"Molotov breadboxes". Soviet aerial bombs

34
At one time, the Finns gave the world the name not only of Molotov cocktails, which are now universally known as Molotov cocktails, but also of Soviet aviation ammunition. It is worth noting that this name is known today to a much smaller number of people. There is nothing strange about this, Soviet rotationally scattering aviation bombs became history, and the Molotov cocktail is used at present, mainly during mass protests.

23 August 1939, Germany and the USSR concluded a non-aggression pact. According to the secret additional protocol, Finland and the Baltic countries were referred to the sphere of interests of the Soviet Union. From 28 September to 10 October 1939, the USSR was able to sign mutual assistance agreements with the governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which provided their territory for the deployment of Soviet military bases on it. The government of Finland refused to create Soviet military bases in the country. And the negotiations in Moscow in October-November 1939 on the transfer of the border from Leningrad to 90 kilometers and the transfer of the USSR on lease to the 30 years of the Hanko peninsula for the construction of a naval base by the Finnish government were rejected.

The Soviet political and military leadership, apparently, was almost completely confident that the Finns would agree to concessions and accept the proposals of Moscow. This may explain the fact that the intelligence information possessed by the Soviet military command was very fragmentary and inaccurate. The Red Army knew little about the quantity and quality of Finnish fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus, the composition of the Finnish army and its combat capabilities were incorrectly identified. The Soviet leadership was preparing for a light military campaign, relying on absolute superiority in military equipment and armament, but reality put everything in its place, turning at the initial stage of the war with a series of painful defeats of Soviet troops that suffered heavy losses in men and equipment.

"Molotov breadboxes". Soviet aerial bombs


In general, the war that lasted from 30 in November 1939 of the year to 12 in March of 1940 of the year ended in victory for the USSR, but it was decided to abandon plans to create the Finnish Democratic Republic (FDR), whose leadership was formed from members of the Finnish Communist Party. Finland has maintained its independence. At the same time, the Finns lost 11% of their territory, which became part of the Soviet Union (including the second largest city of the country Vyborg), and 430 of thousands of Finnish residents were forced to move from the front line into the country, leaving all their property.

In the USSR, the theme of the Soviet-Finnish war, which in Finland is known as the Winter War, had been silent for many years. She was reluctant to talk about her and tried not to remember, primarily because of the heavy casualties suffered by the Red Army. Soviet writer and journalist Alexander Tvardovsky, in his piercing poem Two Lines, directly called that war unknown. This unknown war gave the world the "Molotov cocktail" and the "Molotov breadbaskets", which were so named in honor of Vyacheslav Molotov, who at that time held the post of Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR.

Already 30 November 1939, the first time Soviet bombers bombed Helsinki for the first time, photographs of the destruction in the city quickly spread around the newspapers around the world. According to official information from the Finnish side, 956 people died during airstrikes and bombardments in Finland (including the capital of the country), 540 people were seriously injured, and about 1300 were light. Also 256 stone and about 1800 wooden buildings were destroyed.

RRAB on earth


During the raids, Soviet aircraft used new bombs RRAB (rotary-dispersing aerial bomb) of three modifications. Rota-dispersing aerial bomb - was an aviation ammunition for the mass use of small-sized aerial bombs, was an early version of a cluster bomb. The rota-scattering air bomb, due to its tail, rotated in the fall, as a result of which centrifugal force caused the scattering of small bombs - fragmentation, high-explosive, incendiary. At the same time, the Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, in one of his radio speeches during the war, noted that the Soviet bomber aircraft did not drop bombs, but delivered food to the starving Finns. Not without a sense of humor, the Finns almost immediately came up with the name “Molotov breadbasket” for Soviet aviation ammunition of the Republican National Security Bureau. It is worth noting that the RRAH buildings really did resemble the most ordinary breadbaskets, only bakery products were kept in them.

The Soviet fighters could also joke about this. RRAB equipment of all three types required a lot of time. Each small bomb had to be prepared and placed in a cassette, like lemons or oranges in a box, and in 1000 kg a bomb could be placed more than 100 pieces. If the flight was canceled for some reason, they had to be discharged as much time. The Red Army men, sharp in language, invented their decoding for RRAB - work, work, but to no avail. Although in general, the effectiveness of this weapons they did not doubt.

Soviet bomber aircraft used 1939-1940 for the 250 war during the war, the RRAB-3 kg, the 500 kg, the RRAB-2 bomb, and the 1000 kg, RRAB-1 bomb. Most often, bombs RRAB-2 and RRAB-3 were dropped from airplanes. These suspension containers were used not only during the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, but also during the Great Patriotic War. They were filled with various amounts of smaller fragmentation ammunition: AO-8, AO-10 or AO-20, as well as incendiary small-bombs ZAB-25. RRAH carriers were Soviet bombers TB-3, DB-3, and later Il-4 and Pe-8.

IL-4 bomber with a suspended RRAB-2 bomb


AO-8, AO-10 and AO-20 fragmentation bombs were artillery shells (caliber from 76 to 107 mm), to which the box-shaped stabilizer was simply welded. The main striking element of these bombs were fragments of their hull. This type of ammunition was intended to destroy manpower, unarmored and lightly armored equipment of the enemy. The incendiary ZAB-25 aerial bomb was designed to hit buildings of both urban and rural types, railway stations, hangars, crops during the dry season, etc. by fire. Her corps was a regular chemical bomb corps - HUB-25, which was filled with kerosene or oil and cotton ends. An explosive cartridge with a pyrotechnic composition was placed in the pilot glass.

The use of cluster-type aviation bombs made it possible to achieve the highest level of the size of the affected area by shrapnel. The prototype of all modern cluster aviation munitions became precisely the rotative-dispersing aerial bombs of the 30-40-s of the last century. All RRAB of three calibers used by Soviet aviation had approximately the same design. Tail and head fairings RRAB were made of sheet steel (thickness 1 mm), and the cylindrical part was 4 sash of corrugated steel (its thickness was 1,25 mm), curved in an arc of a circle with a diameter equal to the diameter of the bomb. To ensure the bomb's carrying capacity and strength, transverse and longitudinal force elements were used. The working volume inside the RRAB bomb was divided into several compartments (3-4) with the help of partitions made of plywood, bombs of various calibers were placed in these compartments - submunitions already described above.

Each compartment of the equipped "Molotov breadbasket" was tied with 2-4 with explosive rings - grooves with a weakened section. After being dropped from an aircraft, such an aerial bomb began to rotate at high speed due to the installation of a special type tail assembly on it — at an angle to the longitudinal axis (approximately 45 °). At that moment, when the angular velocity of the rotation of the bomb reached a certain critical value, there was a natural destruction of the tensile breaking rings under the influence of inertial forces, after which the combat equipment was scattered over a large area.

Rota-scattering aerial bomb (RRAB), not revealed during bombing


For example, one of the used RRAB-2 air bombs had the following characteristics: the total length of the 3245-3285 bomb, mm, the case diameter, 600 mm, the curb weight from 500 to 650 kg. When this ammunition was equipped with fragmentation bombs of small calibers, it was possible to place 78 bombs AO-8, 66 bombs AO-10 or 25 bombs AO-20 in its body. The effectiveness of the fragmentation of all Soviet RRAB was quite high. Depending on the type of equipment when dropping RRAB-1 from a height of up to 3000 meters, the affected area was 225-940 м2, from the heights of 3000-5000 meters - 225-1200 м2. For the RRAB-2 aerial bomb, these figures were as follows - 280-1300 m2 and 315-1700 m2, respectively. For the heaviest RRAB-1 bombs - 220-850 м2 and 480-1100 м2, respectively.

The modern version of the domestic cluster-type aviation bombs is called RBC - one-time bomb cassettes. They are made in the dimensions of standard high-explosive air bombs in caliber from 100 to 500 kg and have a thin-walled case, in sections of which there are various submunitions - small caliber bombs.

Consequences of the bombing of Helsinki in 1939 year, photo sa-kuva.fi








Information sources:
Babkin AB, Veldanov V.A., Gryaznov E.F. Means of destruction and ammunition: Textbook. - M .: MSTU, 2008. - 984 c.
http://www.airpages.ru/ru/abr.shtml
http://hhsquad.info/forum/topic/1353-strelkovoe-oruzhie-bomby-rakety
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34 comments
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  1. +14
    29 December 2015 08: 06
    Thank you for the article. I read about them before - which only people can think of to destroy their own kind. The opening system of the RRAB case is quite simple and witty, no devices were required, solid mechanics.
    1. +2
      29 December 2015 17: 01
      Unfortunately, the RRAB had some drawbacks: the complexity of "charging-discharging" was already mentioned; in addition, the reliable opening of the RRAB occurred at a sufficiently high altitude.
    2. 0
      18 January 2016 23: 44
      Physics gentlemen! Physics! What does the mechanics have to do with it! It’s just not there :)
  2. +9
    29 December 2015 08: 20
    And the Americans in the 60 years, cluster munitions presented their invention as a super-duper
    1. +6
      29 December 2015 10: 07
      The Germans also did in the 2nd World War. German aircraft technician prepares a cluster bomb for the Fokke-Wulf Fw 190F fighter-bomber.
  3. +5
    29 December 2015 08: 51
    The article is unambiguously +. I read about the bombs, but that was a small note of an agitational nature. I did not even suspect that the bombs were three-gauge. I read only about 250kg caliber.
  4. +1
    29 December 2015 09: 11
    Interestingly, in RRAB-s used PTABs?
    This is not irony with abbreviations. I wonder how effective their use would be against BTT accumulation.
    1. +3
      29 December 2015 09: 53
      In my opinion, they were used in 1943 on the Kursk Bulge. The PTABs used the same hulls as in the bombs of the AO. In the memoirs of one of the long-range workers, there is a mention of the use of RRAB during the night bombing of tanks near Kursk, but what the RRABs were equipped with is not indicated there. And by the way, I read about another interpretation of Molotov's breadbasket. In books about the defense of Hanko and Osmussar. There, the bombs were called "Molotov's breadbasket" the aviation did not bomb Helsinki, but dropped containers of bread.
      1. +2
        29 December 2015 16: 54
        Quote: Amurets
        In my opinion, they used it in the 1943 year on the Kursk Bulge. In PTABs, the same cases were used as in AO bombs.

        Hardly! There was no information that cumulative aerial bombs were used for the "filling" of the RRAB. For PTABs, air cassettes were used; but, it seems, of a different type. Most often, the PTABs were used by Il-2 attack aircraft, but the RRAB "silt" ammunition was not included, as far as I know.
        1. +1
          30 December 2015 00: 09
          Quote: Nikolaevich I
          Most often, PTABs were used by Il-2 attack aircraft, but the RRAB silt ammunition was not included, as far as I know.

          I agree that IKB IL-2 and IL-10 did not include RRAB. On Ilah there were special cartridges for small bombs. For media and download options, see the linkhttp: //www.russianarms.ru/forum/index.php? Topic = 5442.0
          I read only once about the use of RRABs near Kursk against tanks. But I repeat that I do not know the RRAB loading options. The author of the book may also have been mistaken.
  5. +2
    29 December 2015 09: 33
    Thank you for the article and an honest brief remark about Zimnaya. There is no data on the number of applications?
  6. +8
    29 December 2015 10: 39
    This may explain the fact that the intelligence information that the Soviet military command had turned out to be very fragmentary and inaccurate. The Red Army knew little about the quantity and quality of Finnish fortifications on the Karelian Isthmus, the composition of the Finnish army and its combat capabilities were incorrectly determined.

    But the head of the GRU of the General Staff, Comrade Proskurov, had a different opinion:
    By October 1, 1939, we knew that Finland had created three defensive lines and two cut-off positions on the Karelian Isthmus.
    By October 1, 1939, the presence of up to 210 reinforced concrete and artillery points in fortified areas was established. There were a total of 210 points. These points are plotted, there was an album, which, as Comrade himself said. Meretskov, all the time lying on his table.

    According to various reference books that were published, we knew that Finland had 600 thousand people liable for military service. There were up to 400 thousand military-trained people.
    In addition, there was the so-called Shutskor organization of women and men, which in its ranks numbered up to 200 thousand people. In total, according to intelligence, it was clear that Finland could expose up to 0,5 million people.
    Data on the Suomi pistol was first published in the Razvedupra collection, published in 1936. Detailed data were given in 1939 reference books with photographs.

    STALIN. How much did the intelligence of individual divisions give?
    PROSKurov. Up to 10 divisions and up to 30 separate battalions. Which actually happened.

    The album of fortifications of the Karelian Isthmus is posted online. Even if the locations of the bunkers indicated on it did not always coincide with the real ones, the headquarters of Meretskov still had to take into account the presence of such bunkers. What has not been done.

    So there was data. Another thing is that nobody simply read them:
    PROSKurov. I organized a check on how people read literature. Only the individual commanders of the central administrations, the individual senior officers of the headquarters, and only the individual employees of the grassroots apparatus are acquainted with the literature of the 5th Directorate. Some publications are kept for 3-5 months in a safe, which makes it impossible to acquaint the necessary circle of commanders with this literature. They do not read literature such as the combat manuals of France, the state of troops, etc., not to mention literature of indirect relevance.
    PROSKUR. Here is the Artillery Directorate, heads of departments do not read intelligence reports on foreign equipment. These summaries, after reviewing them by the chiefs of information departments, are sent to the secret library by the Office. In the secret library, these books lie motionless. Such books as "Artillery of the German Army", "French Army" and others were read by only four people.
    How to explain, comrade Voronov, that of the 50 translated articles in the Artillery Directorate, only 7 articles were read by two persons. These articles are without any vultures, unclassified.
    1. -1
      31 December 2015 14: 37
      "Meretskov's headquarters still had to take into account the presence of such bunkers. What was not done." ////

      What do you want from Meretskov? All his command ... negative
  7. +3
    29 December 2015 10: 42
    This irreplaceable war gave the world the “Molotov cocktail” and the “Molotov breadbox”, which were named after Vyacheslav Molotov, who at that time was the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR.

    At that time, Molotov was the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, that is, the head of the executive branch, in our time they would say "president". And he had to take the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs after the resignation of Litvinov in combination with a radical change in foreign policy.
  8. +4
    29 December 2015 11: 28
    RRAB - only a small occasion. The article was written to show how bloodthirsty Russian barbarians bombed the civilians of Helsinki ...
    1. +5
      29 December 2015 13: 10
      how bloodthirsty Russian barbarians bombed the civilians of Helsinki ... ,,
      and why the author did not indicate that the Soviet government offered an exchange of territories in order to avert the threat to Leningrad. otherwise, they wanted to fight and began to bomb.
      1. +5
        5 January 2016 21: 12
        And also the author did not indicate that so far the so-called "secret protocol" has not been found!
        And the development of the theme of this protocol on the division of spheres of influence of Germany and the USSR began rapidly
        In the late 80s in the Baltic, raising a powerful wave of nationalism on the eve of the collapse of the union ....
        1. 0
          April 6 2016 01: 34
          Found "secret protocol", found ..
    2. +2
      29 December 2015 13: 22
      Is it worth it? The war is all the same, we them them us ..
      1. +2
        9 January 2016 12: 07
        I read that Finland separated from Russia (USSR) within approximately the same borders as now, but before the war this border was already close to Leningrad. How the "white and fluffy" Finns were there, few mentions.
        1. +1
          9 January 2016 19: 29
          well, that’s right, the so-called white. Finns spoiled the same lot of blood in our civilian and snatched a slice out of the bucket
        2. 0
          4 March 2016 09: 11
          Read about the Finnish plans for Finland to the Urals, in the 20s they shed a lot of blood in the north. The Norwegians robbed the North coast, the Finns Karelia. It was a difficult time.
    3. 0
      29 December 2015 16: 33
      Barbaric times - barbaric wars ...
    4. The comment was deleted.
    5. -1
      20 January 2016 17: 46
      Quote: whowhy
      to show how bloodthirsty Russian barbarians bombed civilians in Helsinki ...

      Isn’t that so?
  9. +4
    29 December 2015 15: 07
    Well RRAB is one of the most perfect and powerful cassettes of that time. On the other hand, you need to understand that such a dispersion system led to a limitation of combat techniques - it was only possible to use the RRAB from a sufficiently high altitude and horizontal flight. This led to the limitation of combat maneuvering. But this is the embodiment of the "bomb carpet" idea.
    In this regard, the German cluster bombs were more versatile and represented a complete weapon system, especially with the use of SD2 submunitions.
    1. +1
      29 December 2015 15: 55
      Quote: Taoist
      On the other hand, you need to understand that such a dispersion system led to a limitation of combat techniques - it was only possible to use the RRAB from a sufficiently high altitude and horizontal flight. This led to the limitation of combat maneuvering. But this is the embodiment of the "bomb carpet" idea.

      So RRAB and did initially under TB-1 and TB-3. It was later that RRAB-2 and -3 began to be used on DB-3 and SB.
      In general, looking at RRAB-1 in the version with fragmentation or incendiary ammunition, you begin to understand why the Japanese were afraid of our long-range aviation. A Japanese poster of 1938 was laid out on Tsushima, a pomnitsa, - so on it the circle of maximum reach of Soviet bombers from Vladivostok covered all of Japan.
      1. +4
        29 December 2015 17: 28
        Well, if you recall, and our novels were written military fantasy in which Tokyo burned like a candle ... (And the Americans burned in the end)

        In general, of course, the picture is apocalyptic ... several hundred TB-3 with RRAB in the gear ZAB-10 ... There could have been better than Hiroshima ...
        One 1000 RRAB is several hectares of continuous fire ... estimate if several hundred of them fall out from two ...
        And add the "Joke" system ...; -) ... If you want it ...
        1. +1
          30 December 2015 10: 01
          Quote: Taoist
          In general, of course, the picture is apocalyptic ... several hundred TB-3 with RRAB in the gear ZAB-10 ... There could have been better than Hiroshima ...

          Yeah ... especially considering the Japanese air defense of the 30s.
          Painting "Ki-27 with two rifle-caliber machine guns trying to bring down TB-3"evokes a feeling of deep ... amazement. laughing
          Quote: Taoist
          One 1000 RRAB is several hectares of continuous fire ... estimate if several hundred of them fall out from two ...

          That is why the Army in the Metropolis was rather cool about the attempts of the Kwantung people to "pull the bear by the mustache." And, for all its "samurai", it did not allow inflating border conflicts and clashes with the Red Army before the big war (and it could - as in the case of the "incident on the Marco Polo bridge"). For in the same conflict near Lake Khasan, which showed, frankly, the disgusting readiness of the Red Army forces in the Far East for war, the Red Army Air Force was able to expose as many as 60 TB-3s to strike at Zaozyornaya and Bezymyannaya. belay
  10. +6
    29 December 2015 23: 53
    Comrades and gentlemen!
    Who is more pleasant ...
    I understand that this is a design decision - a rotational spread of damaging elements.
    The idea is elegant!
    Technical solution optimal!
    For this we will rejoice.
    Happy New Year!
    And the idea itself was taught to us on the 2 course ..
    Respectfully..
  11. +3
    30 December 2015 14: 32
    Quote: Alexey RA
    The painting "Ki-27 is trying to shoot down TB-3 with two rifle-caliber machine guns" evokes a feeling of deep ... amazement.


    Yes ... Yes, and even a "column of links" in a tight battle formation and covered by "cruisers" on the flanks ... ;-) Here I am afraid even the vaunted samurai spirit would not help, and even a kamikaze ... As we were taught by textbooks on tactics of that time, "a heavy bomb carrier can successfully withstand attacks from fighters in an amount at least equal to the number of its firing points." samurai would have to put up 4 fighters for 1 TB at least ... and where could they get them ... ;-) And this even without the "Vakhmistrov circus" ...
  12. SNV
    0
    31 December 2015 11: 59
    Who cares to read more about RRAB:
    http://www.russianarms.ru/forum/index.php/topic,4799.0.html
    RRAB-1 caliber 1000 kg (1936) was equipped with air bombs AO-8M2, AO-8M3, AO-8M4, AO-8M6, AOKH-8, AO-10, AOKH-10, AO-20, AO-25, AH- 8, HAB-25, AF-32, ZAB-1E, ZAB-2,5t
    RRAB-2 caliber 500 kg (1938) was equipped with bombs AO-8M2, AO-8M3, AO-8M4, AO-8M6, AOKH-8, AO-10, AOKH-10, AO-20, AO-25, AH- 8, AF-32, ZAB-1E, ZAB-2,5t
    RRAB-1 caliber 250 kg (1940) was equipped with bombs AO-8M2, AO-8M3, AO-8M4, AO-8M6, AOKH-8, AO-10, AOKH-10, AO-20, AO-25, AH- 8, ZAB-1E, ZAB-2,5t
    It was forbidden to equip bombs of different types into one RRAB.
  13. 0
    31 December 2015 16: 15
    "In the USSR, the topic of the Soviet-Finnish war, which in Finland is known as the Winter War, was hushed up for many years. They were reluctant to talk about it."
    The liberal moron is immediately apparent from these words.
    Uncle, read the history of World War II published in the USSR, books on the history of the Armed Forces of the USSR, which were published in Soviet times.
    The site of liberal morons.
  14. Riv
    -9
    1 January 2016 09: 22
    The Stalinist falcons knew how to bring democracy and civil liberties into the world ...
    1. +4
      2 January 2016 13: 24
      Well, to the country of your current stay where they ...
  15. SNV
    +5
    2 January 2016 13: 12
    Quote: Riv
    The Stalinist falcons knew how to bring democracy and civil liberties into the world ...


    As well as Hitler, Roosevelt, Churchill, etc.
  16. 0
    24 February 2016 06: 36
    bombers TB-3, DB-3, and later IL-4 and Pe-8

    But is DB-3 and IL-4 not the same aircraft?
    And the article is very interesting
    1. +1
      9 December 2016 19: 00
      IL-4 is DB-3f. Other motors (M-88), a glazed nose with a machine gun according to the He-111 model. In DB-3, the nose resembles a trough.

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