submitted for state tests after the very first 10 shots fired at the factory firing range," recalls the winner of the Lenin and State Prizes, Hero of Socialist Labor, Lieutenant General of the Engineering and Technical Service, Dr. Technical Sciences F. Petrov. These tests were completed at the beginning of 1937, the gun was put into service and put into mass production in the same year. At first everything went well, but suddenly the barrel of one, then another, then the third howitzer guns small angles of elevation began to "give a candle" - spontaneously lift up to the maximum angle. It turned out that for a number of reasons the worm gear was not self-braking enough. For us, and especially for me, this phenomenon caused a lot of trouble, until after weary days and sleepless nights, quite enough was found simple solution.We proposed in the threaded cover that secures the worm in the crankcase, to put a spring with a small adjustable gap tinned steel disc. At the moment of firing, the end part of the worm comes into contact with the disk, which, creating a large additional friction, prevents the worm from turning.

What a relief I felt when, having found such a solution and quickly sketching out sketches, I introduced him to the director and chief engineer of the plant, as well as the head of the military acceptance. All of them ended up in the assembly shop that night, which, however, happened quite often, especially when it came to fulfilling defense orders on a tight schedule. Immediately, the order was given to prepare the details of the device by morning.

When developing this tool, we paid special attention to improving manufacturability and reducing costs. It was with the production of howitzer-guns in artillery technology that steel shaped castings began to be widely used. Many components - upper and lower machines, hinged and trunk parts of the beds, wheel hubs - were made of cheap carbon steels.

Originally intended for "reliable action against artillery, headquarters, institutions and field-type installations", the 152-mm howitzer-cannon turned out to be a much more flexible, powerful and effective weapon than previously thought. The combat experience of the battles of the Great Patriotic War continuously expanded the range of tasks assigned to this wonderful weapon. And in the Service Manual, published at the end of the war, the ML-20 was prescribed to fight enemy artillery, suppress long-range targets, destroy pillboxes and powerful bunkers, fight tanks and armored trains, and even destroy balloons.

During the Great Patriotic War, the 152-mm howitzer-gun of the 1937 model invariably participated in all major artillery preparations, in counter-battery combat, and in the assault on fortified areas. But a particularly honorable role fell to this gun in the destruction of heavy fascist tanks. A heavy projectile, fired at a high initial velocity, easily tore off the "tiger" turret from the shoulder strap. There were battles when these towers literally flew in the air with gun barrels dangling limply. And it is no coincidence that the ML-20 became the basis of the famous ISU-152.

But perhaps the most significant recognition of the excellent qualities of this weapon should be considered the fact that the ML-20 was in service with Soviet artillery not only during the Great Patriotic War, but also in the post-war years.

BS-3 100-MM FIELD GUN SAMPLE 1944

“In the spring of 1943, when Hitler’s “tigers”, “panthers”, and “Ferdinands” began to appear on the battlefields in large numbers,” recalls the famous artillery designer V. Grabin, “in a note addressed to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, I proposed, along with the resumption of production 57 mm anti-tank gun ZIS-2, create a new weapon - a 100 mm anti-tank gun with a powerful projectile.

Why did we settle for the new 100 mm caliber for ground artillery, and not the already existing 85 and 107 mm guns? The choice was not accidental. We believed that a gun was needed, the muzzle energy of which would be one and a half times greater than that of the 107-mm gun of the 1940 model. And 100-mm guns have long been successfully used in the fleet, a unitary cartridge was developed for them, while the 107-mm gun had separate loading. The presence of a shot mastered in production played a decisive role, since it takes a very long time to work it out. We didn't have much time...

We could not borrow the design of the naval gun: it is too bulky and heavy. Requirements for high power, mobility, lightness, compactness, high rate of fire led to a number of innovations. First of all, a high-performance muzzle brake was needed. The previously used slotted brake had an efficiency of 25-30%. For the 100-mm gun, it was necessary to develop a design for a two-chamber brake with an efficiency of 60%. To increase the rate of fire, a wedge semi-automatic shutter was used. The layout of the gun was entrusted to the lead designer A. Khvorostin."

The contours of the gun began to take shape on whatman paper during the May holidays of 1943. In a few days, the creative groundwork was realized, which was formed on the basis of long reflections, painful searches, studying combat experience and analyzing the best artillery designs in the world. The barrel and the semi-automatic shutter were designed by I. Griban, the recoil devices and the hydropneumatic balancing mechanism - by F. Kaleganov, the cradle of the cast structure - by B. Lasman, the equal-strength upper machine V. Shishkin. It was hard to decide the issue with the choice of wheels. The design bureau usually used the automobile wheels of GAZ-AA and ZIS-5 trucks for guns, but they were not suitable for the new gun. The next car was a five-ton YaAZ, however, its wheel turned out to be too heavy and large. Then the idea was born to put twin wheels from GAZ-AA, which made it possible to fit into the given weight and dimensions.

A month later, the working drawings were sent to production, and five months later, the first prototype of the famous BS-3 came out of the gates of the plant - a gun designed to fight tanks and other motorized means, to fight artillery, to suppress distant targets, to destroy infantry and manpower, enemy forces.

"Three design features distinguish the BS-3 from previously developed domestic systems," says State Prize winner A. Khvorostin. the requirements of lightness and compactness of the nodes, and changing the layout of the gun carriage significantly reduced the load on the frame when firing at maximum angles of rotation of the upper machine.If in the usual schemes of the gun carriage, each frame was calculated for 2/3 of the recoil force of the gun, then in the new scheme, the force acting on the frame at any angle of horizontal guidance, did not exceed 1/2 of the recoil force.In addition, the new scheme simplified the equipment of a combat position.

Thanks to all these innovations, the BS-3 stood out for its extremely high metal utilization rate. This means that in its design it was possible to achieve the most perfect combination of power and mobility."

The BS-3 was tested by a commission chaired by General Panikhin - representative: commander of artillery of the Soviet Army. According to V. Grabin, one of the most interesting moments was the shooting at the Tiger tank. A cross was drawn on the turret of the tank with chalk. The gunner received the initial data and fired a shot from 1500 m. Approaching the tank, everyone was convinced that the shell almost hit the cross and pierced the armor. After that, the tests continued according to a given program, and the commission recommended the gun for service.

Tests of the BS-Z prompted a new method of dealing with heavy tanks. Somehow, at the training ground, a shot was fired at a captured "Ferdinand" from a distance of 1500 m. And although, as expected, the projectile did not penetrate the 200-mm frontal armor of the self-propelled gun, its gun and control system failed. The BS-Z was able to effectively deal with enemy tanks and self-propelled guns at distances exceeding the range of a direct shot. In this case, as experience has shown, the crew of enemy vehicles was struck by fragments of armor that broke off from the hull due to the enormous overvoltages that occur in the metal at the moment the projectile hits the armor. The manpower that the projectile retained at these ranges was sufficient to bend, mangle the armor.

In August 1944, when the BS-Z began to enter the front, the war was already nearing its end, so the experience of combat use of this weapon is limited. Nevertheless, the BS-3 rightfully occupies an honorable place among the guns of the Great Patriotic War, because it contained ideas that were widely used in artillery designs of the post-war period.

M-30 122-MM HOWitzER MODEL 1938

“W-wah! A gray cloud shot up on the enemy side. The fifth shell hit the dugout where ammunition was stored. smoke, and a huge explosion shook the surroundings "- this is how P. Kudinov, a former artilleryman, participant in the war, describes the everyday combat work of the M-30 of the famous 122-mm divisional howitzer of the 1938 model in the book" Howitzers Fire.

Before the First World War in the artillery of the Western powers for divisional howitzers, a caliber of 105 mm was adopted. Russian artillery thought went its own way: the army was armed with 122-mm divisional howitzers of the 1910 model. The experience of military operations has shown that a projectile of this caliber, having the most advantageous fragmentation action, at the same time gives a minimally satisfactory high-explosive action. However, at the end of the 1920s, the 122-mm howitzer of the 1910 model did not meet the views of experts on the nature of the future war: it had insufficient range, rate of fire and mobility.

According to the new "Artillery Armament System for 1929-1932", approved by the Revolutionary Military Council in May 1929, it was planned to create a 122-mm howitzer with a weight in the stowed position of 2200 kg, a firing range of 11-12 km and a combat rate of fire of 6 rounds per minute. Since the model developed according to these requirements turned out to be too heavy, the upgraded 122-mm howitzer of the 1910/30 model of the year was retained in service. And some experts began to lean towards the idea of ​​abandoning the 122-mm caliber and adopting 105-mm howitzers.

“In March 1937, at a meeting in the Kremlin,” recalls the Hero of Socialist Labor, Lieutenant General of the Engineering and Technical Service F. Petrov, “I spoke about the reality of creating precisely the 122-mm howitzer and, answering numerous questions, gave out what is being said, bills of exchange. My optimism was fueled by what I thought was then a great success of our team in creating the 152-mm howitzer - the ML-20 cannon. The meeting outlined a plant (unfortunately, not the one where I worked), which was to develop a prototype. Feeling great responsibility for everything I said at a meeting in the Kremlin, I invited the management of my factory to take the initiative in developing a 122-mm howitzer.For this purpose, a small group of designers was organized.The first estimates, which used the schemes of existing guns, showed that the task was really difficult But the perseverance and enthusiasm of the designers - S. Dernov, A. Ilyin, N. Dobrovolsky, A. Chernykh, V. Burylov, A. Drozdov and N. Kostrulin - took their toll: New in 1937, two projects were defended: developed by the team of V. Sidorenko and ours. Our project has been approved.

According to tactical and technical data, primarily in terms of maneuverability and flexibility of fire - the ability to quickly transfer fire from one target to another - our howitzer fully met the requirements of the GAU. According to the most important characteristic - muzzle energy - it exceeded the howitzer of the 1910/30 model by more than two times. Advantageously, our gun also differed from the 105-mm divisional howitzers of the armies of the capitalist countries.

The estimated weight of the gun is about 2200 kg: 450 kg less than the howitzer developed by the team of V. Sidorenko. By the end of 1938, all tests were completed and the gun was put into service under the name 122-mm howitzer of the 1938 model.

The combat wheels were for the first time equipped with an automobile-type marching brake. The transition from traveling to combat took no more than 1-1.5 minutes. When the beds were extended, the springs were automatically turned off, and the beds themselves were automatically fixed in the extended position. In the stowed position, the barrel was fixed without disconnecting from the rods of the recoil devices and without pulling. To simplify and reduce the cost of production in a howitzer, parts and assemblies of existing artillery systems were widely used. So, for example, the shutter was taken from a regular howitzer of the 1910/30 model, the sight from a 152-mm howitzer - a cannon of the 1937 model, the wheels - from a divisional 76-mm cannon of the 1936 model, etc. Many parts were made by casting and stamping. That is why the M-30 was one of the most simple and inexpensive domestic artillery systems.

A curious fact testifies to the great survivability of this howitzer. Once, during the war, it became known at the plant that the troops had a gun that had fired 18,000 rounds. The factory offered to exchange this copy for a new one. And after a thorough factory inspection, it turned out that the howitzer had not lost its qualities and was suitable for further combat use. This conclusion was unexpectedly confirmed: during the formation of the next echelon, as a sin, a shortage of one gun was discovered. And with the consent of the military acceptance, the unique howitzer again went to the front as a newly made gun.

M-30 on direct fire

The experience of the war showed that the M-30 brilliantly performed all the tasks that were assigned to it. She destroyed and suppressed the manpower of the enemy as in open areas. and located in field-type shelters, destroyed and suppressed infantry firepower, destroyed field-type structures and fought artillery and. enemy mortars.

But most clearly, the advantages of the 122-mm howitzer of the 1938 model were manifested in the fact that its capabilities turned out to be wider than prescribed by the leadership of the service. -In the days of the heroic defense of Moscow, howitzers fired directly at Nazi tanks. Later, the experience was consolidated by the creation of a cumulative projectile for the M-30 and an additional item in the service manual: "The howitzer can be used to fight tanks, self-propelled artillery mounts and other enemy armored vehicles."

See the continuation on the website: WWII - Weapons of Victory - WWII Artillery Part II

After the end of the war, in the USSR, anti-tank artillery was armed with: 37-mm airborne guns of the 1944 model, 45-mm anti-tank guns mod. 1937 and arr. 1942, 57-mm anti-tank guns ZiS-2, divisional 76-mm ZiS-3, 100-mm field model 1944 BS-3. German captured 75-mm Pak 40 anti-tank guns were also used. They were purposefully assembled, stored and repaired if necessary.

In the middle of 1944, it was officially put into service. 37 mm ChK-M1 airborne gun.

It was specially designed to equip parachute battalions and motorcycle regiments. The gun weighing 209 kg in combat position allowed air transportation and parachuting. It had good armor penetration for its caliber, which made it possible to hit the side armor of medium and heavy tanks with a sub-caliber projectile at a short distance. The shells were interchangeable with the 37 mm 61-K anti-aircraft gun. The guns were transported in Willis and GAZ-64 vehicles (one gun per vehicle), as well as in Dodge and GAZ-AA vehicles (two guns per vehicle).

In addition, it was possible to transport the gun on a single-horse cart or sleigh, as well as in a motorcycle sidecar. If necessary, the tool is disassembled into three parts.

The calculation of the gun consisted of four people - the commander, gunner, loader and carrier. When shooting, the calculation takes a prone position. The technical rate of fire reached 25-30 rounds per minute.
Thanks to the original design of the recoil devices, the 37-mm airborne gun model 1944 combined powerful anti-aircraft gun ballistics for its caliber with small dimensions and weight. With armor penetration values ​​close to those of the 45 mm M-42, the ChK-M1 is three times lighter and much smaller in size (much lower line of fire), which greatly facilitated the movement of the gun by crew forces and its camouflage. At the same time, the M-42 also has a number of advantages - the presence of a full-fledged wheel drive, which allows the gun to be towed by a car, the absence of a muzzle brake that unmasks when firing, a more effective fragmentation projectile and a better armor-piercing effect of armor-piercing shells.
The 37 mm ChK-M1 gun was about 5 years late, was adopted and put into production when the war came to an end. Apparently she did not take part in the hostilities. A total of 472 guns were produced.

45-mm anti-tank guns were hopelessly outdated by the end of hostilities, even the presence in the ammunition 45 mm M-42 guns sub-caliber projectile with armor penetration along the normal at a distance of 500 meters - 81-mm homogeneous armor could not correct the situation. Modern heavy and medium tanks were struck only when firing into the side, from extremely short distances. The active use of these guns until the very last days of the war can be explained by high maneuverability, ease of transportation and camouflage, huge accumulated stocks of ammunition of this caliber, as well as the inability of Soviet industry to provide the troops with the required number of anti-tank guns with higher performance.
One way or another, in the active army, the "forty-five" were very popular, only they could move by calculation forces in the combat formations of the advancing infantry, supporting it with fire.

In the late 40s, "forty-five" began to be actively withdrawn from parts and transferred to storage. However, for quite a long period of time they continued to be in service with the Airborne Forces and used as training tools.
A significant number of 45-mm M-42s were transferred to the then allies.

American soldiers from the 5th Cavalry Regiment study the M-42 captured in Korea

"Forty-five" was actively used in the Korean War. In Albania, these guns were in service until the early 90s.

Mass production 57 mm anti-tank gunZiS-2 became possible in 1943, after the necessary metalworking machines were received from the USA. The restoration of serial production was difficult - again there were technological problems with the manufacture of barrels, in addition, the plant was heavily loaded with a program for the production of 76-mm divisional and tank guns, which had a number of common nodes with the ZIS-2; under these conditions, the increase in the production of ZIS-2 on the existing equipment could be carried out only by reducing the volume of production of these guns, which was unacceptable. As a result, the first batch of ZIS-2 for state and military tests was released in May 1943, and in the production of these guns, the backlog that had been mothballed at the plant since 1941 was widely used. The mass production of the ZIS-2 was organized by October - November 1943, after the commissioning of new production facilities, provided with equipment supplied under Lend-Lease.

The capabilities of the ZIS-2 made it possible at typical combat distances to confidently hit the 80-mm frontal armor of the most common German medium tanks Pz.IV and StuG III assault self-propelled guns, as well as the side armor of the Pz.VI "Tiger" tank; at distances of less than 500 m, the Tiger's frontal armor was also hit.
In terms of the cost and manufacturability of production, combat and service performance, the ZIS-2 became the best Soviet anti-tank gun of the war.
Since the resumption of production, until the end of the war, more than 9,000 guns were delivered to the troops, but this was not enough to fully equip anti-tank units.

The production of the ZiS-2 continued until 1949 inclusive, in the post-war period, about 3,500 guns were produced. From 1950 to 1951, only ZIS-2 barrels were produced. Since 1957, the previously released ZIS-2 was upgraded to the ZIS-2N variant with the ability to conduct combat at night through the use of special night sights
In the 1950s, new sub-caliber shells with increased armor penetration were developed for the gun.

In the post-war period, the ZIS-2 was in service with the Soviet army until at least the 1970s, the last case of combat use was recorded in 1968, during a conflict with the PRC on Damansky Island.
ZIS-2s were supplied to a number of countries and took part in several armed conflicts, the first of which was the Korean War.
There is information about the successful use of the ZIS-2 by Egypt in 1956 in battles with the Israelis. Guns of this type were in service with the Chinese army and were produced under license under the Type 55 index. As of 2007, the ZIS-2 was still in service with the armies of Algeria, Guinea, Cuba and Nicaragua.

In the second half of the war, the fighter-anti-tank units were armed with captured German 75 mm anti-tank guns Pak 40. During the offensive operations of 1943-1944, a large number of guns and ammunition were captured. Our military appreciated the high performance of these anti-tank guns. At a distance of 500 meters, normal sabot projectile pierced - 154-mm armor.

In 1944, firing tables and operating instructions were issued for the Pak 40 in the USSR.
After the war, the guns were transferred to storage, where they were at least until the mid-60s. Subsequently, some of them were "utilized", and some were transferred to the allies.

A photograph of the RaK-40 guns was taken at a parade in Hanoi in 1960.

In fear of an invasion from the South, several anti-tank artillery battalions were formed as part of the army of North Vietnam, armed with German 75 mm RaK-40 anti-tank guns from the Second World War. Such guns were captured in large numbers in 1945 by the Red Army, and now the Soviet Union has provided them to the Vietnamese people to protect them from possible aggression from the South.

Soviet divisional 76-mm guns were intended for solving a wide range of tasks, primarily fire support for infantry units, suppressing firing points, and destroying light field shelters. However, during the war, divisional artillery guns had to fire on enemy tanks, perhaps even more often than specialized anti-tank guns.

Since 1944, due to a slowdown in the production of 45-mm guns and a shortage of 57-mm ZIS-2 guns, despite insufficient armor penetration for that time divisional 76-mm ZiS-3 became the main anti-tank gun of the Red Army.
In many ways, this was a necessary measure. The armor penetration of an armor-piercing projectile, which pierced 75 mm armor at a distance of 300 meters along the normal, was not enough to deal with medium German tanks Pz.IV.
As of 1943, the armor of the heavy tank PzKpfW VI "Tiger" was invulnerable to the ZIS-3 in the frontal projection and weakly vulnerable at distances closer than 300 m in the side projection. The new German tank PzKpfW V Panther, as well as the upgraded PzKpfW IV Ausf H and PzKpfW III Ausf M or N, were also weakly vulnerable in the frontal projection for the ZIS-3; however, all these vehicles were confidently hit from the ZIS-3 to the side.
The introduction of a sub-caliber projectile since 1943 improved the anti-tank capabilities of the ZIS-3, allowing it to confidently hit vertical 80-mm armor at distances closer than 500 m, but 100-mm vertical armor remained unbearable for it.
The relative weakness of the anti-tank capabilities of the ZIS-3 was recognized by the Soviet military leadership, but it was not possible to replace the ZIS-3 in anti-tank units until the end of the war. The situation could be corrected by introducing a cumulative projectile into the ammunition load. But such a projectile was adopted by the ZiS-3 only in the post-war period.

Shortly after the end of the war and the production of over 103,000 guns, the production of the ZiS-3 was discontinued. The gun remained in service for a long time, but by the end of the 40s, it was almost completely withdrawn from anti-tank artillery. This did not prevent the ZiS-3 from spreading very widely around the world and taking part in many local conflicts, including on the territory of the former USSR.

In the modern Russian army, the remaining serviceable ZIS-3s are often used as salute guns or in theatrical performances on the theme of the battles of the Great Patriotic War. In particular, these guns are in service with the Separate Fireworks Division under the commandant's office of Moscow, which conducts fireworks on the holidays of February 23 and May 9.

In 1946, the weapon created under the leadership of the chief designer F. F. Petrov was adopted. 85-mm anti-tank gun D-44. This weapon would have been in great demand during the war, but its development was greatly delayed for a number of reasons.
Outwardly, the D-44 strongly resembled the German 75-mm anti-tank Pak 40.

From 1946 to 1954, plant No. 9 (Uralmash) produced 10,918 guns.
D-44s were in service with a separate artillery anti-tank battalion of a motorized rifle or tank regiment (two anti-tank artillery batteries consisting of two fire platoons), 6 pieces per battery (in division 12).

As ammunition, unitary cartridges with high-explosive fragmentation grenades, coil-shaped sub-caliber shells, cumulative and smoke shells are used. The range of a direct shot of the BTS BR-367 at a target with a height of 2 m is 1100 m. At a range of 500 m, this projectile pierces an armor plate 135 mm thick at an angle of 90 °. The initial speed of the BPS BR-365P is 1050 m / s, armor penetration is 110 mm from a distance of 1000 m.

In 1957, night sights were installed on some of the guns, and a self-propelled modification was also developed. SD-44, which could move on the battlefield without a tractor.

The barrel and carriage of the SD-44 were taken from the D-44 with minor changes. So, on one of the frames of the gun, an M-72 engine of the Irbit motorcycle plant with a power of 14 hp was installed, covered with a casing. (4000 rpm) providing a self-propelled speed of up to 25 km / h. Power transmission from the engine was provided through the cardan shaft, differential and axle shafts to both wheels of the gun. The gearbox included in the transmission provided six forward gears and two reverse gears. A seat is also fixed on the bed for one of the numbers of the calculation, which acts as a driver. He has at his disposal a steering mechanism that controls an additional, third, wheel of the gun, mounted at the end of one of the beds. A headlight is installed to illuminate the road at night.

Subsequently, it was decided to use the 85-mm D-44 as a divisional one to replace the ZiS-3, and to assign the fight against tanks to more powerful artillery systems and ATGMs.

In this capacity, the weapon was used in many conflicts, including in the CIS. An extreme case of combat use was noted in the North Caucasus, during the "counter-terrorist operation."

D-44 is still formally in service in the Russian Federation, a number of these guns are in the internal troops and in storage.

On the basis of the D-44, under the leadership of the chief designer F. F. Petrov, a anti-tank 85-mm gun D-48. The main feature of the D-48 anti-tank gun was its exceptionally long barrel. To ensure the maximum muzzle velocity of the projectile, the barrel length was increased to 74 calibers (6 m, 29 cm).
Especially for this gun, new unitary shots were created. An armor-piercing projectile at a distance of 1,000 m pierced armor 150-185 mm thick at an angle of 60 °. A sub-caliber projectile at a distance of 1000 m penetrates homogeneous armor 180-220 mm thick at an angle of 60 °. The maximum firing range of high-explosive fragmentation projectiles weighing 9.66 kg. - 19 km.
From 1955 to 1957, 819 copies of D-48 and D-48N were produced (with night sight APN2-77 or APN3-77).

The guns entered service with individual anti-tank artillery battalions of a tank or motorized rifle regiment. As an anti-tank gun, the D-48 gun quickly became obsolete. In the early 60s of the XX century, tanks with more powerful armor protection appeared in NATO countries. The negative feature of the D-48 was the "exclusive" ammunition, unsuitable for other 85-mm guns. For firing from the D-48, the use of shots from the D-44, KS-1, 85-mm tank and self-propelled guns is also prohibited, this significantly narrowed the scope of the gun.

In the spring of 1943, V.G. Grabin, in his memorandum addressed to Stalin, proposed, along with the resumption of production of the 57-mm ZIS-2, to begin designing a 100-mm cannon with a unitary shot, which was used in naval guns.

A year later, in the spring of 1944 100-mm field gun model 1944 BS-3 was put into production. Due to the presence of a wedge gate with a vertically moving wedge with semi-automatic, the location of vertical and horizontal aiming mechanisms on one side of the gun, as well as the use of unitary shots, the gun's rate of fire is 8-10 rounds per minute. The cannon was fired with unitary cartridges with armor-piercing tracer rounds and high-explosive fragmentation grenades. An armor-piercing tracer with an initial velocity of 895 m/s at a range of 500 m at a meeting angle of 90° pierced armor 160 mm thick. The range of a direct shot was 1080 m.
However, the role of this gun in the fight against enemy tanks is greatly exaggerated. By the time it appeared, the Germans practically did not use tanks massively.

During the war, the BS-3 was produced in small quantities and could not play a big role. At the final stage of the war, 98 BS-3s were given as a means of reinforcing five tank armies. The gun was in service with the light artillery brigades of the 3rd regiment.

As of January 1, 1945, the RGK artillery had 87 BS-3 guns. At the beginning of 1945, in the 9th Guards Army, as part of three rifle corps, one cannon artillery regiment of 20 BS-3s was formed.

Basically, due to the long firing range - 20650 m and a fairly effective high-explosive fragmentation grenade weighing 15.6 kg, the gun was used as a hull gun to fight enemy artillery and suppress long-range targets.

The BS-3 had a number of shortcomings that made it difficult to use it as an anti-tank weapon. When firing, the gun jumped heavily, which made the gunner’s work unsafe and knocked down aiming mounts, which, in turn, led to a decrease in the practical rate of aimed fire - a very important quality for a field anti-tank gun.

The presence of a powerful muzzle brake with a low line of fire and flat trajectories, typical for firing at armored targets, led to the formation of a significant smoke and dust cloud, which unmasked the position and blinded the calculation. The mobility of a gun with a mass of more than 3500 kg left much to be desired, transportation by crew forces on the battlefield was almost impossible.

After the war, the gun was in production until 1951 inclusive, a total of 3816 BS-3 field guns were produced. In the 60s, the guns underwent modernization, this concerned primarily sights and ammunition. Until the early 60s, the BS-3 could penetrate the armor of any Western tank. But with the advent of: M-48A2, Chieftain, M-60 - the situation has changed. New sub-caliber and cumulative projectiles were urgently developed. The next modernization took place in the mid-80s, when the 9M117 Bastion anti-tank guided projectile entered the BS-3 ammunition load.

This weapon was also supplied to other countries, took part in many local conflicts in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, in some of them it is still in service. In Russia, until recently, the BS-3 guns were used as coastal defense weapons in service with the 18th machine gun and artillery division stationed on the Kuril Islands, and a fairly significant number of them are also in storage.

Until the late 60s and early 70s of the last century, anti-tank guns were the main means of fighting tanks. However, with the advent of ATGMs with a semi-automatic guidance system, which only requires keeping the target in the field of view of the sight, the situation has changed in many ways. The military leadership of many countries considered metal-intensive, bulky and expensive anti-tank guns an anachronism. But not in the USSR. In our country, the development and production of anti-tank guns continued in significant numbers. And at a qualitatively new level.

Entered service in 1961 100 mm T-12 smoothbore anti-tank gun, developed in the design bureau of the Yurga Machine-Building Plant No. 75 under the direction of V.Ya. Afanasiev and L.V. Korneev.

The decision to make a smoothbore gun at first glance may seem rather strange; the time for such guns ended almost a hundred years ago. But the creators of the T-12 did not think so.

In a smooth channel, it is possible to make the gas pressure much higher than in a rifled one, and accordingly increase the initial velocity of the projectile.
In a rifled barrel, the rotation of the projectile reduces the armor-piercing effect of the jet of gases and metal during the explosion of a cumulative projectile.
A smooth-bore gun significantly increases the survivability of the barrel - you can not be afraid of the so-called "washing out" of the rifling fields.

The gun channel consists of a chamber and a cylindrical smooth-walled guide part. The chamber is formed by two long and one short (between them) cones. The transition from the chamber to the cylindrical section is a conical slope. The shutter is vertical wedge with spring semi-automatic. Charging is unitary. The carriage for the T-12 was taken from the 85 mm D-48 anti-tank rifled gun.

In the 60s, a more convenient carriage was designed for the T-12 gun. The new system received an index MT-12 (2A29), and in some sources is called the "Rapier". The mass production of the MT-12 went into 1970. The composition of the anti-tank artillery battalions of the motorized rifle divisions of the USSR Armed Forces included two anti-tank artillery batteries, consisting of six 100-mm anti-tank guns T-12 (MT-12).

Guns T-12 and MT-12 have the same warhead - a long thin barrel 60 calibers long with a muzzle brake - "salt shaker". Sliding beds are equipped with an additional retractable wheel installed at the coulters. The main difference of the modernized MT-12 model is that it is equipped with a torsion bar suspension, which is blocked during firing to ensure stability.

When rolling the gun manually under the trunk part of the frame, a roller is substituted, which is fastened with a stopper on the left frame. Transportation of T-12 and MT-12 guns is carried out by a regular tractor MT-L or MT-LB. For driving on snow, the LO-7 ski mount was used, which made it possible to fire from skis at elevation angles up to +16 ° with a rotation angle of up to 54 °, and at an elevation angle of 20 ° with a rotation angle of up to 40 °.

A smooth barrel is much more convenient for firing guided projectiles, although in 1961 this was most likely not thought about yet. To combat armored targets, an armor-piercing sub-caliber projectile with a swept warhead with high kinetic energy is used, capable of penetrating armor 215 mm thick at a distance of 1000 meters. The ammunition load includes several types of sub-caliber, cumulative and high-explosive fragmentation shells.

Shot ZUBM-10 with armor-piercing projectile

Shot ZUBK8 with a cumulative projectile

When a special guidance device is installed on the gun, shots with the Kastet anti-tank missile can be used. The missile is controlled semi-automatically by a laser beam, the firing range is from 100 to 4000 m. The missile penetrates armor behind dynamic protection ("reactive armor") up to 660 mm thick.

Rocket 9M117 and shot ZUBK10-1

For direct fire, the T-12 gun is equipped with a day sight and night sights. With a panoramic sight, it can be used as a field gun from covered positions. There is a modification of the MT-12R gun with a mounted 1A31 "Ruta" guidance radar.

MT-12R with radar 1A31 "Ruta"

The gun was massively in service with the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries, delivered to Algeria, Iraq and Yugoslavia. They took part in military operations in Afghanistan, in the Iran-Iraq war, in armed conflicts in the territories of the former USSR and Yugoslavia. During these armed conflicts, 100-mm anti-tank guns are mainly used not against tanks, but as conventional divisional or corps guns.

MT-12 anti-tank guns continue to be in service in Russia.
According to the press center of the Ministry of Defense, on August 26, 2013, with the help of an accurate shot with a UBK-8 cumulative projectile from the MT-12 "Rapira" cannon of the Yekaterinburg separate motorized rifle brigade of the Central Military District, a fire was extinguished at well No. P23 ​​U1 near Novy Urengoy.

The fire began on August 19 and quickly turned into uncontrolled burning of natural gas bursting through faulty fittings. The artillery crew was transferred to Novy Urengoy by a military transport aircraft that took off from Orenburg. Equipment and ammunition were loaded at the Shagol airfield, after which the gunners under the command of the officer of the Missile Forces and Artillery Department of the Central Military District, Colonel Gennady Mandrichenko, were taken to the scene. The gun was set for direct fire from a minimum allowable distance of 70 m. The target diameter was 20 cm. The target was successfully hit.

In 1967, Soviet experts came to the conclusion that the T-12 gun “does not provide reliable destruction of the Chieftain tanks and the promising MVT-70. Therefore, in January 1968, OKB-9 (now part of JSC Spetstechnika) was instructed to develop a new, more powerful anti-tank gun with the ballistics of the 125 mm D-81 smoothbore tank gun. The task was difficult to accomplish, since the D-81, having excellent ballistics, gave the strongest return, which was still tolerable for a tank weighing 40 tons. But at field tests, the D-81 fired from a tracked carriage of a 203-mm B-4 howitzer. It is clear that such an anti-tank gun of 17 tons in weight and a maximum speed of 10 km / h was out of the question. Therefore, in the 125-mm gun, the recoil was increased from 340 mm (limited by the dimensions of the tank) to 970 mm and a powerful muzzle brake was introduced. This made it possible to install a 125-mm cannon on a three-bed carriage from a serial 122-mm D-30 howitzer, which allowed circular fire.

The new 125-mm cannon was designed by OKB-9 in two versions: the towed D-13 and the self-propelled SD-13 (“D” is the index of artillery systems designed by V.F. Petrov). The development of the SD-13 was 125-mm smooth-bore anti-tank gun "Sprut-B" (2A-45M). The ballistic data and ammunition of the D-81 tank gun and the 2A-45M anti-tank gun were the same.

The 2A-45M gun had a mechanized system for transferring it from a combat position to a marching one and vice versa, consisting of a hydraulic jack and hydraulic cylinders. With the help of a jack, the carriage was raised to a certain height, necessary for breeding or reducing the beds, and then lowered to the ground. Hydraulic cylinders lift the gun to its maximum clearance, as well as raise and lower the wheels.

Sprut-B is towed by a Ural-4320 vehicle or an MT-LB tractor. In addition, for self-movement on the battlefield, the gun has a special power unit, made on the basis of the MeMZ-967A engine with a hydraulic drive. The engine is located on the right side of the gun under the casing. On the left side of the frame, the driver's seats and the gun control system are installed on self-propelled. The maximum speed at the same time on dry dirt roads is 10 km / h, and the ammunition load is 6 rounds; cruising range for fuel - up to 50 km.

The ammunition load of the 125-mm Sprut-B gun includes separate-sleeve loading shots with cumulative, sub-caliber and high-explosive fragmentation shells, as well as anti-tank missiles. The 125-mm VBK10 round with the BK-14M ​​HEAT projectile can hit tanks of the M60, M48, and Leopard-1A5 types. Shot VBM-17 with a sub-caliber projectile - tanks of the M1 type "Abrams", "Leopard-2", "Merkava MK2". The VOF-36 shot with the OF26 high-explosive fragmentation projectile is designed to destroy manpower, engineering structures and other targets.

In the presence of special guidance equipment 9S53 "Octopus" can fire ZUB K-14 rounds with 9M119 anti-tank missiles, which are semi-automatically controlled by a laser beam, the firing range is from 100 to 4000 m. The mass of the shot is about 24 kg, missiles - 17.2 kg, it pierces armor behind dynamic protection with a thickness of 700-770 mm.

At present, towed anti-tank guns (100- and 125-mm smoothbore) are in service with the countries - the former republics of the USSR, as well as a number of developing countries. The armies of the leading Western countries have long abandoned special anti-tank guns, both towed and self-propelled. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that towed anti-tank guns have a future. The ballistics and ammunition of the 125-mm Sprut-B cannon, unified with the cannons of modern main tanks, are capable of hitting any serial tanks in the world. An important advantage of anti-tank guns over ATGMs is a wider choice of means of destroying tanks and the possibility of hitting them point-blank. In addition, the Sprut-B can also be used as a non-anti-tank weapon. Its OF-26 high-explosive fragmentation projectile is close in ballistic data and in terms of explosive mass to the OF-471 projectile of the 122-mm A-19 corps gun, which became famous in the Great Patriotic War.

According to materials:
http://gods-of-war.pp.ua
http://russian-power.rf/guide/army/ar/d44.shtml
Shirokorad A. B. Encyclopedia of domestic artillery. - Minsk: Harvest, 2000.
Shunkov V.N. Weapons of the Red Army. - Minsk: Harvest, 1999.

Soviet artillerymen made a great contribution to the victory in the Great Patriotic War. No wonder they say that artillery is the "God of War". For many people, the symbols of the Great Patriotic War remain the legendary guns - the "forty-five", a 45-mm gun of the 1937 model, with which the Red Army entered the war, and the most massive Soviet gun during the war - the 76-mm divisional gun of the 1942 model ZIS-3 . During the war years, this weapon was produced in a huge series - more than 100 thousand units.

The legendary "forty-five"

The battlefield is shrouded in clouds of smoke, flashes of fire and the noise of explosions all around. An armada of German tanks is slowly moving towards our positions. They are opposed by only one surviving artilleryman, who personally charges and aims his forty-five at the tanks.

A similar plot can often be found in Soviet films and books, it was supposed to show the superiority of the spirit of a simple Soviet soldier who, with the help of practically "scrap metal", managed to stop the high-tech German horde. In fact, the 45 mm anti-tank gun was far from a useless weapon, especially at the initial stage of the war. With reasonable use, this tool has repeatedly demonstrated all its best qualities.

The history of the creation of this legendary gun dates back to the 30s of the last century, when the first anti-tank gun, the 37-mm gun of the 1930 model, was adopted by the Red Army. This gun was a licensed version of the German 37-mm gun 3.7-cm PaK 35/36, created by Rheinmetall engineers. In the Soviet Union, this gun was produced at plant No. 8 in Podlipki, the gun received the designation 1-K.

At the same time, almost immediately in the USSR, they thought about improving the gun. Two ways were considered: either to increase the power of the 37-mm gun by introducing new ammunition, or to switch to a new caliber - 45 mm. The second way was recognized as promising. Already at the end of 1931, the designers of plant No. 8 installed a new 45-mm barrel in the casing of the 37-mm anti-tank gun of the 1930 model, while slightly strengthening the gun carriage. So the 45-mm anti-tank gun of the 1932 model was born, its factory index was 19K.

As the main ammunition for the new gun, it was decided to use a unitary shot from a 47-mm French cannon, the projectile of which, more precisely, not even the projectile itself, but its obturating belt, was simply turned from 47 mm to 46 mm in diameter. At the time of its creation, this anti-tank gun was the most powerful in the world. But even despite this, the GAU demanded a modernization - in order to reduce the weight of the gun and bring armor penetration to 45-55 mm at ranges of 1000-1300 meters. On November 7, 1936, it was also decided to transfer 45-mm anti-tank guns from wooden wheels to metal wheels filled with sponge rubber from the GAZ-A car.

By the beginning of 1937, the 45-mm cannon of the 1932 model was fitted with new wheels and the gun went into production. In addition, an improved sight, new semi-automatic, push-button trigger, more reliable shield attachment, suspension, better balancing of the oscillating part appeared on the gun - all these innovations made the 45-mm anti-tank gun of the 1937 model of the year (53K) meet all the requirements of the time.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, it was this gun that formed the basis of the anti-tank artillery of the Red Army. As of June 22, 1941, 16,621 such guns were in service. In total, during the war years, 37,354 pieces of 45-mm anti-tank guns were produced in the USSR.

The gun was intended to fight enemy armored vehicles (tanks, self-propelled guns, armored personnel carriers). For its time and at the beginning of the war, its armor penetration was quite adequate. At a distance of 500 meters, an armor-piercing projectile pierced 43-mm armor. This was enough to deal with the German tanks of those years, the armor of most of which was more bulletproof.

At the same time, already during the war in 1942, the gun was modernized and its anti-tank capabilities increased. The 45 mm anti-tank gun of the 1942 model, designated M-42, was created by upgrading its 1937 predecessor. The work was carried out at the plant number 172 in Motovilikha (Perm).

Basically, the modernization consisted in lengthening the gun barrel, as well as strengthening the propellant charge and a number of technical measures that were aimed at simplifying the serial production of the gun. At the same time, the thickness of the gun shield armor increased from 4.5 mm to 7 mm for better protection of the crew from armor-piercing bullets. As a result of modernization, the muzzle velocity of the projectile was raised from 760 m/s to 870 m/s. When using caliber armor-piercing shells, the armor penetration of the new gun at a distance of 500 meters increased to 61 mm.

The M-42 anti-tank gun was able to fight all medium German tanks of 1942. At the same time, during the entire first period of the Great Patriotic War, it was forty-fives that remained the basis of the anti-tank artillery of the Red Army. During the Battle of Stalingrad, these guns accounted for 43% of all guns that were in service with anti-tank regiments.

But the appearance in 1943 of new German tanks, primarily the Tiger and Panther, as well as a modernized version of the Pz Kpfw IV Ausf H, which had a frontal armor thickness of 80 mm, the Soviet anti-tank artillery was again faced with the need to build up firepower.

The problem was partially solved by re-starting production of the 57-mm ZIS-2 anti-tank gun. But despite this, and thanks to well-established production, the production of the M-42 continued. With tanks Pz Kpfw IV Ausf H and Panther, this gun could fight by firing on their side, and such fire could be counted on due to the high mobility of the gun. As a result, he was left in production and in service. A total of 10,843 such guns were manufactured from 1942 to 1945.

Divisional gun model 1942 ZIS-3

The second Soviet weapon, no less legendary than the forty-five, was the ZIS-3 divisional cannon of the 1942 model, which today can be found on many pedestals. It is worth noting that by the time the Great Patriotic War began, the Red Army was armed with both rather outdated field guns of the 1900/02, 1902/26 and 1902/30 models, as well as fairly modern guns: 76.2-mm divisional guns of the 1936 model ( F-22) and 76.2-mm divisional gun model 1939 (USV).

At the same time, work on the ZIS-3 was started even before the war. The well-known designer Vasily Gavrilovich Grabin was engaged in the design of the new gun. He began work on the gun at the end of 1940 after his 57 mm ZIS-2 anti-tank gun had successfully passed the tests. Like most anti-tank guns, it was quite compact, had a light and durable carriage, which was quite suitable for the development of a divisional gun.

At the same time, a high-tech barrel with good ballistic characteristics has already been created for the 76.2-mm F-22 and USV divisional guns. So the designers practically had only to put the existing barrel on the carriage of the ZIS-2 gun, equipping the barrel with a muzzle brake to reduce the load on the gun carriage. In parallel with the process of designing a divisional gun, issues related to the technology of its production were resolved, and the production of many parts was carried out by stamping, casting, and welding. Compared to the USV gun, labor costs were reduced by 3 times, and the cost of one gun fell by more than a third.

The ZIS-3 was a weapon of a modern design at that time. The barrel of the gun is a monoblock with a breech and a muzzle brake (they absorbed about 30% of the recoil energy). A semi-automatic wedge gate was used. The descent was lever or push-button (on guns of different production series). The barrel resource for the guns of the first series reached 5000 rounds, but for most guns it did not exceed 2000 rounds.

Already in the battles of 1941, the ZIS-3 gun showed all its advantages over the F-22 and USV guns, which were heavy and inconvenient for gunners. This allowed Grabin to personally present his gun to Stalin and obtain official permission from him to launch the gun into mass production, moreover, the gun was already being produced and actively used in the army.

At the beginning of February 1942, formal tests of the gun took place, which lasted only 5 days. According to the test results, the ZIS-3 gun was put into service on February 12, 1942 with the official name "76-mm divisional gun of the 1942 model." For the first time in the world, the production of the ZIS-3 gun was carried out in-line with a sharp increase in productivity. On May 9, 1945, the Volga Plant reported to the party and the government about the production of the 100,000th 76-mm ZIS-3 gun, increasing their production during the war years by almost 20 times. BUT in total, more than 103 thousand of these guns were manufactured during the war years.

The ZIS-3 gun could use the entire range of 76-mm cannon shells available, including a variety of old Russian and imported grenades. So the steel high-explosive fragmentation grenade 53-OF-350, when the fuse was set to fragmentation action, created approximately 870 lethal fragments, the effective radius of which was 15 meters. When the fuse was set to high-explosive action at a distance of 7.5 km, a grenade could penetrate a brick wall 75 cm thick or an earth embankment 2 m thick.

The use of the 53-BR-354P sub-caliber projectile ensured penetration of 105 mm of armor at a distance of 300 meters, and at a distance of 500 meters - 90 mm. First of all, sub-caliber shells were sent to provide anti-tank units. Since the end of 1944, the cumulative projectile 53-BP-350A also appeared in the troops, which could penetrate armor up to 75-90 mm thick at an encounter angle of 45 degrees.

At the time of adoption, the 76-mm divisional gun of the 1942 model fully met all the requirements facing it: in terms of firepower, mobility, unpretentiousness in everyday operation and manufacturability. The ZIS-3 gun was a typical weapon of the Russian school of design: technologically simple, cheap, powerful, reliable, absolutely unpretentious and easy to operate.

During the war years, these guns were produced in-line using any more or less trained workforce without losing the quality of the finished samples. The guns were easily mastered and could be kept in order by the personnel of the units. For the conditions in which the Soviet Union found itself in 1941-1942, the ZIS-3 gun was almost an ideal solution, not only from the point of view of combat use, but also from the point of view of industrial production. All the years of the war, the ZIS-3 was successfully used both against tanks and against enemy infantry and fortifications, which made it so versatile and massive.

122-mm howitzer model 1938 M-30

The M-30 122-mm howitzer of the 1938 model became the most massive Soviet howitzer of the Great Patriotic War period. This gun was mass-produced from 1939 to 1955 and was, and still is, in service with some countries. This howitzer took part in almost all significant wars and local conflicts of the 20th century.

According to a number of artillery successes, the M-30 can be safely attributed to one of the best examples of Soviet cannon artillery in the middle of the last century. The presence of such a howitzer in the composition of the artillery units of the Red Army made an invaluable contribution to the victory in the war. In total, during the release of the M-30, 19,266 howitzers of this type were assembled..

The howitzer was developed in 1938 by the Motovilikha Plants Design Bureau (Perm), the project was led by Fedor Fedorovich Petrov. Serial production of howitzers began in 1939 at three plants at once, including Motovilikhinskiye Zavody (Perm) and at the Uralmash artillery plant (Sverdlovsk, since 1942, artillery plant No. 9 with OKB-9). The howitzer was in mass production until 1955, which most clearly characterizes the success of the project.

In general, the M-30 howitzer had a classic design: a reliable, durable two-bed carriage, a rigidly fixed shield with a raised central sheet, and a 23-caliber barrel that did not have a muzzle brake. The M-30 howitzer was equipped with the same carriage as the 152 mm D-1 howitzer. Large-diameter wheels received solid slopes, they were filled with sponge rubber. At the same time, the M-30 modification, which was produced in Bulgaria after the war, had wheels of a different design. Each 122nd howitzer had two different types of coulters - for hard and soft soil.

The 122 mm M-30 howitzer was, of course, a very successful weapon. A group of its creators, led by F.F. Petrov, managed to very harmoniously combine simplicity and reliability in one model of artillery weapons. The howitzer was very easily mastered by personnel, which was largely characteristic of howitzers of the First World War era, but at the same time it had a large number of new design solutions that made it possible to increase the fire capabilities and mobility of the howitzer. As a result, the Soviet divisional artillery received a powerful and modern howitzer, which was able to operate as part of the highly mobile tank and mechanized units of the Red Army. The wide distribution of this 122-mm howitzer in various armies of the world and the excellent reviews of gunners only confirm this.

The gun was appreciated even by the Germans, who at the initial stage of the war managed to capture several hundred M-30 howitzers. They adopted the gun under the index heavy howitzer 12.2 cm s.F.H.396 (r), actively using them on the Eastern and Western fronts. Starting from 1943, for this howitzer, as well as some other samples of Soviet cannon artillery of the same caliber, the Germans even launched a full-fledged mass production of shells. So in 1943 they fired 424 thousand shots, in 1944 and 1945 - 696.7 thousand and 133 thousand shots, respectively.

The main type of ammunition for the 122-mm howitzer M-30 in the Red Army was a fairly effective fragmentation projectile, which weighed 21.76 kg. The howitzer could fire these projectiles at a range of up to 11,800 meters. Theoretically, an armor-piercing cumulative projectile 53-BP-460A could be used to combat armored targets, which, at an angle of impact with armor of 90 °, pierced armor up to 160 mm thick. The aiming range of firing at a moving tank was up to 400 meters. But of course that would be an extreme case.

The M-30 was intended primarily for firing from closed positions against openly located and dug-in enemy manpower and equipment. The howitzer was also successfully used to destroy enemy field fortifications (dugouts, bunkers, trenches) and to make passages in barbed wire when it was impossible to use mortars for these purposes.

Moreover, the barrage fire of the M-30 howitzer battery with high-explosive fragmentation shells posed some threat to German armored vehicles. The fragments formed during the rupture of 122-mm shells were able to penetrate armor up to 20 mm thick, this was quite enough to destroy the sides of enemy light tanks and armored personnel carriers. For vehicles with thicker armor, fragments of howitzer shells could disable the gun, sights, and chassis elements.

HEAT shells for this howitzer appeared only in 1943. But in their absence, the gunners were instructed to fire at tanks and high-explosive fragmentation shells, having previously set the fuse to high-explosive action. Very often, with a direct hit on a tank (especially for light and medium tanks), it became fatal for an armored vehicle and its crew, up to the failure of the turret from the shoulder strap, which automatically made the tank incapacitated.