The full-scale dimensions of the machine gun dp 27. The machine gun of the Degtyarev system is the standard that defeated time

DP (Degtyarev infantry, GAU index - 56-R-321) - a light machine gun developed by V. A. Degtyarev. The first ten serial DP machine guns were manufactured at the Kovrov plant on November 12, 1927, then a batch of 100 machine guns was transferred to military trials, as a result of which the machine gun was adopted by the Red Army on December 21, 1927.

Machine gun DP-27 - video

One of the most pressing problems of infantry armament that arose in the First World War was the availability of a light machine gun capable of operating in infantry combat formations in all types of combat and under any conditions, providing direct fire support infantry. During the war, Russia acquired light machine guns ("machine guns") from other states. However, the French Shosh machine guns, as well as the English Lewis, which had a more successful design, were worn out by the mid-1920s, the machine gun data systems were obsolete, and there was a catastrophic shortage of spare parts. Planned for 1918, the production of the Madsen machine gun (Denmark) under the Russian cartridge at the plant formed in the city of Kovrov did not take place.

In the early 20s, the issue of developing a light machine gun was put as a priority in the armaments system of the Red Army - according to generally accepted views, it was this machine gun that made it possible to solve the problem of combining movement and fire at the level of small units in the new conditions. The machine gun became the basis for the new "group tactics" of the infantry. In 22, they formed "exemplary" ("ostentatious") companies whose main task was to cultivate group tactics, as well as to saturate the infantry with automatic weapons, which were sorely lacking. When in 1924, in the new states, a machine gun squad was introduced into all rifle platoons, due to a shortage of light machine guns, it had to be armed with one heavy and one light machine gun. Work on the light machine gun was launched at the First Tula Arms Plants, the Kovrov Machine Gun Plant and the Shot range.

In Tula, F.V. Tokarev and on the courses "Shot" I.N. Kolesnikov as a temporary solution to the problem created light machine gun air-cooled - according to the type MG.08 / 18 (Germany) - the mass-produced easel "Maxim" was taken as the basis. The Design Bureau of the Kovrov Plant carried out work for the long term. In this design bureau, under the leadership of Fedorov and his student Degtyarev, experimental work was carried out on a unified family of 6.5-mm automatic weapons. The Fedorov assault rifle was taken as the basis (it should be noted that the “automatic” itself was originally called the “light machine gun”, that is, it was considered not as an individual weapon, but as a lightweight light machine gun for arming small groups of infantry). Within the framework of this family, several variants of light, easel, "universal", aviation and tank machine guns have been developed with different barrel cooling and power schemes. However, none of the universal or light machine guns of Fedorov or Fedorov-Degtyarev was accepted for mass production.

Vasily Alekseevich Degtyarev (1880-1949) head of the design bureau of the Kovrov plant to be developed own sample light machine gun started at the end of 1923. As a basis, Degtyarev took the scheme of his own automatic carbine, which he proposed back in 1915. Then the inventor, by combining the well-known schemes of gas venting automation (side gas vent located at the bottom of the barrel), locking the bore with the help of two lugs bred by the drummer and his own solutions, received a compact system that deserved Fedorov's approving official review. On July 22, 1924, Degtyarev presented the first prototype of a machine gun with a disk magazine. The commission was headed by N.V. Kuibyshev, Head of the Shot School, Chairman of the Rifle Committee of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

The commission noted "the outstanding originality of the idea, the rate of fire, the failure-free operation and the considerable ease of handling of Comrade Degtyarev's system." It should be noted that at the same time the commission recommended for adoption air force Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army twin aircraft 6.5-mm Fedorov-Degtyarev machine gun. The prototype of the Degtyarev machine gun and the Kolesnikov and Tokarev machine guns were tested on October 6, 1924 at the shooting range in Kuskovo, but dropped out of the competition because the firing pin failed. The commission for the selection of a sample of a light machine gun (chairman S.M. Budyonny) soon recommended the Maxim-Tokarev light machine gun for adoption by the Red Army. It was adopted under the designation MT in 1925.

The next prototype was presented by Degtyarev in the autumn of 1926. On September 27-29, about five thousand shots were fired from two copies, while the ejector and striker were found to have weak power, and the weapon itself was sensitive to dusting. In December, they tested the next two machine guns in adverse firing conditions, gave only 0.6% delays for 40,000 shots, but they were also returned for revision. At the same time, an improved model of Tokarev was tested, as well as the German "light machine gun" Dreyse. According to the test results, the Degtyarev sample surpassed the Tokarev conversion system and the Dreyse machine gun, which then aroused great interest among the leadership of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army and, by the way, had an option with a large-capacity disk magazine.

Despite this, Degtyarev had to make a number of changes to his design: due to a change in shape and the use of chromium-nickel steel, the bolt frame was strengthened, the piston rod and ejector were made of the same steel, and to strengthen the drummer, he was given a shape close to the shape of the Lewis machine gun drummer. It should be noted that some design solutions in the Degtyarev machine guns were made under the clear influence of the thoroughly studied Madsen, Lewis and Hotchkiss machine guns (the Kovrov plant had complete sets drawings, and ready-made samples"Madsen", during the Civil War, machine guns "Lewis" were repaired here). However, in general, the weapon had a new and original design.

Two copies of the Degtyarev machine gun after completion were tested by the commission of the Artillery Committee of the Artillery Directorate of the Red Army at the Kovrov plant on January 17-21, 1927. The machine guns were deemed to have passed the test. On February 20, the Commission also recognized "it is possible to present machine guns as samples for all subsequent work and considerations for installing them in production." Without waiting for the results of improvements, it was decided to issue an order for one hundred machine guns. On March 26, Artkom approved the Temporary Specifications for the acceptance of the Degtyarev light machine gun developed by the Design Bureau of the Kovrov Plant.

The first batch of 10 machine guns was presented to military acceptance on November 12, 1927, and the military receiver fully accepted a batch of 100 machine guns on January 3, 1928. On January 11, the Revolutionary Military Council instructed to transfer 60 machine guns for military trials. In addition, the machine guns were sent to the military educational institutions of various military districts, so that, simultaneously with the tests, the command staff could get acquainted with the new weapon during camp training. Military and field tests continued throughout the year. According to the results of tests conducted in February at the Scientific Testing Weapons and Machine-Gun Range and the Shot courses, it was recommended to add a flash suppressor to the design, designed to reduce the unmasking and blinding effects of muzzle flame at dusk and at night. In addition, a number of other comments were made.

In August 1928, an improved sample was tested with a flame arrester and a slightly modified gas chamber regulator pipe. For 27-28 years, they issued an order for 2.5 thousand machine guns. At the same time, at a special meeting on June 15, 1928, in which the heads of the Main Military Industrial Directorate and the People's Commissariat of Defense took part, recognizing the difficulties of setting up large-scale production of a new machine gun, they set 29-30 years as the deadline for its establishment with completely interchangeable parts. At the end of 28, it was decided to stop the production of MT machine guns (Maxim-Tokarev). As a result, the Degtyarev light machine gun ended up in the Red Army before its official adoption. The machine gun was adopted under the designation "7.62-mm light machine gun mod. 1927" or DP ("Degtyareva, infantry"), the designation DP-27 was also encountered. The Degtyarev machine gun became the first domestically developed mass machine gun and brought its author to the ranks of the country's main and most authoritative gunsmiths.

The main parts of the machine gun: a replaceable barrel with a flame arrester and a gas chamber; receiver with sighting device; cylindrical barrel casing with front sight and guide tube; shutter with a drummer; bolt carrier and piston rod; reciprocating mainspring; trigger frame with stock and trigger mechanism; disk store; folding removable bipod.

The barrel in the receiver was fastened with intermittent screw protrusions, a flag lock was used for fixation. On the middle part of the barrel there were 26 transverse ribs designed to improve cooling. However, in practice it turned out that the efficiency of this radiator was very low and, starting in 1938, the fins were eliminated, which simplified production. A conical flame arrester was attached to the muzzle of the barrel using a threaded connection. During the march, the flame arrester was mounted upside down to reduce the length of the DP.

And the automation of the machine gun was implemented by the scheme of work due to the removal of powder gases through the side opening. The hole was made in the barrel wall at a distance of 185 millimeters from the muzzle. The gas piston had a long stroke. Gas chamber - open type, with spigot. The piston rod is rigidly connected to the bolt frame and the reciprocating mainspring, put on the rod, were placed under the barrel in the guide tube. The gas piston was screwed onto the front end of the rod, while fixing the reciprocating mainspring. With the help of a pipe regulator having two gas outlet holes with a diameter of 3 and 4 millimeters, the amount of discharged powder gases was adjusted. The barrel bore was locked using a pair of lugs mounted on the sides of the bolt on hinges and bred by the extended rear part of the firing pin.

The trigger mechanism consisted of a trigger, a trigger lever with a sear, and an automatic fuse. The trigger was propped up by a fuse from behind. To turn it off, you need to completely cover the neck of the butt with your palm. USM was designed only for continuous fire.

Top-mounted magazine receiver, consisted of a pair of discs and a spring. The cartridges in the store were placed along the radius with the toe of the bullet towards the center. By the force of a snail-shaped coil spring, which was twisted when the magazine was loaded, the upper disk rotated relative to the lower one, while cartridges were fed to the receiver window. The store of this design was developed earlier for the Fedorov air machine gun. Initially, the requirements for a light machine gun assumed that the power system would have 50 rounds, however, the Fedorov disk magazine for fifty 6.5 mm rounds was ready for production, it was decided to keep its basic dimensions, reducing the drum capacity to 49 7, 62 mm cartridges.

It must be answered that the design of the magazine with a radial placement of cartridges was able to solve the problem of the reliability of the power supply system when using a domestic rifle cartridge with a protruding sleeve rim. However, the magazine capacity was soon reduced to 47 rounds as the spring force was not enough to feed the last rounds. Radial vyshtampovki discs and ring stiffeners were designed to reduce their death during concussions and impacts, as well as reduce the likelihood of "jamming" of the store. A spring-loaded magazine latch was mounted in the sight block. On the march, the receiver receiver window was covered with a special shield, which was moved forward before installing the store. To equip the store, a special PSM device was used. It should be noted that the magazine having a diameter of 265 millimeters created some inconvenience when carrying a machine gun during the battle. After using up part of the ammunition, the remaining cartridges during movement created a noticeable noise. In addition, the weakening of the spring led to the fact that the last cartridges remained in the magazine - because of this, the calculations preferred not to fully equip the magazine.

As in many machine guns, designed for a significant heating of the barrel and intense bursts of fire, the shot was fired from the rear sear. The bolt frame with the bolt before the first shot was in the rear position, held by a sear, while the reciprocating mainspring was compressed (compression force was 11 kgf). The trigger lever, when the trigger was pressed, fell, the bolt carrier fell off the sear and moved forward, pushing the bolt and drummer with its vertical stand. The shutter captured a cartridge from the receiver, sent it into the chamber, resting against the stump of the barrel. During the further movement of the bolt carrier, the drummer pushed the lugs apart with its widened part, the support planes of the lugs entered the lugs of the receiver. This locking scheme was very reminiscent of the Swedish Chelman automatic rifle, which was tested in Russia in 1910 (although the rifle combined locking according to the Friberg-Chelman scheme and automation based on the recoil of the barrel with a short stroke). The drummer and bolt carrier after locking continued to move forward for another 8 millimeters, the striker head reached the cartridge primer, breaking it, a shot occurred.

After the bullet passed the gas outlet holes, powder gases entered the gas chamber, hit the piston, which covered the chamber with its bell, and threw the bolt frame back. After the drummer passed about 8 millimeters through the frame, he released the lugs, after which the lugs were reduced by the bevels of the figured recess of the frame, the barrel bore was unlocked on the way of 12 millimeters, the bolt was picked up by the bolt frame and retracted. At the same time, the ejector removed the spent cartridge case, which, hitting the drummer, was thrown out through the window of the receiver in the lower part. The course of the bolt carrier was equal to 149 mm (shutter - 136 mm). After that, the bolt carrier hit the trigger frame and went forward under the action of a reciprocating mainspring. If at this moment the trigger was pressed, the automation cycle was repeated. In the event that the hook was released, the bolt carrier stood on the sear with its combat cocking, stopping in the rear position. At the same time, the machine gun was ready for the next shot - the presence of only one automatic descent safety device created the danger of an involuntary shot while moving with a loaded machine gun. In this regard, it was stated in the instructions that the loading of the machine gun should be carried out only after taking up a position.

The machine gun was equipped with a sector sight with a high block, which was mounted on the receiver, and a bar with notches up to 1500 meters (100 m step), and a front sight with protective "ears". The front sight was inserted into a groove on the ledge of the barrel casing, which resembled the casing of a Madsen light machine gun. The magazine latch also served as protective "ears" for the sight. The wooden butt was made according to the Madsen machine gun type, had a semi-pistol neck protrusion and an upper ridge that improved the machine gunner's head position. The length of the butt from the trigger to the back of the head was 360 millimeters, the width of the butt was 42 millimeters. An oiler was placed in the butt. In the wider lower part of the butt of the DP-27 machine gun there was a vertical channel designed for the rear retractable support, but serial machine guns were produced without such a support, and later the channel in the butt was no longer made. On the casing of the barrel and on the left of the butt, sling swivels were fixed. The bipods were fastened with a folding clamp having a wing screw on the barrel casing, their legs were equipped with openers.

When firing, the machine gun showed good accuracy: the dispersion core during firing with “normal” bursts (from 4 to 6 shots) at a distance of 100 meters was up to 170 mm (in height and width), at 200 meters - 350 mm, at 500 meters - 850 mm, at 800 meters - 1600 mm (height) and 1250 mm (width), 1 thousand meters - 2100 mm (height) and 1850 mm (width). During firing in short bursts (up to 3 shots), the accuracy increased - for example, at a distance of 500 meters, the dispersion core was already 650 mm, and at 1,000 m - 1650x1400 mm.

The DP machine gun consisted of 68 parts (without a magazine), of which 4 helical springs and 10 screws (for comparison, the number of parts of the German Dreyse light machine gun was 96, the American Browning BAR model 1922 - 125, the Czech ZB-26 - 143 ). The use of the bolt carrier as the bottom cover of the receiver, as well as the application of the principle of multifunctionality when using other parts, made it possible to significantly reduce the weight and dimensions of the structure. The advantages of this machine gun also included the simplicity of its disassembly. The machine gun could be disassembled into large parts, and with the removal of the bolt carrier, the main parts were separated. Belonging to the Degtyarev machine gun included a collapsible ramrod, a brush, two punches, a screwdriver key, a device for cleaning gas paths, wiping, an extractor for torn-off barrels of shells (the situation with the rupture of shells in the chamber of a machine gun of the Degtyarev system was observed for quite a long time). Spare barrels - two per machine gun - were supplied to the special. boxes. A canvas cover was used to carry and store the machine gun. To fire blank cartridges, a muzzle sleeve with an outlet diameter of 4 mm and a special magazine with a window for blank cartridges were used.

The production of machine guns of the DP series was supplied and carried out by the Kovrov Plant (State Union Plant named after K.O. Kirkizh, Plant No. 2 of the People's Commissariat for Armaments, since 1949 - Plant named after V.A. Degtyarev). The infantry Degtyarev was notable for its ease of manufacture - its production required two times less pattern measurements and transitions than for a revolver, and three times less than for a rifle. The number of technological operations was four times less than for the Maxim machine gun and three times less than for the MT. Degtyarev's many years of experience as a practicing gunsmith and cooperation with the outstanding gunsmith V.G. Fedorov. During the production process, changes were made to heat treatment the most critical parts, introduce new processing standards, select steel grades. It can be assumed that one of the main roles in ensuring the required accuracy during large-scale production of automatic weapons with complete interchangeability of parts was played by cooperation in the 20s with German specialists, machine tool and weapons firms. Fedorov invested a lot of work and energy in setting up the production of the Degtyarev machine gun and in standardizing the production of weapons on this basis - during these works, the so-called "Fedorov's normals" were introduced into production, that is, a system of landings and tolerances designed to improve the accuracy of weapons production. A great contribution to the organization of the production of this machine gun was also made by engineer G.A. Aparin, who set up tool and pattern production at the plant.

The DP order for 1928 and 1929 was already 6.5 thousand pieces (of which 500 tank, 2000 aviation and 4000 infantry). After tests in March-April 30 by a special commission of 13 serial Degtyarev machine guns for survivability, Fedorov stated that "the survivability of the machine gun was raised to 75 - 100 thousand shots", and "the survivability of the least resistant parts (strike and ejectors) up to 25 - 30 thousand .shots".

In the 1920s, various magazine-fed light machine guns were created in different countries - the French Hotchkiss mod. 1922 and Mle 1924 Chatellerault, Czech ZB-26, English Vickers-Berthier, Swiss Solothurn M29 and Furrer M25, Italian Breda, Finnish M1926 Lahti-Zaloranta, Japanese Type 11 . The Degtyarev machine gun favorably differed from most of them by its relatively high reliability and larger magazine capacity. It should be noted that at the same time as the DP, another important means of supporting the infantry was adopted - the 76-mm regimental gun of the 1927 model.

YES, DT and others

Since by the time the DP was adopted in the Soviet Union, the need for unification of machine guns was recognized, other types were developed on the basis of the Degtyarev machine gun - primarily aviation and tank. Here again, the experience of developing Fedorov's unified weapons came in handy.

As early as May 17, 1926, Artkom approved those. assignment for the design of a unified rapid-fire machine gun, which would be used as a manual in cavalry and infantry, and synchronized and turret in aviation. But the creation of an aviation machine gun based on an infantry one turned out to be more realistic. The practice of "transforming" a light machine gun into a mobile aircraft gun (on pivot, single turrets, twin turrets) was used back in the First World War. In the period from December 27 to February 28, the aviation version of the Degtyarev machine gun (“Degtyarev, aviation”, YES) was tested. The Scientific and Technical Committee of the Office of the Air Force of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army considered it "possible to approve the submitted sample" of the Degtyarev machine gun for accounting in terms of a serial order. In 1928, simultaneously with the fixed PV-1 machine gun designed by A.V. Nadashkevich, created on the basis of the Maxim easel machine gun, the DA turret aircraft machine gun was adopted by the air force, which has a three-row (three-tier) magazine for 65 rounds, a pistol grip, and new sights with a weather vane-front sight.

A faceplate was screwed to the front of the receiver of the Degtyarev aircraft machine gun. A kingpin was attached to its lower part, having a curved swivel for mounting on the installation. Instead of a stock, a notched wooden pistol grip and a rear grip were installed. A bushing with an annular sight was fixed on top of the front, a bushing with a stand for a weather vane-front sight was attached to the thread in the muzzle of the barrel. Since the casing was removed and the faceplate was installed, there were changes in the fastening of the gas piston guide tube. From above, the store was equipped with a belt handle for quick and easy change. To ensure shooting in a limited volume, as well as to prevent the spent cartridges from falling into the mechanisms of the aircraft, a canvas sleeve bag with a wire frame and a lower fastener was installed on the bottom of the receiver. It should be noted that in order to search for the best frame configuration that will ensure reliable removal of cartridge cases without jamming, slow motion filming of work was used in domestic practice for the first time. The mass of the DA machine gun was 7.1 kg (without magazine), the length from the edge of the rear handle to the muzzle was 940 millimeters, the mass of the magazine was 1.73 kg (without cartridges). As of March 30, 1930, the Red Army Air Force units had 1,200 DA machine guns and a thousand machine guns were prepared for surrender.

In 1930, the DA-2 twin turret mount also entered service - its development based on the Degtyarev aircraft machine gun was ordered by the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Air Force Administration in 1927 to the Arms and Machine Gun Trust. The faceplate, located in front of the receiver, on each machine gun was replaced by a front mount clutch. For fastening on the installation, the side tides of the couplings were used, to hold the gas piston tube - the lower ones. The rear attachment of the machine guns on the installation was the coupling bolts that passed through the holes made in the rear tides of the receiver. N.V. took part in the development of the installation. Rukavishnikov and I.I. Bezrukov. The hook of the general descent was mounted on the pistol grip of the right machine gun in an additional trigger guard. The trigger rod was attached to the holes of the trigger guards.

The thrust consisted of an adjusting rod and a connecting shaft. On the left machine gun, the fuse box and the handle of the bolt carrier were not moved to the left side; a bracket for a weather vane was installed on its barrel. Since the recoil of the twin machine guns was very sensitive to the installation and the shooter, active-type muzzle brakes were installed on the machine guns. The muzzle brake had the form of a kind of parachutes. Behind the muzzle brake there was a special disk that protected the shooter from the muzzle wave - later a brake of such a scheme was installed on a large-caliber DShK. The machine guns were connected to the turret through a kingpin. The installation was equipped with a chin rest and a shoulder rest (until 1932 the machine gun had a chest rest). The weight of the DA-2 with equipped magazines and a weather vane was 25 kilograms, the length was 1140 millimeters, the width was 300 millimeters, the distance between the axes of the barrel channels was 193 ± 1 millimeters. It is curious that DA and DA-2 were adopted by the Air Force Administration without formalization order of the People's Commissariat of Defense. These machine guns were placed on the Tur-5 and Tur-6 turrets, as well as in aircraft retractable machine gun turrets. DA-2, which had a different sight, was tried to be installed on a light tank BT-2. Later, DA, DA-2 and PV-1 were replaced by a special aviation rapid-fire machine gun ShKAS.

The weapons and machine-gun trust, which, among others, was in charge of the Kovrov plant, August 17, 1928. informed the Artillery Directorate of the Red Army about the readiness of a tank machine gun based on the Degtyarev machine gun. On June 12, 1929, after carrying out the appropriate tests, the DT tank machine gun (“Degtyareva, tank”, also referred to as the “tank machine gun of the 1929 model of the year”) in a ball mount, developed by G.S. Shpagin. The adoption of this machine gun coincided with the deployment of serial production of tanks - Degtyarev tank replaced the coaxial 6.5-mm Fedorov tank machine gun, which was already installed on armored vehicles, began to be installed on T-24, MS-1 tanks, BA-27 armored vehicles, on all armored vehicles.

The Degtyarev tank machine gun did not have a barrel cover. The barrel itself was distinguished by additional turning of the ribs. The DP was equipped with a retractable metal buttstock with a folding shoulder support, a pistol grip, a compact two-row disc magazine for 63 rounds, and a sleeve catcher. The fuse and pistol grip were the same as those of YES. The flag fuse, placed on the right above the trigger guard, was made in the form of a check with a beveled axis. The back position of the flag corresponded to the state of "fire", the front - "fuse". Sight - diopter rack. The diopter was made on a special vertical engine and, using spring-loaded latches, was installed in several fixed positions, which corresponded to ranges of 400, 600, 800 and 1000 meters. The sight was equipped with an adjusting screw for sighting. The front sight was not installed on the machine gun - it was fixed in the front disc of the ball mount. In some cases, the machine gun was removed from the installation and used outside the car, so the DT was attached to a bracket with a front sight and a removable bipod mounted on a faceplate. The weight of the machine gun with the magazine was 10.25 kilograms, the length was 1138 millimeters, the combat rate of fire was 100 rounds per minute.

The Degtyarev tank machine gun was used as a coaxial machine gun with a heavy machine gun or a tank gun, as well as on a special anti-aircraft tank installation. During the Second World War, the Degtyarev tank was often used as a manual one - the combat rate of fire of this machine gun turned out to be twice as high as that of the infantry model.

It should be noted that already at the beginning of the Second World War, a variant was developed to replace the DT with a "tank" submachine gun with a large ammunition load (it was developed on the basis of the PPSh). At the end of World War II, the Finns made an attempt to do the same on captured tanks using their own Suomi. However, in both cases, DT machine guns remained on armored vehicles and tanks. On Soviet tanks, only the SGMT could replace the Degtyarev tank machine gun. An interesting fact is that after the forced "decorative" alteration of armored vehicles and tanks in Military History Museum armored weapons and technology in Degtyarev's Kubinka, the tank machine gun turned out to be an "international" machine gun - on a large number of foreign vehicles, using DT barrels, "native" machine gun installations are imitated.

Note that in the 31st, 34th and 38th years of the last century, Degtyarev presented modernized versions of the DP. In 1936, he proposed a lightweight airborne version without a casing, with reinforced fins and locking with one lugs, in addition, the machine gun was equipped with a compact sector-shaped box magazine. Then the designer presented a machine gun with the same magazine, with the reciprocating mainspring being transferred to the butt. Both machine guns remained experienced. A sight with the possibility of introducing lateral corrections was experimentally installed on the DP, a DP equipped with an optical sight was tested in 1935 - the idea of ​​supplying light machine guns with an optical sight was popular for a long time, even in spite of unsuccessful practice.

Degtyarev tank machine gun with PPU-8T telescopic machine gun sight and armored mask

After the fighting on Khasan Island in 1938, a proposal was received from the commanding staff to adopt a light machine gun with a power supply system similar to the Japanese Type 11 machine guns - with a permanent magazine equipped with cartridges from rifle clips. This offer actively supported G.I. Kulik, head of the GAU. Kovrovtsy presented a variant of the Degtyarev light machine gun with a Razorenov and Kupinov receiver for clips from a rifle of the 1891/1930 model, but very soon the question of such a receiver was rightly removed - practice forced them to abandon the clip or batch supply of light machine guns, leaving military specialists and gunsmiths before choosing "tape or magazine".

For a long time, Degtyarev worked on the creation of a universal (single) and easel machine gun. In June-August 28, Artkom, on the instructions of the Headquarters of the Red Army, developed tactical and technical requirements for a new heavy machine gun - the basis of the machine gun, for the purpose of unification, was to be taken by the Degtyarev infantry machine gun under the same cartridge, but with belt feed. Already in 1930, the designer presented an experimental machine gun with a universal Kolesnikov machine tool, a tape power receiver (Shpagin system) and a reinforced barrel radiator. Fine-tuning the Degtyarev heavy machine gun ("Degtyarev, easel", DS) dragged on until the end of the 1930s and did not give positive results. In 1936, Degtyarev presented a universal modification of the DP, which has a lightweight folding integral tripod machine and a mount for a folding anti-aircraft ring sight. This sample also did not advance further than the experimental one. The weakness of regular bipods was the reason for the limited use of installations with additional rods with the Degtyarev infantry machine gun, which form a triangular structure with bipods. The system for locking the bore and automation, embodied in the Degtyarev machine gun, was also used in a heavy machine gun and an experimental automatic rifle developed by Degtyarev. Even the first Degtyarev submachine gun, developed in 1929 with a semi-free shutter, carried the design features of the DP machine gun. The designer sought to realize the idea of ​​Fedorov, his teacher, about a unified family of weapons based on his own system.

At the beginning of the Second World War, in the Degtyarevsk KB-2 of the Kovrov Plant, they experimentally created the so-called “heavy fire installation” - a quad-mounted DP (DT) installation for arming infantry, cavalry, armored vehicles, light tanks, as well as the needs air defense. The machine guns were mounted in two rows or in a horizontal plane and were supplied with regular disc magazines or box magazines for 20 rounds. In the "anti-aircraft" and "infantry" versions, the installation was mounted on a universal Kolesnikov machine designed for large-caliber DShK. The rate of fire is 2000 rounds per minute. However, this way of "fighting for the rate of fire" did not justify itself, and the effect of recoil on the installation and dispersion was too great.

DP machine gun disk magazine, bottom view.

DP machine gun service

The Degtyarev machine gun became the most massive machine gun of the Armed Forces of the USSR for two decades - and these years were the most "military". The DP machine gun passed its baptism of fire during the conflict on the CER in the border units of the OGPU - therefore, in April 1929, the Kovrov Plant received an additional order for the production of these machine guns. DP machine gun as part of the troops of the United State political management fought in Central Asia with bandit formations of the Basmachi. Later, the DP was used by the Red Army in the fighting on Khasan Island and on the Khalkhin Gol River. Together with other Soviet weapons, he "took part" in the Spanish Civil War (here the DP had to "fight side by side" with his longtime competitor, the MG13 Dreyse), in the war in China, fought on the Karelian Isthmus in 39-40. Modifications of the DT and DA-2 (on the R-5 and TB-3 aircraft) went almost the same way, so we can say that by the beginning of the Second World War, the Degtyarev machine gun had been combat tested in a variety of conditions.

In rifle units, the Degtyarev infantry machine gun was introduced into the rifle platoon and squad, in cavalry - into saber squads. In both cases, a light machine gun, together with a rifle grenade launcher, was the main support weapon. DP with a notch sight up to 1.5 thousand meters was intended to destroy important single and open group targets at ranges up to 1.2 thousand meters, small live single targets - up to 800 meters, defeat low-flying aircraft - up to 500 meters, as well as for tank support by shelling PTS crews. The shelling of the viewing slots of armored vehicles and enemy tanks sat down from 100-200 meters. The fire was fired in short bursts of 2-3 shots or bursts of 6 shots, continuous continuous fire was allowed only in extreme cases. Machine gunners with extensive experience could conduct aimed fire with single shots. Calculation of a machine gun - 2 people - a machine gunner ("gunner") and an assistant ("second number"). The assistant carried stores in a special box designed for three disks. To bring ammunition to the calculation, two more fighters were attached. For the transportation of DP in the cavalry, a VD saddle pack was used.

To destroy air targets, an anti-aircraft tripod of the 1928 model, designed for the Maxim machine gun, could be used. They also developed special motorcycle installations: the M-72 motorcycle had a simple swivel frame, hinged on the sidecar, boxes with spare parts and discs were placed between the sidecar and the motorcycle and on the trunk. The machine gun mount allowed anti-aircraft fire from the knee without removing it. On the TIZ-AM-600 motorcycle, the DT was mounted above the steering wheel on a special bracket. To reduce the cost of training and the use of small shooting ranges, a 5.6-mm Blum training machine gun, which used a rimfire cartridge and an original disk magazine, could be attached to the Degtyarev machine gun.

Disk shop machine gun DP, top view.

The DP machine gun quickly gained popularity, as it successfully combined the power of fire and maneuverability. However, along with the advantages, the machine gun also had some disadvantages that manifested themselves during operation. First of all, this concerned the inconvenience of operation and the features of the equipment of the disk store. The quick replacement of a hot barrel was complicated by the absence of a handle on it, as well as the need to separate the nozzle and bipod. The replacement, even under favorable conditions, took about 30 seconds for a trained crew. The open gas chamber located under the barrel prevented the accumulation of soot in the gas outlet unit, but together with the open bolt carrier increased the likelihood of clogging on sandy soils. The clogging of the gas piston socket and the screwing of its head caused the moving part to not reach the forward extreme position. However, the automation of the machine gun as a whole demonstrated a fairly high reliability. The fastening of the antabok and bipod was unreliable and created additional catchy details that reduced the ease of carrying. Working with the gas regulator was also inconvenient - to rearrange it, the cotter pin was removed, the nut was unscrewed, the regulator settled back, turned and fixed again. It was possible to fire while moving only using a belt, and the lack of a forearm and a large magazine made such shooting inconvenient. The machine gunner put on a belt in the form of a loop around his neck, fastened it in front of the store to the cutout of the casing with a swivel, and a mitten was needed to hold the machine gun by the casing.

In the armament of rifle divisions, the share of machine guns was constantly increasing, primarily due to light machine guns - if in 1925 a rifle division for 15.3 thousand people. personnel had 74 heavy machine guns, then already in 1929 for 12.8 thousand people. there were 81 light and 189 machine guns. In 1935, these figures for 13 thousand people already amounted to 354 light and 180 machine guns. In the Red Army, as in some other armies, a light machine gun was the main means of saturating troops with automatic weapons.

The state of April 1941 (the last pre-war) provided for the following ratios:

Rifle division of wartime - for 14483 people. personnel had 174 easel and 392 light machine guns;

Reduced division - for 5864 people. personnel had 163 easel and 324 light machine guns;

Mountain rifle division - for 8829 people. personnel had 110 easel and 314 light machine guns.

Type 53 - Chinese version of the DPM.

DP was in service in the cavalry, marines, troops of the NKVD. Second World War, which began in Europe, a clear percentage increase in the number of automatic weapons in the German Wehrmacht, the ongoing reorganization of the Red Army required an increase in the production of tank and light machine guns, as well as changes in the organization of production. In 1940, they began to increase production capacity used in the production of light machine guns. By this time, the technology for manufacturing barrel bores by mandrel had already been worked out, which made it possible to speed up the production of barrels by several times and significantly reduce the cost - along with the transition to the use of barrels with a cylindrical smooth outer surface, it played an important role in increasing the production and reducing the cost of Degtyarev infantry machine guns. The order for 1941, approved on February 7, included 39,000 Degtyarev infantry and tank machine guns. On April 17, 1941, the WGC for the production of DT and DP machine guns worked at the Kovrov Plant No. 2. Since April 30, the production of DP machine guns has been deployed in the new building "L". The People's Commissariat for Armaments gave the new production the rights of a branch of the enterprise (later - a separate Kovrov Mechanical Plant).

From 1939 to mid-1941, the number of light machine guns in the troops increased by 44%, on June 22, 41, there were 170.4 thousand light machine guns in the Red Army. This type armament was one of those with which the formations of the western districts were provided even beyond the state. For example, in the Fifth Army of the Kyiv Special Military District, the staffing with light machine guns was about 114.5%. During this period, Degtyarev’s tank machine guns received an interesting application - by the Directive of the General Staff of May 16, 1941, 50 newly formed tank regiments of mechanized corps, before being equipped with tanks to fight enemy armored vehicles, received guns, as well as 80 DT machine guns per regiment - for self-defense. Degtyarev tank during the war was also placed on combat snowmobiles.

With the beginning of the Second World War, the obsolete DA-2s found a new application - as anti-aircraft machine guns to combat aircraft flying at low altitude. On July 16, 1941, Osipov, Head of the Main Directorate of Air Defense, wrote to Yakovlev, Head of the GAU: “The shortage of anti-aircraft machine guns can be largely eliminated if up to 1.5 thousand coaxial machine guns DA-2 and so many are adapted for anti-aircraft fire in a short time as well as PV-1 machine guns taken from aircraft. To do this, the DA and DA-2 machine guns were mounted on an anti-aircraft tripod of the 1928 model through the pivot - in particular, such installations were used near Leningrad in 1941. The weather vane-front sight was replaced by an annular one from a machine-gun anti-aircraft sight. In addition, DA-2s were installed on the U-2 (Po-2) light night bomber.

Red Army soldiers near a dugout in Stalingrad are busy cleaning weapons, PPSh-41 submachine guns and a DP-27 machine gun

During the Second World War, shop No. 1 of plant No. 2 became the main manufacturer of machine guns for infantry and tank machine guns of Degtyarev, their production was also delivered in the Urals, DP and at the Arsenal plant (Leningrad). In the conditions of military production, it was necessary to reduce the requirements for finishing small arms - for example, the finishing of external parts and parts not involved in the operation of automation was canceled. In addition, the norms for spare parts and accessories were reduced - instead of 22 disks for each machine gun laid down before the start of the war, only 12 were given. sizes at all factories involved in the production. The release of light machine guns, despite the difficult conditions, remained relatively stable. V.N. Novikov, Deputy People's Commissar for Armaments, wrote in his memoirs: "This machine gun did not cause much tension in the People's Commissariat for Armaments." For the second half of the 41st year, the troops received 45300 light machine guns, in the 42nd year - 172800, in the 43rd - 250200, in the 44th - 179700. active army on May 9, 1945, there were 390 thousand light machine guns. During the entire war, the loss of light machine guns amounted to 427.5 thousand pieces, that is, 51.3% shared resource(taking into account delivered during the war and pre-war stocks).

The scale of the use of machine guns can be judged by the following figures. GAU in the period from July to November 1942 handed over 5,302 machine guns of all types to the fronts southwest direction. In March-July 1943, in preparation for the Battle of Kursk, the troops of the Steppe, Voronezh, Central Fronts and the Eleventh Army received 31.6 thousand light and heavy machine guns. The troops that went on the offensive near Kursk had 60.7 thousand machine guns of all types. In April 1944, by the beginning of the Crimean operation, the troops of the Separate Primorsky Army, the Fourth Ukrainian Front and air defense units had 10622 heavy and light machine guns (approximately 1 machine gun for 43 personnel). In the armament of the infantry, the share of machine guns also changed. If a rifle company in July 1941 in the state had 6 light machine guns, a year later - 12 light machine guns, in 1943 - 1 easel and 18 light machine guns, and in December 44 - 2 easel and 12 light machine guns. That is, during the war, the number of machine guns in a rifle company, the main tactical unit, more than doubled. If in July 41, the rifle division was armed with 270 machine guns of various types, then in December of the same year - 359, a year later this figure was already 605, and in June 45 of the year - 561. The decrease by the end of the war in the share of machine guns is due with an increase in the number of submachine guns. Applications for light machine guns were declining, so only 14,500 were delivered from January 1 to May 10, 1945 (in addition, modernized DPs were delivered at that time). By the end of the war, the rifle regiment had 108 light and 54 heavy machine guns for 2,398 people.

During the war, the rules for the use of a machine gun were also revised, although this was required to a lesser extent with regard to manual ones. The “Combat Charter of the Infantry” of 1942, the range of opening fire from a light machine gun was set from a distance of 800 meters, but sudden fire from a range of 600 meters was also recommended as the most effective. In addition, the division of the battle formation into "fettering" and "shock" groups was canceled. Now the light machine gun in various conditions acted in the chain of platoon and squad. Now the main thing for him was considered to be fire in short bursts, the combat rate of fire was 80 rounds per minute.

Ski units in winter conditions carried machine guns "Maxim" and DP on drag boats in a state of readiness to open fire. To drop machine guns to partisans and paratroopers, a parachute landing bag PDMM-42 was used. Machine gunners at the beginning of the war had already mastered jumping with standard Degtyarev infantry machine guns on a belt; instead, they often used a “manual” version of a more compact tank machine gun, with a larger magazine that was less prone to death. In general, the Degtyarev machine gun turned out to be a very reliable weapon. This was also recognized by opponents - for example, captured DPs were willingly used by Finnish machine gunners.

However, the experience of using the Degtyarev infantry machine gun indicated the need for a lighter and more compact model while maintaining ballistic performance. In 1942, a competition was announced for the development of a new light machine gun system, the weight of which does not exceed 7.5 kilograms. From July 6 to July 21, 1942, experimental machine guns developed at the Degtyarev Design Bureau (with magazine and belt feed), as well as the developments of Vladimirov, Simonov, Goryunov, as well as novice designers, including Kalashnikov, passed field tests. All samples submitted for these tests received a list of comments for improvement, however, as a result, the competition did not give an acceptable sample.

DPM - modernized machine gun Degtyarev

DPM light machine gun

The work on the modernization of the Degtyarev infantry machine gun was more successful, especially since the production of the modernized version can be carried out much faster. At that time, several design teams worked at plant No. 2, solving their own range of tasks. And if KB-2, under the leadership of V.A. Degtyarev, mainly worked on new designs, then the tasks of modernizing manufactured samples were solved in the Department of the Chief Designer. The work on the modernization of machine guns was led by A.I. Shilin, however, Degtyarev himself did not let them out of sight. Under his control, a group of designers, which included P.P. Polyakov, A.A. Dubynin, A.I. Skvortsov A.G. Belyaev, carried out work on the modernization of the DP in 1944. The main goal of these works was to increase the controllability and reliability of the machine gun. N.D. Yakovlev, head of the GAU, and D.F. Ustinov, People's Commissar for Armaments, in August 1944, submitted for approval by the State. Committee of Defense changes made to the design, indicating at the same time: “In connection with the design changes in the modernized machine guns:

The survivability of the reciprocating mainspring is increased, it became possible to replace it without removing the machine gun from the firing position;
- the possibility of losing bipods is excluded;
- improved accuracy and accuracy of fire;
- improves usability in combat conditions.

By the GKO decision of October 14, 1944, the changes were approved. The machine gun was adopted under the designation DPM ("Degtyareva, infantry, modernized").

DPM machine gun differences:

The reciprocating mainspring from under the barrel, where it heated up and gave a draft, was transferred to the back of the receiver (they tried to move the spring back in 1931, this can be seen from the experimental Degtyarev machine gun presented at that time). To install the spring, a tubular rod was put on the tail of the drummer, and a guide tube was inserted into the butt plate, which protruded above the neck of the butt. In this regard, the coupling was excluded, and the rod was made as a single piece with the piston. In addition, the order of disassembly has changed - now it starts with a guide tube and a reciprocating mainspring. The same changes were made to the Degtyarev tank machine gun (DTM). This made it possible to disassemble the machine gun and fix minor malfunctions without removing it from the ball mount;
- installed a pistol grip in the form of a slope, which was welded to the trigger guard, and two wooden cheeks, fastened to it with screws;
- simplified the shape of the butt;
- on a light machine gun, instead of an automatic fuse, a non-automatic flag fuse was introduced, similar to the Degtyarev tank machine gun - the beveled axis of the fuse pin was under the trigger lever. Locking occurred at the front position of the flag. This fuse was more reliable, as it acted on a sear, which made it safer to carry a loaded machine gun;
- the leaf spring in the ejection mechanism was replaced by a helical coil spring. The ejector was installed in the bolt socket, and a pin was used to hold it, which also served as its axis;
- folding bipods were made integral, and the mounting hinges were moved slightly back and higher relative to the axis of the bore. A clamp of two welded plates was installed on the upper part of the casing, which formed lugs for attaching the bipod legs with screws. The bipods have become stronger. To replace their barrel, it was not required to separate;
- the mass of the machine gun has decreased.

In the second half of the 1920s, despite the presence of the Maxim-Tokarev machine gun, the question of adopting a light machine gun, which combined simplicity and mass production, a relatively small mass and a high rate of fire, remained open in the Red Army. And such a model was created by Vasily Alekseevich Degtyarev in 1926. With a total length of 126 centimeters and a mass of 8.4 kg, the machine gun was equipped with a disk magazine for 47 rifle cartridges. The sector sight is designed for firing up to 1500 meters. The DP-27 has an automatic fuse, and it is possible to fire from a machine gun only by tightly clasping the neck of the butt with a brush. This was done for safety reasons in order to prevent the shooter's fingers from getting under the shutter during firing. Although there were still injuries during the development and operation of the DP ... The production of a machine gun was deployed in Kovrov, where Vasily Alekseevich Degtyarev lived and worked for many years.

V. A. Degtyarev, creator of the DP-27. www.gpedia.com

The first combat use of the DP-27 is presumably related to the conflict on the CER in 1929. By this time, a significant number of machine guns were already in the army. The DP-27 proved itself well during the fighting in Spain, on Khasan and Khalkhin Gol. However, by the time the Great Patriotic War began, the Degtyarev machine gun was already inferior in a number of parameters such as the mass and capacity of the magazine (or tape) to a number of newer and more advanced models. But it is not necessary to say that in 1941 the DP-27 was hopelessly outdated. Yes, he lost to the German MG-34, but it can also be much worse - for example, the Italian Breda 30 machine gun. The magazine holds only 20 rounds, which is clearly not enough for a machine gun. In this case, each cartridge must be lubricated with oil from a special oiler. Dirt, dust gets in, and the weapon instantly fails. One can only guess how it was possible to fight with such a "miracle" in the sands of North Africa. But even at sub-zero temperatures, the machine gun also does not work. The system was distinguished by great complexity in production and a low rate of fire for a light machine gun. Therefore, at the height of World War II, the DP-27 was far from the best, but not the worst example of a light machine gun of the warring parties.

Soviet soldiers with DP-27. (proza.ru)

In the course of mass operation, a number of shortcomings of the DP-27 were also revealed - a small magazine capacity (47 rounds) and an unfortunate location under the barrel of a return spring, which heated up and deformed from frequent firing. Changing the barrel of a machine gun was also not an easy process. During the war, some work was carried out to eliminate these shortcomings. In particular, the survivability of the weapon was increased by moving the return spring to the rear of the receiver, although general principle work of this sample has not changed. The Degtyarev machine gun of the 1944 model (DPM), unlike its predecessor, has a pistol grip, the design of the bipod has been slightly changed, and the automatic fuse has been replaced by a flag-type fuse. Since 1945, this machine gun began to enter the troops and was used in battles at the final stage of the Great Patriotic War, as well as during the Soviet-Japanese War.

Machine gun Degtyarev modernized model 1944 (copesdistributing.com)

Back in 1929, a very successful DT-29 tank machine gun was created on the basis of the DP-27, which became the main Soviet tank machine gun of the Great Patriotic War. It was compact, had a folding metal buttstock and a more capacious 63-round disc magazine. The DT-29 could be used to fire both from a tank and by a dismounted crew. Almost all soviet tanks equipped with this machine gun - and for light amphibious tanks T-37 and T-38 it was the main and only weapon. In aviation, the DA machine gun was adopted in single or twin versions, and a significant part of Soviet aircraft until the mid-1930s were armed with Degtyarev machine guns as defensive weapons. But an increase in the speeds and survivability of aircraft already in the second half of the 1930s forced them to abandon the DA, replacing them with faster-firing Shpitalny-Komaritsky (ShKAS) machine guns.

Machine gun Degtyarev tank - DT-29. (cfire.mail.ru)

Spark of machine guns YES on a TB-3 aircraft. (aviaru.rf)

The use of DP-27 is widely reflected both in painting and literature. A separate place is the cinema, where the Degtyarev machine gun is presented both as an independent model and as a “understudy” of another fairly well-known machine gun. We are talking about the Lewis machine gun, which was used in our country until the Great Patriotic War and is visible on the chronicle of the parade on November 7, 1941. In domestic feature films, this weapon is relatively rare, but the frequent imitation of the Lewis machine gun in the form of a DP-27 with a casing on is much more common. The original Lewis machine gun was captured, for example, in the film "White Sun of the Desert", where an authentic sample was borrowed from the funds of the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Army for filming the film, which is present in a significant part of the episodes. But in the shooting scene, the role of his “colleague” is already “disguised”, with an artificial casing DP-27, which can be recognized by the machine gun bipod. In turn, the DT-29 "reproduces" the Lewis machine gun in the film "Friend among strangers, stranger among friends."

"White sun of desert". DP-27 "in the role" of the Lewis machine gun. (liveinternet.ru)

Machine guns of the 1927 and 1944 models remained in service with rifle units until the end of the 1940s, when they were gradually replaced by a new machine gun of the Degtyarev system - RP-46, the key difference of which was the use of belt feed.

Light machine gun DP-27- automatic weapon of caliber 7.62, created by designer V.A. Degtyarev in 1926, to equip the Red Army with machine guns of domestic production, is a group weapon of the rifle squad, designed to destroy manpower, fire weapons and unarmored enemy vehicles.
Until the end of the 20s. of the last century in Russia there was no light machine gun of its own design. During the First World War, the needs of the troops were met by the purchase of foreign samples. Inherited from tsarist Russia The Red Army received a small number of 8 and 7.62 mm Madsen machine guns mod. 1903, 8 mm Shosh machine guns mod. 1915, 7.71 and 7.62 mm Lewis machine guns mod. 1915, 8 mm Hotchkiss machine gun mod. 1909 By the mid-20s. 20th century these samples were considered obsolete and abroad were significantly upgraded by developers or replaced by new systems. The inability to replenish spare parts and imported cartridges every year steadily reduced the number of machine guns in the troops. In this regard, at the state level, it was decided to announce a competition for the development of their own light machine gun. After carrying out comparative tests (in which, in addition to him, Kolesnikov took part with a light machine gun, also created on the basis of the "Maxim", and with a prototype of the DP), the 7.62 mm Maxim-Tokarev light machine gun was adopted by the Red Army in May 1925 with air-cooled barrel (according to some reports, no more than 500 copies of this machine gun were manufactured). This machine gun was not light and mobile enough, moreover, due to significant alterations, it was not possible to establish mass production in a short time. For everyone, the need to create a completely new system of original design was quite obvious. The competition for a new light machine gun was announced again.
In 1927, it was put up for the competition, designed in 1926, which won over other competitive samples in terms of a set of indicators and was adopted by the Red Army, at the time of its appearance it significantly exceeded all foreign analogues. Degtyarev immediately raised the bar for the reliability of domestic small arms, setting a benchmark for the next generation of gunsmiths. Also, this model has become the basis for the creation of aviation and tank modifications.
The automatic machine gun works at the expense of the energy of the powder gases discharged from the bore through the side hole. The trigger mechanism of the striker-type USM machine gun allowed only automatic fire. There was no conventional fuse; instead, an automatic fuse was located on the handle, which turned off when the hand covered the neck of the butt. The fire was fired from fixed folding bipods. Sights open type consist of a front sight and a sector sight, the base of which is the body of the magazine latch, the location of the front sight.
Food was supplied from flat disk magazines - "plates", in which the cartridges were located in one layer, with bullets to the center of the disk, the magazine capacity was 47 rounds. This design ensured a reliable supply of cartridges with a protruding rim, but it also had significant drawbacks: a large dead weight of the magazine (empty weight - 1.6 kg, equipped - 2.7 kg), inconvenience in transportation and the tendency of magazines to damage in combat conditions. The rate of fire ranged from 500 to 600 rounds per minute, starting speed bullet flight 840 m / s (cartridge with a light bullet), effective range 1500 m
In rifle divisions, the DP was first introduced into the rifle platoon, but soon became a group automatic weapon of the rifle squad. The calculation of the DP consisted of two people - a machine gunner (gunner) and his assistant (sometimes called the second number). The assistant carried stores in an iron box for three disks or in a canvas bag. The calculation of a machine gun with 1-2 fighters allocated for a tray of cartridges could carry 9 magazines "on itself". In the cavalry, DPs were introduced into saber squads, in artillery - into batteries (for self-defense and air defense).
The DP's baptism of fire took place in the border units of the OGPU in Manchuria - during the Soviet-Chinese conflict of 1929 on the CER. As part of the OGPU troops, the machine gun also fought with bands of Basmachi in Central Asia. DP was used by the Red Army in the fighting on Lake Khasan in 1938, on the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939, "participated" in the civil war in Spain, in China, in 1939-1940. fought on the Karelian Isthmus. So by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the machine gun had already passed combat tests in a variety of conditions. On June 22, 1941, the Red Army had 170,400 light machine guns.
DP-27 and DPM were used not only by the Red Army and allies, but also by their opponents. The DP-27 was most widely used in Finland, which, having received a large number of DP-27s as trophies during the Winter War, stopped producing its own machine guns. The DP-27 was so widespread in the Finnish army that Suomi even launched the production of stores and spare parts for Degtyarev machine guns. By 1944, the Finnish army had about 9,000 DP machine guns. In the post-war period, it remained in service with the Finnish army, where it received the name 7.62 RK D (7.62 pk / ven.) And was actively used until the 60s. Later, the machine gun was widely used to train reservists. In Finland, the DP-27 was nicknamed "Emma" (as they say by the name of the popular waltz - apparently, the disk store reminded them of a gramophone record). And the DT machine gun (7,62 RK D PSV (7,62 pk / ven. psv.)) became the main tank machine gun of the Finnish army and was operated for many years after the war. In the Wehrmacht, captured DP-27 samples were used under the designation "7,62mm leichte Maschinengewehr 120(r)".
At the end of the war, the DP machine gun and its modernized version of the DPM, created based on the experience of military operations in 1943-44, were removed from service with the Soviet Army, and were widely supplied to countries and regimes "friendly" of the USSR, having noted in the wars in Korea, Vietnam and others. Based on the experience gained in the Second World War, it became clear that the infantry needed a single machine gun, combining increased firepower with high mobility.
The weapon created by Degtyarev successfully passed combat tests on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Even now, the DP-27 and PDM are periodically used in local conflicts around the world. Sources used:
1.weapons-of-war.ucoz.ru
2.eragun.com
3.weaponland.ru
4. brave-hamster.livejournal.com

During the years of World War II, the Degtyarev light machine gun firmly took third place in terms of mass, second only to the Mosin rifle and PPSh-41.

Technical characteristics of the Degtyarev DP light machine gun:
caliber - 7.62,
weight 8.5 kilograms,
machine gun length with flame arrester - 1230 mm,
disk magazine capacity - 47 rounds,
store weight - 2.7 kg,
the initial speed of the bullet of the 1908 model is 840 m / s,
sighting range - 1500 m,
rate of fire - about 600 rounds per minute,
practical rate of fire - about 80 rounds per minute.

How does the Degtyarev machine gun shoot?

When the trigger is pressed, the trigger lever, lowering, releases the bolt carrier. The bolt carrier, under the influence of a compressed reciprocating mainspring, begins to move forward. The thickening on the back of the drummer, acting on the lugs, pushes the bolt forward, while spreading the lugs to the sides. At the same time, the bolt, moving forward, sends the next cartridge from the magazine into the barrel. The drummer hits the capsule of the cartridge - a shot. After the shot, the powder gases, acting on the gas piston, push it back. The barrel bore is unlocked, the bolt begins to move backward together with the bolt carrier, at the same time the spent cartridge case is removed from the chamber - the process is completed. The machine gun is ready for a new shot.

History of creation

Autumn of the 41st year. German troops rush to Moscow, wanting to finish the campaign before the onset of cold weather. Despite the heroic resistance of the soldiers of the Red Army, the tank and motorized rifle divisions of the Wehrmacht are rapidly advancing towards the goal. Courage and determination to defend the capital of the Red Army does not hold. There is not enough firepower to hold back the onslaught of the enemy. At the end of October 1941, a plane landed at the military airfield of the city of Kovrov, located hundreds of kilometers from the front line. Several senior officers got out of it, got into the cars waiting for them, and the cortege rushed to the arms factory. Until now, history hides the identity of the mysterious guest ... But it was not necessary to guess who he came to - this is Vasily Alekseevich Degtyarev, head of the Design Bureau of the State Union Plant No. 2 and at that time, probably, the chief gunsmith of the country of the Soviets. The result of this mysterious visit was that just before the start of the battle for Moscow, the Red Army soldiers had in their hands a much-needed anti-tank rifle designed by Degtyarev. And one hundred and fifty mandatory test shots for a light machine gun of his own invention, the DP-27, were also canceled. The weapon proved itself so well in combat that only five test cartridges were left for it: two shots to check the automation and three to adjust, if necessary, the accuracy of the battle. Our story is about this amazing machine gun and its talented creator. The legendary "tar"

The experience of the wars of the early twentieth century clearly showed that the tactics and strategy of infantry combat operations are rapidly changing. Its maneuverability, military-technical equipment and the ability of fighters to conduct dense aimed fire come to the fore. The density of fire, in turn, depended on the rate of fire and reliability of the weapon. “The main issue in the infantry armament system, which was left by the First World War, was the issue of a light machine gun. The new tactics of the infantry rested, first of all, on the general reliance on machine-gun fire.

In March of the twenty-first year, the tenth congress of the RCPB took place. Soviet textbooks Histories note two main decisions taken at the congress: the abolition of the policy of war communism and the transition to the NEP, as well as the replacement of the surplus appropriation tax in kind. There was another event that historians are not so willing to talk about. This photo shows the delegates of the congress who volunteered to go to Kronstadt to suppress the rebellion that broke out there. The Bolsheviks were always ready to fight. Meanwhile, among the many questions considered at the congress, the problem of military development in the Soviet republic was also widely discussed. The Red Army, having ended the civil war, was armed with a limited number of weapons of old models, created even before the First World War. When in 1924, according to the new states of the Red Army, a machine-gun squad was introduced into each rifle platoon, due to a shortage of light machine guns, it had to be armed with one light and one heavy machine gun. Moreover, the available French Chauchat machine guns and the more successful English Lewis by the mid-twenties were badly worn out, had no spare parts, and belonged to structurally obsolete systems. The main striking force of the infantry remained Mosin's "three-ruler" and the Maxim heavy machine gun. For all its undoubted merits, primarily the simplicity and reliability of the design, the machine gun of the Maxim system also had a number of flaws: it was quite high, and therefore easily visible to enemy soldiers. And of course, the main drawback was the weight of the weapon - more than 70 kilograms. Carrying such a heavy load under enemy fire was no easy task, and even deadly. So the realities dictated the urgent need to develop a new domestic light machine gun. “It was required not only heavy machine guns with their power, with their long range aimed fire, with their ability to conduct intense fire, but also light machine guns around which could (with the support of which, along with which) small infantry units up to a squad or link could operate. These, of course, should have been light machine guns. One of those who first got involved in the work was the famous weapons designer Vasily Alekseevich Degtyarev.

The creator of the machine gun Degtyarev Vasily Alekseevich

Degtyarev Vasily Alekseevich, was born in 1880 in the city of Tula in a family of hereditary gunsmiths. After graduating from the parish school at the age of eleven, he went to work at the Tula Arms Plant. In 1901, Vasily Degtyarev was drafted into the army. He ended up in an experienced weapons workshop at the officer school in Oranienbaum. Service in the workshop made it possible to get acquainted with the device of the latest foreign weapons. After the end of military service, Degtyarev becomes a civilian worker at the Sestroretsk arms factory. There was a meeting that predetermined further fate future famous designer. Degtyarev met a talented weapons engineer Vladimir Fedorov. In 1918, at the invitation of his friend and teacher Vladimir Fedorov, Degtyarev came to the city of Kovrov to the arms factory under construction here. He was appointed head of the workshop of the design bureau, and later becomes its head. It was here that Vasily Degtyarev created his famous weapons, including the legendary DP-27 machine gun, as well as its numerous modifications. In 1940 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Famous Soviet designer, Major General of the Engineering and Artillery Service Vasily Alekseevich Degtyarev died in January 1949. For outstanding services in the design of weapons, he was posthumously awarded the Stalin Prize.

Degtyarev began developing his own model of a light machine gun at the end of 1923. Taking as a basis the developments he received when creating an automatic carbine, and this was back in 1915, he also applied them in the design of a new machine gun. The automatic machine gun had a gas engine with a gas chamber located under the barrel and a long stroke of the gas piston. The amount of powder gases discharged behind the piston was regulated using a branch pipe regulator with two gas outlets. The barrel was locked with the help of two lugs, hinged on the sides of the bolt and bred to the sides by the widened rear part of the firing pin. The bolt frame, which connected all parts of the moving system, served as the leading link in the automation. Says Semyon Fedoseev, historian, weapons expert: “Degtyarev found a fairly ingenious way to lighten the machine gun. In fact, the machine gun receiver does not have a bottom, the movable bolt frame itself serves as the bottom. The flat bolt frame, which also served as the bottom cover of the receiver, the compact placement of the bolt assembly ensured a significant reduction in the size and weight of the entire machine gun. The simplicity and elegance of the solution found by the designer is striking. But it is precisely due to this simplicity that the survivability of the mechanism has significantly increased. Says Semyon Fedoseev, historian, weapons expert: “The disk magazine made it quite easy, as it seemed, quite simply to solve the issue of combining easily portable magazines and a large magazine capacity. True, if the Fedorov-Degtyarev disk store held 50 rounds, then in the Degtyarev store, in connection with the transition to a three-line cartridge, the capacity had to be reduced first to 49, and then to 47 rounds. However, this is a fairly large capacity.”

Tests of a prototype machine gun

During the tests of the prototype, 70 thousand shots were fired at a rate of 10 thousand. The machine gun fired almost without delay. But all this will be later, and before that ... On July 22, 1924, Degtyarev presented his first model of a machine gun with a disk magazine to the court of a specially created commission. The members of the commission noted the outstanding originality of the idea, the trouble-free operation, the rate of fire and the considerable ease of handling of Comrade Degtyarev's system. On October 6, the machine gun took part in tests at the shooting range of the Shot school in Kuskovo and failed them. The striker, made of low-quality metal, broke at the most inopportune moment. The commission, chaired by Budyonny, recognized the model of the Maxim-Tokarev system as the winner. In fact, it was a conversion into a light machine gun easel "Maxim". Received the designation MT, this machine gun was quite bulky - it weighed almost 13 kilograms without cartridges, and besides, it had an unreliable supply of cartridge belt. Degtyarev presented his next sample only in the autumn of 1926. Again, disappointment - it also revealed shortcomings: the weakness of ejectors and drummers, the sensitivity of the system to dusting. Finally, in January 1927, the commission of the art committee artillery control RKK two modified copies of the Degtyarev machine gun were recognized as having passed the tests. And six months later, a landmark event occurred - it was decided to conduct comparative tests of an improved model of the Maxim-Tokarev machine gun, the German Dreyse light machine gun and the Degtyarev design machine gun. “It must be remembered that in the 20s we developed a fairly broad military-technical cooperation with Weimar Germany and the Dreyse machine gun aroused quite a wide interest in the Soviet Union. However, the Degtyarev system showed certain advantages over the Dreyse machine gun, which was recorded in the decision of the relevant commission. Here is what his deputy Sergey Kamenev wrote to the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs Kliment Voroshilov at the end of this peculiar competition:
“The comparison gave the following results: in the first place, undoubtedly, our Degtyarev machine gun, in the second - Dreise and in the third - Maxim-Tokarev Dreise machine gun was interesting to us when we did not yet have light machine guns of our own production. Now our Degtyarev machine gun is in many ways better than Dreyza.

“I must say that they quickly learned about the machine gun abroad. At that time, such news spread quite quickly, there was no great secrecy from such work. A certain norm of secrecy was observed, but nevertheless they learned quickly enough, they appreciated it quickly enough, and even Degtyarev received, so unofficially, the nickname of the Russian Browning. Considering the prestige that John Moses Browning had at that time abroad, one can understand how much the new weapon was appreciated.

Noting the high survivability of the machine gun mechanism, its excellent firing characteristics, simplicity of design and the fact that its production took almost half the time compared to foreign counterparts, it was decided to adopt the Degtyarev machine gun in service with the Red Army. It was named DP-27 - Degtyarev Infantry Model 1927.

Production of the Degtyarev machine gun

Let's remember the rate of fire of 600 rounds per minute, exactly how many times in such a short period of time all the mechanisms of the weapon enter into interaction. We have already talked about the simplicity of the DP-27 device. The production of DP required two times less pattern measurements and transitions than for a revolver. The total number of technological operations turned out to be 4 times less than for the Maxim and 3 times less than for the MT machine gun. And when the darning process was applied to the manufacture of machine gun barrels, the time for its production was further reduced. The essence of darning is to push through the bore of a special blank "mandrel" with curly protrusions corresponding to the number, size and inclination of the rifling. It has long been noticed that the fewer parts in the mechanism, the more reliable it is.

Disassembly and assembly of the Degtyarev machine gun

There are 47 parts in Degtyarev infantry, and only a small part of them were subject to manual fine-tuning during manufacture, which significantly accelerated the process of its assembly. True, some experts argue that Degtyarev does not have 47 parts, but 68. We have the opportunity to check this by disassembling the Degtyarev machine gun.

Separate the butt plate from the butt - holding the machine gun by the neck of the butt, unscrew the butt plate pin and remove it. Supporting the receiver in front of the trigger guard, hit the butt from above to separate the butt plate and remove it along with the butt, pulling the latter down.

Remove the bipod - supporting the casing, release the lamb and throw off the clamp screw. Fold back the upper half ring of the clamp, and then remove the bipod. Separate the bolt carrier together with the gas piston and the bolt. Disassemble the bolt by pulling out the drummer and separating the lugs. Next, you should disassemble the bolt frame and the gas piston - placing the frame vertically and compressing the reciprocating mainspring down the rod, unscrew the gas piston head with a key; remove the return spring, remove the support clutch.

Field-military tests of the machine gun continued throughout 1928. It was recommended to introduce flame arresters to reduce the unmasking and blinding effect of the muzzle flame in the dark. They decided to equip the removable magazine with 47 rounds, although it was designed for 49. This happened due to the weakness of the magazine spring - its elasticity was not enough to push out the last rounds. So the number 47 appeared in the “store capacity” column. In general, many complaints were made against the DP-27 store.

Disadvantages and problems of the Degtyarev machine gun

Says Semyon Fedoseev, historian, weapons expert: “The disk, of course, turned out to be a fairly ingenious and reliable solution. But, firstly, to carry it, special bags were required - container bags. They are well known to everyone, even to those who have never seen this weapon in their lives. You can watch the film "Two Soldiers", where the actions of the calculation of the DP machine gun are shown quite well. Secondly, its snail-shaped spiral spring weakened rather quickly in the disk. Usually, because of this, the disk was underloaded with cartridges. The disk was not so easy to equip, but although Maxim's machine-gun belt itself was also not very easy to equip. Another problem was associated with the rapid settling of the reciprocating mainspring. It was located under the trunk and quite close to it. With intensive firing, the barrel became very hot and, in turn, heated the spring. Says Semyon Fedoseev, historian, weapons expert: “Another inconvenient moment was the replacement of the barrel. The fact is that although a light machine gun does not fire in such long bursts as easel ones, the barrel overheats anyway, and in order to provide the necessary intensity of fire in combat conditions, an interchangeable barrel is still optimal. Either you need to use a rather cumbersome cooling system, or you need to make the barrel replaceable. Here, in most light machine guns of the 20-30s, including the DP, a replaceable barrel was adopted. But the barrel did not have a special handle, so replacing the barrel required some skill and experience.

Installing a machine gun on a motorcycle, for example, on the M-72

Despite the shortcomings in the troops, the DP-27 light machine gun immediately received high praise and soon became the main type of automatic weapon for rifle units. But not only in them. Pay attention to this curious construction:

- with its help, Degtyarev infantry was mounted on a motorcycle, for example, on the M-72. A simple swivel frame was hinged to the sidecar of a motorcycle. Such fasteners even allowed anti-aircraft fire.

Degtyarev in the tank

And in 1929, "tank tar" appeared. Given the limited space in the tank's cockpit, the wooden stock was replaced with a retractable metal one. Instead of a bulky single-row magazine, a more compact three-row magazine began to be used - it contained 63 cartridges. In total, the ammunition load consisted of up to 25 stores, depending on the type of armored vehicle, which, in order to save space, was packed in special racks. Cartridges collected in a canvas sleeve catcher. DT was installed on tanks using a special ball mount developed by designer Georgy Shpagin. This installation ensured the free and quick aiming of the machine gun at the target in the horizontal and vertical planes, its reliable fixation in any position. In addition, the massive parts of the ball mount well protected the shooter in battle from bullets and shell fragments. If for some reason the tank crew had to leave the car, the DT-29 was easily removed from the ball mount and turned into a light machine gun.

YES Degtyarev in airplanes

In the late 1920s, the Degtyarev machine gun literally took to the skies. Back in 1925, the designer began processing his DP into an aviation one. The casing was removed from the new machine gun, which protected the infantrymen's hands from burns when carried - now it was simply not needed. As in the DT-29 in DA (Degtyarev Aviation), a single-row disk magazine was replaced by a three-row one of a smaller diameter. Combat at high speeds required an increase in the rate of fire of weapons; this task could most simply be solved by connecting several machine guns to one common installation. In 1930, the coaxial machine gun of the Degtyarev system called DA-2 entered service. The DA-2 machine gun, although it had a high rate of fire, had all the disadvantages of twin installations: bulkiness and inconvenience in action, which is especially sensitive in aircraft weapons. The shooting was also low.

Machine guns of the Degtyarev family DP-27, DT-29, DA and DA-2 became an integral part of the Red Army's weapons.

Says Semyon Fedoseev, historian, weapons expert: “Directly on the basis of the DP machine gun, tank and aircraft machine guns were created. They differed by stores, controls, the presence or absence of a non-automatic fuse. For example, the DP of 1927 did not have a non-automatic fuse, there was only an automatic fuse that blocked the trigger, and the DT (tank) machine gun received a flag safety. By the beginning of the war, the RKK had over 170,000 light machine guns. This was one of the types of weapons with which the formations of the western military districts were provided even beyond the state. The combat use of the DP has revealed the need for a number of design amendments aimed at improving the reliability and controllability of weapons.

DPM Degtyarev infantry modernized

In October 1944, the DPM (Degtyarev Infantry Modernized) was adopted by the Soviet army. In the DPM, the changes affected, first of all, the reciprocating mainspring. She was moved from under the barrel to the back of the receiver. The bolt carrier with the piston and the ejector were also changed, the stock was simplified, a pistol grip was added, and the automatic safety was replaced by a flag. Reinforced folding bipods were made integral (removable ones were often lost).

The use of a machine gun by German and Finnish troops

The enemy also deserved the Degtyarev machine gun - Wehrmacht soldiers used captured DPs as weapons of a limited standard. Finnish sources indicate that during the winter war, the Finnish army captured more than 3,000 DP machine guns and about 150 DT-29s. The Finns liked the machine guns so much that they curtailed the production of their own machine guns and switched to the production of magazines and spare parts for Degtyarev machine guns.

Says Semyon Fedoseev, historian, weapons expert: “The machine gun was nicknamed “Emma” by the Finns. In general, for a formidable weapon, a female nickname is not such a frequent case, but it is assumed that the corresponding foxtrot, popular at that time, was an example of this, and the disc of the DP machine gun resembled a gramophone record. Here is such a version of the appearance of this nickname. In 1946, on the basis of the DPM, a new light machine gun was developed, which received the name RP-46. The disk magazine was replaced with a belt feed, which significantly increased the rate of fire. Other changes were made, but that's a different story and about a different weapon.

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