In the footsteps of "Katyusha"
"In 1942, Russian newspapers published the first pictures of a strange German weapons, captured on the Russian front, - writes the famous historian of science and technology, Willy Lay. “It had six short barrels about 1,5 meters long, which were mounted on a lightly modified 37 gun carriage of a millimeter anti-tank gun and resembled the drum of the old Colt revolver.
This somewhat strange system was a new German rocket launcher. Officially, it was called the “41 Nebelverfer”, that is, the “gas meter”, or the smoke suppressor device of the 1941 sample of the year. The name indicated that this weapon was originally intended for use as a chemical mortar to create smoke screens. However, reports from the front indicated that this weapon was used as a mortar for firing high-explosive mines. Later, chemical shells for these weapons were captured, confirming its initial purpose.
The total length of the projectile somewhat exceeded 100 centimeters, and its total weight was 36 kilograms. The powder charge was placed in the head section and consisted of seven pieces of smokeless powder, each with a length of 400 millimeters and a diameter of 40 millimeters with a hole in the center with a diameter of 6,35 millimeter. Powder charge weighed about 6 kilograms. The projectile had a caliber 15 centimeters.
The launch time of all six shafts was reportedly from the front, on average 6 seconds. The maximum firing range exceeded 5000 meters. The accuracy of fire was good, but, of course, inferior to the accuracy of fire of artillery guns of the same caliber.
At first, this development was regarded as an attempt by the Germans to at least somehow neutralize our famous "Katyushas", and an unsuccessful attempt. The main flaw of the Neblverfer was that he unmasked himself strongly when fired; the flame of the rocket powder charge, breaking through the open breech of the launch tubes, reached 12 meters in length and was extremely bright. The active part of the rocket’s trajectory was 140 meters, and even in the daytime, when the light from the rocket engine torch was not so noticeable, when launching it, a large cloud of dust appeared unmasking the firing position.
Perhaps that is why about a year after the appearance of the Nebelverfer, a larger rocket mortar with a caliber 21 centimeter of slightly modified design was created. In the projectile of this mortar rocket powder charge was placed in the tail section. Instead of tubular drafts, the projectile had one large powder charge weighing a kilogram of 6,6, a millimeter length of 413, and a diameter of almost 130 millimeters. On the peripheral part of the charge there were eight grooves and eight longitudinal channels in a circle, as well as one central axial channel. The firing range of this variant was already about 6 kilometers.
By this time, a fundamentally new jet system was created, called the "Schweres Wurfgeret" (heavy projectile). This weapon used a 21 SL1 jet engine projectile in combination with a 32 centimeter warhead filled with a mixture of oil and gasoline (about 42 liters). The whole shell was similar to the battle club of the ancient warriors and weighed more than 90 kilograms.
The Wurfgert began to enter the troops with separate shells, in special packaging, which served as a launcher. This packaging frame was tilted, and Wurfgert was ready to launch. Heavy incendiary "bomb", driven by its own engine, could fly a distance of more than 1800 meters.
Later, several such 32 centimeter shells were found, marked with yellow crosses at the head; With this sign, the Germans designated mustard gas. But when the found shells were opened by chemical service specialists, they also found a mixture of oil and gasoline.
The launching of missiles from the packaging frames was quite satisfactory in terms of accuracy only at test sites; on the battlefield, such shells were ineffective. Then the Germans together made six frames in two rows (three in each row) and installed them on a gun carriage, hoping in this way to improve the accuracy of the fire and ensure its greater massing. At about the same time, a smaller version of the Wurfgeret was created with a warhead 28 centimeters in diameter, filled with a high explosive.
As already mentioned, all these constructions can be regarded as attempts to create something similar to our Guards rocket mortar. But the Germans were able to benefit even from their failures. Here is what history on this occasion, for example, told the engineer Alexander Shirokorad.
In developing their designs, it is quite possible that the Germans also remembered the designs of our talented inventor L. V. Kurchevsky, who was engaged in dynamo-active or recoilless cannons before the war. They, unlike traditional guns, when fired, the recoil is balanced by a stream of powder gases, flying through the breech. The easiest option no-click - smooth-wall pipe carried by one fighter. It fires from the shoulder or from the coulters, or from the simplest tripod. The pressure of gases in the barrel does not exceed 10 – 20 kilograms per square centimeter, the initial velocity of the projectile is 25 – 100 meters per second, and the target firing range is 30 – 100 meters.
In addition, the range of dynamo-active guns is increased by installing various nozzles in the "breech", for example, the Laval nozzle. With the appropriate selection of parameters, the gas pressure may become the same as in the barrel of a conventional gun, but then the PDA will have to be made stronger, and therefore heavier, which is undesirable. Therefore, charging chambers of large diameter and volume are used, which allows, with a relatively small pressure in the bore (600 – 800 kilogram per centimeter), to tell the projectile initial speed in 400 – 500 meters per second or more.
And the very first recoilless guns appeared as early as 1915, when the aforementioned colonel of the Russian army Gelvig made a millimeter air cannon 76,2, in which the barrel served as an inert body - after a shot it was lowered by parachute. In the autumn of 1916, an open-tube 70 millimeter dynamo-cannon, designed by Meatry, was used in the USSR to experiment with home-made personal systems with a caliber from 1920 to 37 in millimeters, in dummy chargers, and chard-weather closures. , with deep cutting for shells with ready ledges, unitary and kartuzny loading. Only in 107, seven different recoilless guns were tested, and the next five more.
Kurchevsky went even further. He inserted a nozzle into the breech of the usual 76,2 millimeter field and mountain cannons and received a non-spin. Barrel and ammunition remained standard.
In 1932 – 1933 years, Kurchevsky managed to enlist the support of G.K. Ordzhonikidze, People's Commissar of Heavy Industry, his deputy I.P. Pavlunovsky, G.I. Kulik, Chief of the Main Artillery Directorate, and monopolize everything related to off-rolls. And even more: remember the words of the then popular march - “we were born to make a fairy tale come true”? Please get a tiny torpedo boat type G 5 with 152 millimeter DRP (and this is a cruising caliber!); the destroyer Engels is firing from 305 millimeter DRP (Linkorov caliber on a ship with a displacement of 1400 tons!). The 305 millimeter howitzer is put on the car, the 76 millimeter gun is mounted on the motorcycle. And Kurchevsky proposes the 500 millimeter bezotkatki project for a light cruiser ...
M. N. Tukhachevsky, Deputy Commissar of Defense for Armaments, also became interested in the novelty. “As I understand it, no one has so far objected to his idea of transferring all artillery to a dynamo-active principle, but they even agreed,” the designer VG Grabin recalled.
The pressure was powerful, it was tested by both the military and the production workers. The latter, for example, received telegrams from Ordzhonikidze of this kind: “If plant No. 7 does not master the release of Kurchevsky’s guns, the director will be removed from work!”
Kurchevsky was a keen, energetic and risky man, so he burned repeatedly with his undertakings. The first time he was accused of sabotage was in 1923, when he allegedly squandered state money, but did not build the promised helicopter. The inventor was sent to Solovki and remembered him only in 1929, when the Red Army needed new weapons.
Moreover, it was inadvertently found out that even under camp conditions, Kurchevsky was able to construct a new recoilless cannon! He was caressed again, the working conditions were created for him, and Kurchevsky turned around so that soon the industry produced about 5000 tools of his construction.
But when they got into the troops, it suddenly turned out that only a few were suitable and that was for training purposes. It’s not only a bad choice of barrel. For example, the Red Army soldiers could roll around the firing range manually, and when towing at a speed of 76-5 kilometers per hour, breakdowns began. Motorcycles and cars, on which Kurchevsky mounted guns with a caliber of 10-76 millimeters, could only move on asphalt. aviation, tank and shipborne DRPs were conceived as automatic. However, nitro-tissue cartridges for gunpowder kept tearing, burned incompletely when fired, and blocked the bore, the complex feeding mechanism was constantly breaking, double loading occurred, which led to rupture of the trunks. These were fatal design flaws.
And the inventor was once again accused of sabotage. In 1937, he disappeared and was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956. But they say even earlier, in 1942, when it became known about the appearance of recoilless guns abroad, Stalin, with annoyance, uttered about this: "A child was splashed out with dirty water ..."
And there was why to lament: active-rocket projectiles, which were first used in the Kurchevsky guns, were later widely used both in the famous German faust-cartridges and in American bazookas. And we again had to catch up with foreign designers, designing post-war RPG 2.
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