Plantations "Carnations" and "Cornflowers". We found in the city a huge arsenal of artillery and small arms, including trophy
Gomel residents who live nearby used to call this place the “Third Regiment”. The name is said to have gone since the civil war, when the 3 th Cavalry Regiment of the Red Army stood here. The official name of the military unit 63604 - artillery weapons base. But, as it turns out, the case is far from being exhausted by howitzers and self-propelled guns. Everything is much more interesting.
Part was born on July 12 of the year 1941 as the 582-y field frontline warehouse. Since September 1945 is located in the Novobelitsky district of Gomel.
The tasks of the base are repair, storage, maintenance and delivery of rocket and artillery weapons to the troops. All small arms are also within the competence of the Gomel military.
On the wall at the commander of the unit, Alexander Mikhailov, is a whole exposition of souvenir symbols of military units from different states.
“Everything that is larger than 100 millimeters in size is subject to accounting in accordance with international agreements,” explains Alexander Mikhailov. - And these signs are left by officers who come to us with inspections. Accordingly, our drive to check their parts.
In addition to officers and warrant officers, civilian specialists work here. In Soviet times, conscripts also served. The legacy of them left the barracks - it is now used to place the "partisans" when they come to military training.
“There are no rocket artillery on our base,” says the deputy commander of the military unit for ideological work, Lieutenant Colonel Gennady Goncharov, who accompanies us. - Everything else that is in service with the army, we have. And also what is decommissioned.
By the way, this “what is removed” is of particular interest. But more on that below.
Administrative buildings, guard, barracks are separated from the territory where, in fact, weapons are stored and maintained.
Inside the technical area - a few more perimeters, protected by armed men, cameras, electricity.
A harsh woman in camouflage at the checkpoint of a technical zone is armed with a rubber truncheon and a TT pistol.
“No, I haven't had to use a pistol and a baton yet,” asks appraisingly.
Through inspection pass all, regardless of position and rank.
The security here is civil. Controllers - with pistols, sentries armed with Simonov carbines. They say that automata are relied only on the military.
And behind the next turnstile the most interesting begins. Moving around the area where the equipment is stored and maintained. From behind the trees, the first gun barrel peeps out. Then a couple more. Then a few dozen ...
And here is the first "Carnation" - self-propelled gun 2C1. And there is more. Soon the whole plantation is discovered ... (As it will turn out later - not one. In general, the richest herbarium, the dream of botany.)
The acting department of the storage of rocket-artillery armament, Senior Lieutenant Oleg Lyakhovets explained: some of the machines had recently come from parts, waiting for repairs. Others are served and preserved. It takes about an hour to unseal the crew seats, reinstall the batteries, refuel the car and start the engine.
Where this technique served, the documents attached to it are not visible. Perhaps some self-propelled guns passed Afghanistan.
Amphibious "Nons" perched on the side.
Away - guns.
Among the trees are hiding "Peonies" 2C7 - the legacy of the USSR. In Belarus, this weapon can only be seen in warehouses: it is not used by the troops.
Military equipment for storage arrives more and more. There are not enough sites, new ones are being cleaned and equipped. In the meantime, guns, armored personnel carriers, cars put on the ground.
Several amphibious armored personnel carriers have completed their resource. Now only in junk.
This is how the lugs look, to which the parachute system must be attached:
Gas trucks with awnings look quite peaceful. It can be taken for ordinary provisioning machines. But under the tarpaulin something puffs up. This "Cornflowers" - automatic 82-millimeter mortars.
Nearby in the GAZ-66 is hiding something bigger. It is a thickly greased 120 millimeter mortar 2B11.
It is hard to believe, but this sorokapyatka went through the war. The barrel and lock are rendered unusable, but the instrument is listed “on balance”. The gun carriage is working, the mechanisms work.
There are rich stocks of auxiliary equipment. Autonomous repair shops on the basis of ZIL allow repairing missile and artillery weapons in the field. They look, of course, not as impressive as armored personnel carriers, self-propelled guns and mortars, but without them nowhere.
Having arrived at the Gomel base, the equipment that has suffered in the fields is being repaired, put in order and preserved - until such time as it needs to be sent back to the troops. Captain Oleg Yagovdik, senior engineer for the repair of artillery weapons, says that the workshop for repairing missile and artillery weapons is one of the main ones. Here are put in order self-propelled and towed artillery. As the mechanical part, and, in fact, shooting. Including radio stations, electronics, rocket complexes, which are armed combat reconnaissance and sabotage machines.
Now in the shop there are several "Acacia" and "Carnation", as well as BRDMy with rocket launchers removed.
It also “targets” the optics of rocket launchers that are mounted on BRDMs.
By the way, we were not allowed into the storage area of small arms: the regime is very tough. Samples for shooting carried out of the gate.
“In the zone where the small arms are stored, there must be a so-called non-lethal electrical effect system,” the deputy commander of the unit explains.
- So these are the inscriptions about 6 of thousands of volts - this is reality, not props?
- What kind of props is here? Kill a man does not kill, but will throw ...
Local cats can read such signs.
In the background there is just the loading of the last Soviet rare weapon of the times of the Great Patriotic War. Trilineks and PPSh, who managed to do some fighting, served according to the rules, repaired and lubricated, will leave for the museum of one of the units of the mobile troops. Before that, the barrels and bolts have become unusable.
Previously, batches of genuine military weapons from the Gomel base have already been transferred to Belarusfilm.
We are shown one sample of what is stored (in fact, not all have shown an assortment of personal and collective weapons richer in warehouses).
There is a German Sturmgever MP-44. True, the state of his not so hot, suffered.
Submachine gun Thompson. This is not a weight and size layout, as in other civilian museums. The real Tommy Gan from the arsenal of the American police, marines and gangsters. Also served, repaired and listed in boring forms.
But in general, nothing unusual: such machines in small quantities were supplied to the Union under the Lend-Lease. There are more interesting specimens.
This inconspicuous Romanian machine gun "Orita" captured for some reason in Japan. As - as new. Looks like a toy in the hands of a huge senior ensign.
Whether our PPSh matter is convincing, stylish, youth.
Shpagin submachine guns were once a lot here. Now, here they send the remnants of luxury to a foreign military unit ...
In fact, there are pre-revolutionary weapons. This Browning is the same age as the Browning, from which Kaplan shot Lenin's grandfather. But the model is different.
These pistols VIS.35 armed Polish officers, tankers, cavalry since 1935 year. Wikipedia says that the Germans also used these Polish pistols during the occupation.
There was no shortage after the war - it was in such parabellums:
The owner of this may have been killed - and the pistol is like new. Only the plastic cover cracked.
Rifles and carbines of different countries, by and large, are variations on the three-line theme. However, you should be careful here: finding out what is better and what is primary, weapon fans are capable of unleashing a third world war.
On the captured rifle Walter can see the stamp of the Third Reich.
There is a feeling that you are in a museum. But it is unlikely that at least one museum can boast of such a variety of real weapons, not layouts. Yes, and everything is stored here not for shows to the public. Onliner.by readers are among the few who have seen it.
Do not get lost in this variety of rifled weapons. Even an expert will find something new.
Modern weapons arriving for repair or storage are served by civilian specialists. Including optics for sniper rifles and other weapons.
Protecting all this is a major task. Technical means are developing, ways of carrying guard duty are being improved, but the good old guard with human beings is an indispensable attribute of any decent part. In the guard town, all situations that may arise at the post are handled.
Here is the service of the paramilitary security team. These are civilians who have been trained in the protection of military facilities.
They say that a weapon capable of conducting automatic fire is relied upon only by the military. Therefore, VOKHR got Simonov's self-loading carbines.
The security system on the memory of guard glitches has not yet given. There are several levels of protection. Video cameras "shoot through" the perimeters of each protected area. At the disposal of sentries - towers, searchlights, loudspeakers, trenches, walkie-talkies, wired telephones. And, of course, carbines, which, according to folklore, "punch rail" (along, along with an armored train). With awesome bayonets.
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