Borgward IV - Wehrmacht drone
In modern military conflicts Drones play one of the key roles. Meanwhile, such weapons appeared far "not yesterday."
So, the Wehrmacht during the Second World War had its own drone, called Borgward IV or Schwerer Ladungsträger B IV, which translates as “heavy explosive charge carrier B IV”.
The apparatus was developed by Borgward in 1940. The product was an armored platform, divided into three compartments. In the front there was a transmission, represented by a two-speed gearbox and a gearbox, on the middle there was a driver (at a certain stage the car was controlled manually), and in the rear there was a 6M RTBV gasoline engine, two fuel tanks, radio equipment, and a hydraulic drive system.
As for weapons, it was represented by 500 kg (according to some sources 363 kg) of explosives, which were attached to the front and dropped at the required point.
Everything happened as follows. Borgward IV, controlled by the driver, advanced to a given object. At a distance of about 2 km to the final goal, the driver left the car and control (remotely) took over the modified tank, which followed behind at a distance of up to 2 km.
When the drone reached a given target (bunker, dugout or infrastructure facility), it received a radio command to drop the ammunition, and then returned to the control vehicle. After the Borgward IV arrived at the site, a high-explosive charge left at a given point was detonated remotely.
Thus, the device could be used repeatedly.
Meanwhile, it is worth noting that the protection of the German drone was not reliable. In model B IV Ausf A, only the forehead had 10-mm thick armor protection, in Ausf B similar steel armor covered the forehead and sides. Finally, in the B IV Ausf C, the armor of the sides and forehead was brought up to 20 mm.
The dimensions of the vehicle were 3,65 x 1,8 x 1,185 m in the first two versions and 4,1 x 1,83 x 1,25 in Ausf C. The maximum speed at which the famous Wehrmacht drone could move reached 38 km / h.
- archive photo
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