German anti-aircraft small-caliber anti-Soviet aircraft (part of 1)
In the first part of the review we will talk about the German anti-aircraft machine gun rifles caliber. Although the Soviet attack aircraft Il-2 was not very vulnerable to bullets light rifle weaponsIn 1941, in the Red Army Air Force assault regiments, there were a significant number of outdated aircraft: the I-15bis, I-153 fighters and the R-5 and R-Z light reconnaissance bomber. On these machines, at best, all reservations were presented only by the pilot’s armored back, and gas tanks were not protected and were not filled with neutral gas. In addition, the fire of German 7,92 mm anti-aircraft installations was a danger not only for improvised attack aircraft, but also for front-line bombers: Su-2, Yak-2, Yak-4, SB-2, Ar-2, Pe-2 - which often acted at low altitude. In the initial period of the war, the Soviet command was compelled to engage a fighter for assault operations against the advancing German troops Aviation. Whereas older fighters with I-15bis, I-16 and I-153 air-cooled engines had good protection in front, the more modern MiG-3, Yak-1 and LaGG-3 with liquid-cooled engines were quite vulnerable even to a single lumbago radiator. In addition, it is reliably known that in 1941, in the daylight, the Red Army command sent long-range bombers DB-3, Il-4 and Er-2 to attack the columns of the Wehrmacht. In order to accurately cover the manpower, vehicles and military equipment of the enemy with bombers, bombers had to drop to a height of several hundred meters, falling into the zone of effective fire of anti-aircraft machine guns. Thus, in the initial period of the war, ZPUs in the German army played an important role in providing protection against low-altitude bombing and assault attacks by Soviet aircraft.
Most often for firing from German rifles and machine guns during the Second World War, an 7,92 × 57 mm cartridge with an Ss bullet (German: Schweres spitzgeschoß - sharp pointed) was used with 12,8 g mass. It left the 700 mm barrel with the 760 speed m / s. For firing from anti-aircraft 7,92-mm machine guns, the Germans very widely used cartridges with SmK armor-piercing bullets (German Spitzgeschoß mit Kern - pointed with a core). At a distance of 100 m, this bullet with a mass of 11,5 g with an initial speed of 785 m / s along the normal could penetrate 12 mm armor. The ammunition of anti-aircraft machine guns could also include cartridges with PmK armor-piercing incendiary bullets - (German. Phosphor mit Kern - phosphoric with a core). The armor-piercing incendiary bullet weighed 10 g and had an initial speed of 800 m / s.
To adjust anti-aircraft fire in machine-gun tape, every 3-5 conventional or armor-piercing cartridges were equipped with an SmK L'spur armor-piercing-tracer bullet - (spitzgeschoß mit Kern Leuchtspur - a pointed tracer with a core). An armor-piercing tracer bullet with a mass of 10 g accelerated in the barrel to 800 m / s. Her tracer burned at a distance of up to 1000 m, which exceeded the effective range of fire on air targets for weapons of caliber 7,92-mm. In addition to adjusting and targeting an armor-piercing tracer cartridge, the fuel vapor could be ignited when the gas tank wall was broken through.
The story of the German anti-aircraft machine gun rifle caliber begin with MG.08, which was a German version of the system Hiram Maxim. This weapon was actively used by the German army during the First World War, including for firing at air targets. In the first half of the 30-x, as part of the program to improve machine-gun armament initiated by the Armaments Department, the Reichswehr machine gun was upgraded.
As a result of the modernization of MG.08, used for air defense purposes, the anti-aircraft sight, sliding anti-aircraft tripod and shoulder rest, the rate of fire was increased to 650 rds / min. However, the weight of the machine gun in a combat position exceeded 60 kg, which did not contribute to its mobility. For this reason, during the years of the Second World Machine Gun, the MG.08 was mainly used for anti-aircraft cover of the rear units.
Most often, German anti-aircraft Maxims were installed in fixed positions or various mobile transport platforms: horse-drawn carriages, automobiles and railway wagons. Although by the beginning of World War II, this water-cooled machine gun was considered obsolete, a reliable, although somewhat heavy construction and the ability to fire intensively without the risk of overheating the barrel allowed it to remain in service. MG.08 anti-aircraft machine guns were in reserve and security units, as well as on stationary installations in fortified areas until the end of hostilities. When the calculation did not need to move the weapon on itself, the outdated water-cooled machine gun showed itself very well. The density of fire, he was not inferior to other, more modern machine guns. Moreover, from MG.08 it was possible to conduct a longer fire than from new samples with air cooling without the risk of overheating of the barrel.
Due to the heavy weight, the MG.08 mobility did not meet modern requirements, and at the beginning of the 30-s in Germany several promising infantry machine guns were created more in line with the military’s ideas about weapons of maneuvering war. The first model adopted by the 1931 year, became the MG.13 light machine gun, developed using the MG.08 automatics operating scheme. Specialists of the company Rheinmetall-Borsig AG tried to make the weapon as easy as possible. At the same time there was a refusal from water cooling of the trunk and from tape supply. The trunk on MG.13 has become removable. The machine gun used drums for 75 cartridges, or a box magazine for 25 cartridges. The mass of the unloaded weapon was 13,3 kg, the rate of fire was up to 600 rds / min. To reduce the size of a tubular butt with folding shoulder rest folded to the right. Simultaneously with the sector-based sight on the MG.13, it was possible to install an anti-aircraft ring sight.
Despite the advantage of MG.13 over the outdated MG.08 / 15 Reichswehr state-of-the-art machine gun, there were many drawbacks inherent in it: design complexity, long change of barrel, and high production. In addition, the military was not satisfied with the store supply system, which increased the weight of the transferred ammunition and lowered the combat rate of fire, which made the machine gun ineffective when firing intensively from the machine.
Therefore, MG.13 released relatively little, mass production continued until the end of 1934. However, MG.13 machine guns were available in the Wehrmacht during the initial period of the war. For anti-aircraft shooting MG.13 could mount on the machine gun MG.34.
In 1934, the MG.34 machine gun, which is often called the "first single", came into service. He quickly gained popularity in the Wehrmacht and greatly supplanted other designs. MG.34, created by Rheinmetall-Borsig AG, embodied the concept of a universal machine gun developed on the basis of the experience of the First World War, which could be used as a manual machine for firing from bipods, as well as an easel machine gun from an infantry or anti-aircraft machine gun. From the very beginning, it was envisaged that the MG.34 machine gun would also be mounted on armored vehicles and Tanks, both in ball installations, and on various turrets. Such unification simplified the supply and training of troops, and provided high tactical flexibility.
Power MG.34 installed on the machine was carried out with tapes out of the box on 150 cartridges or 300 cartridges. In the manual version, compact cylindrical boxes on 50 cartridges were used. In the 1938, for anti-aircraft installations, they adopted a store-powered modification: for machine guns, the cover of the box with the tape drive mechanism was replaced with a cover with a fastening for the 75-cartridge paired drum magazine, structurally similar to the MG.13 light machine gun and the aviation MG.15. The store consisted of two connected drums, the cartridges of which are fed alternately. The advantage of the store with the alternate supply of cartridges from each drum, except for a relatively large capacity, was considered to be maintaining the balance of the machine gun as the cartridges were consumed. Although the rate of fire when feeding from the drum shop was higher, this option did not take root in anti-aircraft installations. Most often for the firing of the aircraft used machine guns with belt power from a cylindrical 50-cartridge case. Drum shops were not popular due to their high sensitivity to pollution and the complexity of equipment.
The anti-aircraft gunner of the Norwegian SS Legion in the firing position, powered by the MG.34 mounted on a tripod, is carried out from the 50-cartridge case
MG.34 had a length of 1219 mm and, in the manual version without cartridges, weighed just over 12 kg. Machine guns of the first series gave the rate of shooting 800-900 rounds / min. However, based on combat experience, due to the use of a smaller mass gate, the tempo was increased to 1200 rds / min. In case of overheating, the barrel could be quickly replaced. The barrel was supposed to change every 250 shots. For this, the kit had two spare barrel and asbestos mitt.
For shooting at air targets, the MG.34 was mounted on a Dreiben 34 tripod and equipped with anti-aircraft sights. The standard machine also allowed the possibility of anti-aircraft fire using a special anti-aircraft rack Lafettenaufsatzstück, albeit with less convenience.
The advantages of a single ZPU using MG.34 were: simplicity of design, relatively low weight and the possibility of mounting a conventional light machine gun taken from a linear unit. These qualities were especially valued at the forefront, since it was difficult to place more bulky anti-aircraft installations in the trenches.
Shortly after the start of serial production of the MG.34, the German command was puzzled by the need for air defense cover on the march. For this, the MG-Wagen 34 horse-drawn gig was originally used, with a pivot mounted on it and a box for cartridge boxes. The crew of the "anti-aircraft self-propelled gun" consisted of a driver (he is the second number of machine-gun crew) and an arrow. However, this option was not particularly popular, since the calculation was in cramped conditions, and the fire on the move was impossible.
In 1936, the MG-Wagen 36 Tachka with tandem Zwillingssockel 36 installations began to arrive in the army. This LSD provided circular firing of air targets with elevation angles from -14 to + 73 °. According to the reference data, the machine gun could fire at air targets at a distance of 1800 m. In fact, the effective firing range at air targets did not exceed 800 m, the ceiling was 500 m. The machine with the shooter’s seat and frame was mounted on a thumbs support, two guns were attached to the frame, cartridge boxes with ribbons for 150 cartridges and control handles. The machine guns had a single descent, on the bracket was located annular anti-aircraft sight. The combat rate of fire in short bursts was 240-300 rds / min, and in long bursts - up to 800 rds / min.
The MG-Wagen 36 carriage itself was a single-axle trailer vehicle specially designed for a mobile LSD. Its main components - the axle with two wheels, the body and the drawbar were made using "automotive" technologies. The open body of the riveted steel sheet is similar to the side platform of a small pickup truck. The axis had no suspension, and rigidly attached to the body. The wheels are automotive, from a light truck. The hubs are equipped with mechanically driven drum brakes.
In the parking lot, the stability of the carriage on two wheels is ensured by two folding stands located at the front and rear of the body. Dyshlo with traction coupling device allowed to catch the wagon for the gun front, in which a pair of horses harnessed.
An important advantage of the MG-Wagen 36 was the constant readiness for combat while on the move. However, it soon became clear that in most cases horses were frightened by flying at low altitude aircraft, and the shelling and air bombing made them uncontrollable at all, which of course greatly reduced the effectiveness of anti-aircraft machine-gun mounted on a horse gear. In this regard, the towed cart with a machine gun Spark often hooked to various vehicles with an internal combustion engine, for example, to the half-tracks Sd.Kfz.2 motorcycle. MG-Wagen 36 towed carts on the Eastern Front met until the middle of the 1942 year. A number of Zwillingssockel 36 ZPUs were installed on trucks, railway platforms and armored vehicles.
In addition to single and twin anti-aircraft machine guns, the Germans built a small number of quadruple ZPU. In the case of the use of MG.34 of later versions, the total rate of fire in this case was 4800 rds / min - twice as much as in the Soviet quadruple 7,62-mm anti-aircraft machine gun М4 mod. 1931., Which used four Maxim machine gun arr. 1910 / 30 d. Since the MG.34 machine guns had air cooling, the mass of the German installation was about 2,5 times smaller.
A Red Army soldier with a 16-barreled trophy-machinegun installation created using MG.34 machine guns
However, in Germany during the war years, attempts were made to create real 16-barreled monsters, which, given the total lack of machine-gun armament in the second half of the war, was unacceptable waste for Germany.
For all its merits, MG.34 was complicated and expensive to manufacture. In addition, during the fighting on the Eastern Front, it became clear that the machine gun is very sensitive to the wear of parts and the condition of the lubricant, and for its competent maintenance highly skilled machine gunners are required. Even before the launch of MG.34 into serial production, the Division of Infantry Weapons of the Army Arms Administration drew attention to its high cost and complex structure. In 1938, the company Metall-und Lackwarenfabrik Johannes Großfuß presented its own version of the machine gun, which, like MG.34, had a short barrel stroke with side-locking rollers. But, unlike MG.34, stamping and spot welding were widely used in the new machine gun. As in the MG.34 machine gun, the problem of overheating the barrel during long shooting was solved by replacing it. Launching the machine gun continued until the 1941 year. After a comparative test with the improved MG.34 / 41, it was adopted in 1942 for the year under the designation MG.42. Compared to MG.34, the cost of MG.42 has decreased by about 30%. Approximately 34 kg of metal and 49 man-hours went to manufacture MG.150, on MG.42 - 27,5 kg and 75 man-hours. MG.42 machine guns were produced until the end of April 1945, the total release at the enterprises of the Third Reich was more than 420 000 units. At the same time, MG.34, despite its shortcomings, was produced in parallel, although in smaller quantities.
The MG.42 had the same length as the MG.34 - 1200 mm, but it was a little lighter - without 11,57 kg cartridges. Depending on the mass of the shutter, its rate of fire was 1000-1500 rds / min. Due to the higher rate of fire, MG.42 was even more suitable for anti-aircraft fire than MG.34. However, by the beginning of the mass production of MG.42, it became clear that the role of the rifle caliber of the anti-aircraft gun in the air defense system had sharply decreased due to the increased security and flight speed of combat aircraft. For this reason, the number of specialized anti-aircraft installations in which MG.42 was used was relatively small. At the same time, MG.42 machine guns were widely used in universal turrets on armored personnel carriers and tanks.
MG.34 and especially MG.42 are rightfully considered to be one of the best machine guns used during the Second World War. After the war, these weapons spread widely throughout the world and were actively used in regional conflicts. Modifications of the MG.42 for other cartridges and with bolts of various masses were mass-produced in different countries and, in addition to infantry variants on bipods and machine tools, they can often still be found mounted on anti-aircraft turrets as part of the weapons of various armored vehicles.
At the end of the part devoted to anti-aircraft machine gun rifles caliber, developed and manufactured in Germany, we will try to assess how effective they were. As already mentioned, the Soviet air force used both armored attack planes and fighters and light bombers, which were not covered with armor protection, to inflict bombardment attacks on the positions and transport columns of the Nazis.
On the Il-2 attack aircraft, a streamlined armored body and armored bulkheads from 4 to 12 mm thick covered the engine, the cockpit and the fuel tanks. Steel armor, included in the power set of the aircraft, was supplemented with multilayer armored glass. The canopy of the lantern was made of 64-mm glass. The windshield withstood the shelling of 7,92-mm armor-piercing bullets fired at close range. The armor protection of the cab and the engine, in view of the significant angles of meeting with the armor, in most cases, did not penetrate the armor-piercing bullets of rifle caliber. Often, attack aircraft returned from combat sorties that had dozens and sometimes hundreds of holes from bullets and fragments of anti-aircraft missiles. According to the Russian historian O.V. Rastrenin, during the fighting 52% hits IL-2 fell on the wing and the unarmored part behind the cabin, 20% damage related to the fuselage as a whole. The engine and hoods received 4% damage, radiators, cab and rear gas tank received 3% damage each.
However, this statistic has a significant flaw. It is safe to say that the IL-2, shot down due to falling into critical parts: the engine, cab, gas tanks and radiators, was more. The experts who conducted the surveys of aircraft that received combat damage, in most cases, did not have the opportunity to examine attack aircraft struck by anti-aircraft fire in the target area. It is known that during World War, about half of the patients in Soviet hospitals had injuries to their limbs. But this does not mean that the bullets do not fall into the head and chest. This is evidence that those who received bullet wounds to the head and chest, in most cases, die on the spot. Therefore, to draw conclusions only on the basis of damage to the returned aircraft is a mistake. The planes and fuselage riddled with bullets and splinters do not need additional measures of protection. Their strength was enough to continue the flight, even with extensive damage to the skin and power set.
But in any case, it can be argued that the IL-2 was adequately protected from small arms fire. Armor 7,92-mm bullets, as a rule, did not pierce, and their destructive effect on the force elements of the attack aircraft design in single hits turned out to be insignificant. But at the same time, to say that the rifle caliber of the rifle caliber was absolutely powerless against armored attack planes would be wrong. Dense line of rapid-fire machine gun could well cause damage that impede the performance of a combat mission. In addition, on double cars, the cockpit shooter was not at all covered with armor from the bottom and side. Many authors writing about the combat use of the Il-2 overlook the fact that in the depths of the enemy defense Soviet attack aircraft had to fly at low altitudes, bypassing areas with a high concentration of anti-aircraft artillery, evading meetings with enemy fighters. At the same time, a long flight with closed oil grille armored valves was impossible. According to the memories of test pilot and cosmonaut Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoy, who flew during the war on IL-2 and received the first star of the hero in 1944, he made an emergency landing in the forest after he had discharged a machine gun fire to the oil radiator when he left the target. In addition, pilots, especially young ones, often forgot to close the valve of the oil radiator over the target.
As for fighters and non-armored near bombers, their survivability during the shelling of 7,92-mm machine guns was highly dependent on the type of power plant used. Air-cooled engines were much less vulnerable to combat damage than motors with liquid radiators. In addition to better combat survivability, the star engine is much shorter and represents a smaller target. The combat aircraft that entered service on the eve of the war, for the most part, had a tank filling system with neutral gas, which precluded an explosion of fuel vapor when an incendiary bullet hit. In the second half of the war, the gas tanks of the fighters, as a rule, had protection against fuel leakage during the shooting. Since the floor and side walls of the cockpit of Soviet fighters and front-line bombers were not armored, 7,92-mm bullets were a serious danger to the pilots. But much depended on the tactics used by Soviet pilots when attacking ground targets. As you know, most of the aircraft fell off during repeated visits to the target, when the German anti-aircraft calculations had time to react and target. Relatively ineffective ZPU rifle caliber turned out to be against Pe-2 and Tu-2 bombers, which carried out dive-bombing. Entering the aircraft at a peak began from a height inaccessible to the 7,92-mm anti-aircraft fire, and on the combat course until the bombing, due to the high speed and stress experienced by the gunners, it was very difficult to get into the dive bombard. And after the bombs were separated, the anti-aircraft gunners often didn’t get any aiming fire on the aircraft.
Due to the availability of the machine gun rifle caliber and ammunition to them, this weapon until the last hours of the war was used for firing at air targets. Unary and twin 7,92-mm LSD compared with larger anti-aircraft guns had a smaller weight and dimensions. The flip side of the use of relatively low-power and cheap 7,92-mm cartridges was the small effective firing range at air targets and a low striking effect. So, in order to shoot down the Yak-7b fighter, on average 2-3 20-mm projectile or 12-15 7,92-mm bullets had to hit it.
To be continued ...
Based on:
https://coollib.com/b/192106/read
http://forums.airbase.ru/2016/01/t90357--zenitnye-pulemety-germaniya-avstro-vengriya-finlyandiya-i-pr.html
https://www.istmira.ru/istvtmir/pulemyoty-pexotnoe-oruzhie-tretego-rejxa/
http://gvtm.ru/povozka_mg-wagen_s_zenitnoy_ustanov
http://vsevteme.ru/network/1077/2011/07/13/voennaya-istoriya/edinyy-pulemet-mg-34-germaniya
https://iremember.ru/materials/oleg-rastrenin-glavnaya-udarnaya-sila-shturmovik-il-2
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