Who Has the Bigger Cannon: World War I Super-Heavy Artillery. Three-inch

What was the organization of Russian, German and French artillery at the beginning of the First World War?

By 1914, it was assumed that the coming war would be of a fleeting nature - both Russia and France built the organization of their artillery, based on the principle of the transience of armed confrontation. Accordingly, the nature of the future war was qualified as maneuverable - and the artillery of the warring armies, first of all, had to have such a quality as tactical mobility.

In a mobile battle, the main goal of artillery is the manpower of the enemy, while there are no serious fortified positions. That is why the core of field artillery was represented by light field guns of 75-77 mm caliber. And the main ammunition is shrapnel. It was believed that the field gun, with its significant, both among the French and, especially, among the Russians, initial projectile velocity, would fulfill all the tasks assigned to artillery in a field battle.

Indeed, in the conditions of a fleeting maneuver war, the French 75-mm cannon of the 1897 model in its own way performance characteristics took first place. Although the initial speed of her projectile was inferior to the Russian three-inch, but this was compensated by a more profitable projectile, which spent its speed more economically in flight. In addition, the gun had greater stability (that is, the indestructibility of aiming) after firing, and, consequently, the rate of fire. The device of the carriage of the French gun allowed it to automatically conduct lateral horizontal shelling, which from a distance of 2.5-3 thousand meters made it possible to fire at a 400-500-meter front within a minute.

Il. 1. French 75 mm gun. Photo: Pataj S. Artyleria ladowa 1881-1970. W-wa, 1975.

For the Russian three-inch, the same was possible only by five or six turns of the entire battery, spending at least five minutes of time. But during flank shelling, in some one and a half minutes, the Russian light battery, firing with shrapnel, covered with its fire an area up to 800 m deep and more than 100 m wide.

In the struggle to destroy the manpower of the French and Russian field guns, there were no equals.

As a result, the 32-battalion Russian army corps was equipped with 108 guns - including 96 field 76-mm (three-inch) guns and 12 light 122-mm (48-line) howitzers. There was no heavy artillery in the corps. True, before the war there was a tendency to create heavy field artillery, but heavy field three-battery battalions (2 batteries of 152-mm (six-inch) howitzers and one - 107-mm (42-line) guns) existed, as it were, as an exception and an organic connection with did not have hulls.

The situation was little better in France, which had 120 75-mm field guns per 24-battalion army corps. Heavy artillery was absent in divisions and corps and was only in armies - a total of only 308 guns (120-mm long and short guns, 155-mm howitzers and the latest 105-mm long Schneider gun of the 1913 model).

Thus, the organization of the artillery of Russia and France was, first of all, the result of an underestimation of the power of rifle and machine-gun fire, as well as the fortification reinforcement of the enemy. The charters of these powers at the beginning of the war required artillery not to prepare, but only to support an infantry attack.

In contrast to their opponents, the organization of the German artillery was based on a correct foresight of the nature of the coming military conflict. For the 24-battalion army corps, the Germans had 108 light 77-mm cannons, 36 light field 105-mm howitzers (divisional artillery) and 16 heavy field 150-mm howitzers (corps artillery). Accordingly, already in 1914, heavy artillery was present at the corps level. With the beginning of the positional war, the Germans also created divisional heavy artillery, equipping each division with two howitzer and one heavy cannon batteries.

From this ratio it can be seen that the Germans saw the main means for achieving tactical success even in a field maneuverable battle in the power of their artillery (almost a third of all available guns were howitzers). In addition, the Germans reasonably took into account the increased muzzle velocity of the projectile, which was not always necessary during flat firing (in this regard, their 77-mm gun was inferior to the French and Russian guns) and adopted as a caliber for a light field howitzer not 122-120-mm, like their own. opponents, and 105 mm - that is, the optimal (in combination of relative power and mobility) caliber.

If the 77-mm German, 75-mm French, 76-mm Russian light field guns approximately corresponded to each other (as well as the 105-107-mm heavy field guns of the opponents), then the Russian and French armies have no analogues of the German 105-mm divisional howitzer have had.

Thus, by the beginning of the World War, the basis for organizing the artillery assets of the leading military powers was the task of supporting the offensive of their infantry on the battlefield. The main qualities required for field guns are mobility in conditions of mobile warfare. This trend also determined the organization of the artillery of the major powers, its quantitative ratio with the infantry, as well as the proportionality of light and heavy artillery in relation to each other.

Thus, the ratio of the number of artillery that was part of the military units was expressed by the following number of guns per thousand bayonets: for Russia - about 3.5, for France - 5 and for Germany - 6.5.

The ratio of the number of heavy guns to the number of light artillery guns was as follows: by the beginning of the war, Russia had about 6.9 thousand light guns and howitzers and only 240 heavy guns (that is, the ratio of heavy to light artillery was 1 to 29); France possessed almost 8,000 light and 308 heavy guns (a ratio of 1 to 24); Germany had 6.5 thousand light guns and howitzers and almost 2 thousand heavy guns (ratio 1 to 3.75).

These figures clearly illustrate both the views on the use of artillery in 1914, and the resources with which each great power entered the world war. Obviously, the German armed forces were closest to the requirements of the First World War even before it began.

Artillery is called the "god of war". It was created and still exists at the crossroads of many sciences. It has long been customary that the high rank of "artilleryman" implies awareness of exact sciences the ability to make quick and accurate decisions. The book traces the path of development of world and Russian artillery, tells about the outstanding achievements of Russian designers who created formidable military equipment.

Artillery in World War I

The shots of the Russian- Japanese war how menacing signs of a new armed clash between the largest states of the world began to appear. The empires of Europe persistently strove for a redivision of the world; each demanded a place of honor among the other, most powerful capitalist states.

Two warring coalitions were formed: Germany and Austria-Hungary, on the one hand, and England, France and Russia, on the other. All the major countries of Europe were intensively preparing for a bloody massacre, unprecedented in its scale and cruelty. It broke out in 1914, turning almost half the world into a blazing fire. It was the First World War 1914-1918.

On the eve of it, most military theorists believed that the war would be extremely maneuverable and short-lived. It was assumed that offensive operations would have to be carried out in a situation where the enemy himself would also be in constant motion, he would certainly attack without resorting to shelters. So thought the tops of the Russian army, contrary to the experience of the war with Japan. And this experience showed that the troops are increasingly taking advantage of various terrain conditions in order to become invisible, in order to more reliably hide, even during oncoming combat clashes.

Preparations for war were carried out on the basis of the idea of ​​decisive offensive actions. Defense was considered something reprehensible, even shameful. Only the so-called active defense was recognized, the purpose of which was to upset the advancing enemy with fire, undermine his forces, in order to then himself go on a decisive offensive and defeat him.

These views on the nature of the coming war left a deep imprint on the development of Russian artillery before the World War. Just as the tsarist government was in bondage to the French banks, so the highest military authorities tsarist Russia were captured by the theoretical views of the French General Staff. Mainly from the French military experts, the high command of the Russian army borrowed the doctrine of maneuverable and short-term warfare, contrary to the lessons of past wars with Turkey and Japan. From the French, the desire for "unity of caliber and projectile" passed into the Russian artillery. The famous French artilleryman Langlois suggested that the army should be armed mainly with one type of gun. Since it was believed that an exceptionally mobile, maneuverable war was ahead, Langlois concluded that all combat missions in such a war could be perfectly solved by a relatively small-caliber rapid-fire cannon, easily moved and firing shells of great lethal force at the advancing enemy. As such a universal weapon, the French offered a 75-mm cannon.

Such views were very to the taste of the Russian military ministry. Such a “unity of caliber and projectile”, firstly, reduced the cost of the production of artillery materiel and, secondly, greatly simplified the training in shooting and the use of artillery in battle. And in the War Department, considerations of financial savings were often considered much more important than technical and tactical expediency.

The Russian artillery already had such a cannon, which, according to Langlois, could become a universal weapon. It was a 76-mm rapid-fire cannon of the 1902 model. Created by talented Russian artillerymen-inventors, this cannon was of very high quality. At that time, she was one of the best among this type and with honor passed the combat test in the Russo-Japanese War.

The 76mm gun fired its projectiles at high muzzle velocity along a very shallow trajectory. Thanks to this, she inflicted serious damage when firing shrapnel at targets located in open areas. The strength of shrapnel fire was so great that one Russian battery could literally destroy an inadvertently opened infantry battalion or even an entire cavalry regiment in a few minutes. The 76-mm cannon was also distinguished by its high rate of fire - up to twenty rounds per minute.

Blind admiration for foreign military thought, excessive enthusiasm for the undoubtedly excellent qualities of the 76-mm gun and considerations of financial savings led to the fact that the military leaders of tsarist Russia remained deaf to the warning voice of individual experts who referred to the experience of previous wars - the Russian-Turkish and Russian-Japanese . During these wars, in practice, on the battlefields, it has already been proved more than once that it is impossible to get by with only one type of artillery gun, that, in addition to a quick-firing field gun, it is also necessary to have a sufficient number of mounted fire guns - howitzers and heavy artillery. And yet, on the eve of World War II, the Russian War Ministry was still chasing a illusory ideal: to equip field artillery with a single caliber gun with a single projectile.

Meanwhile, the 76-millimeter field gun, so powerful at hitting open targets, was exceptionally weak at firing at hidden targets. Her shrapnel fire was completely powerless to destroy field shelters. As soon as people who fell under the shrapnel of a 76-mm cannon lay down and sketched a head trench 60–70 centimeters high in front of them, they were already almost safe. The fire of the 76-mm cannon could not sweep away artificial obstacles, since the shock and destructive effect of its shrapnel projectile is small.

There was another drawback to the 76 mm gun, which prevented its full use in the new conditions of field warfare. The very large flatness of the fire limited the possibility of firing over the heads of their infantry. Batteries of 76-millimeter guns had to be placed far behind the infantry - no closer than one kilometer - and firing at the front lines of the enemy had to be stopped when the attacking infantry still had 300-400 meters to go.

The experience of the Russo-Japanese War showed that the most effective means to defeat a hidden enemy is a howitzer. The steep trajectory of its projectiles makes it possible to hit the enemy with mounted fire even when he is not shown from behind cover. And the powerful shells of large-caliber howitzers make it possible to destroy very strong field fortifications.

Before the World War, the Russian artillery adopted the 122-mm howitzer of the 1909 model. It was in many respects superior to the similar howitzer in service with the Austro-German artillery. The shrapnel bullets of the Russian howitzer hit the hiding enemy quite well. In addition, the howitzer could also fire grenades with a powerful bursting charge. Thanks to this, the fire of the 122-mm howitzer acted very destructively on the field fortifications. But there were very few 122mm howitzers. Here, the neglect of the military leaders to the guns of mounted fire clearly affected.

The Russian army also had a 76-mm mountain gun of the 1909 model, produced by the Putilov factory. This gun fired its projectiles at first along a rather flat trajectory, and towards the end of its flight, its projectiles fell in a very steep line. Such shooting is necessary in conditions of mountain warfare, when shells must be thrown over steep slopes.

The 76mm gun was essentially a howitzer. In addition, she was extremely light and therefore could move faster. The mountain gun could be successfully used in ordinary field combat, as it was quite suitable for maneuvering and joint operations with infantry. Thus, the mountain gun could compensate to some extent for the lack of mounted fire guns and replace the 76-mm field rapid-fire gun in cases where it would have to hit a well-hidden enemy. This was all the more easy since both guns fired the same projectile. However, even in this case, the highest military circles underestimated the entire significance of mounted fire guns in the upcoming war: by the beginning of the world war, the Russian army had even fewer mountain guns than 122-mm howitzers.

However, one should not think that such an attitude of the War Ministry and the General Staff to the problems of arming the army was shared by all gunners. In fact, there was a tragic gap between the creative aspirations of the best gunners and the officially accepted opinion. There were many outstanding and talented specialists in the army who understood perfectly well what new tasks modern war poses for artillery. They made every effort to improve technical equipment. But often all their energy was spent on a fruitless struggle with the inertia, slowness and rottenness of the state and military machine.

The improvement of the designs of guns, shells and materiel, the immediate consideration of inventions, the management of research and experiments in the field of artillery - all this was entrusted to the Artillery Committee under the Main Artillery Directorate. Among the members of this committee there were a large number of scientists and specialists who gained fame not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders. Many members of the Artillery Committee were professors at the Artillery Academy and other higher educational institutions. Some had the title of academicians - and not only of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but also of the academies of Paris and London. The technical level of the Russian gunners was very high, especially in a theoretical sense.

To resolve certain complex issues, the Artillery Committee invited the most prominent experts of that time - scientists, researchers, production workers. This made it possible to use the latest achievements of science and technology for the development of artillery.

However, despite all this, the initiative for new inventions rarely came from the bowels of the Artillery Committee. And the proposals put forward by the committee were often either not carried out at all, or they were carried out in a perverted form.

Representatives of the authorities, and first of all the Minister of War Sukhomlinov, clearly patronized large foreign firms that own powerful military factories - Schneider in France, Krupp in Germany, Vickers in England. They were given preference even in those cases when some proposal coming from a Russian factory or artillery inventor was clearly better and more expedient than a foreign one. Of course, all this put heavy obstacles to the development of Russian artillery and stifled the inventive initiative.

In what working conditions the Russian gunners were placed by the tsarist authorities, it can be seen at least from the following example. Immediately after the Russo-Japanese War, a special commission arose at the Main Artillery Directorate to study the experience of this war. The commission included very large and authoritative gunners of that time. They made a number of important proposals for the reorganization of Russian artillery on the basis of combat experience. The question of howitzers and heavy field artillery arose especially sharply. The commission insisted that it was necessary to equip the Russian army as soon as possible with long-range cannons and large-caliber howitzers firing projectiles of great destructive power. At the same time, it was emphasized that the combat effectiveness of the Russian army in the new conditions of war could be more or less satisfactory only if each corps had at least two batteries of 152-mm howitzers and one battery of 107-mm long-range guns. The War Ministry and the General Staff formally accepted the proposal of the commission. But even ten years later, that is, by the beginning of the World War, the planned program was carried out to an absolutely insignificant degree: there were so few heavy howitzers and long-range guns that they could only be attached to entire armies consisting of several corps.

An even more criminal attitude was shown by the military leaders towards heavy artillery of the siege type. The experience of the Russo-Japanese War showed that not a single Russian siege weapon met the new requirements. But the general staff, clouded by spectacular ideas about the maneuverable, offensive nature of the upcoming war, did not attach serious importance to heavy siege-type artillery. It was believed that siege artillery, due to its heaviness and bulkiness, would only bind the maneuvering actions of troops. And for the destruction of enemy fortresses and strongholds, they considered it possible to take heavy artillery from their fortresses, which, during the offensive, would remain in the rear, out of the threat from the enemy. Therefore, in the mobilization schedule, the General Staff did not even provide for siege artillery at all.

The installation of the General Staff was strongly supported by the Minister of War Sukhomlinov and, of course, pleased the Ministry of Finance, since there was no need for special appropriations for the creation of heavy siege-type artillery.

During the First World War, it became clear why Sukhomlinov supported such ridiculous views. Sukhomlinov betrayed his homeland. He was connected with German spies and, where he could, carried out with impunity the policy of "disarmament" of Russia in the interests of its future enemy - Germany. Sukhomlinov suppressed military inventive thought in every possible way and deliberately made the weapons of the Russian army dependent on foreign factories, in particular on the German breeder Krupp. Sukhomlinov achieved that just on the eve of the World War, Russian fortresses began to be abolished, which were supposed to restrain the pressure of the German troops if they entered the territory of Russia. The destruction of the fortresses took place under the pretext of obsolescence, but it was no accident that such first-class fortresses as Novogeorgievsk and others were among the "obsolete". Many fortresses had to be hastily restored already during the war.

By the beginning of the World War, Russian artillery was technically armed much weaker than the artillery of its opponents.

Many legends circulated about the German heavy howitzer called "Fat Bertha", which appeared with the Germans during the World War and for a long time was the subject of their pride. Its caliber is 420 millimeters; a powerful projectile weighed 800 kilograms. This is a tool of strong destructive action, before which the most durable field and fortress structures could not resist.

Many people know about this, but few know about the following fact. In 1912, experimental firing of Russian artillery took place on the island of Berezan in the Black Sea. The newest heavy Schneider howitzer with a caliber of 280 millimeters was tested. Experimental shooting showed that this howitzer cannot destroy strong reinforced concrete fortifications.

The gunners were convinced that for this purpose a gun of a larger caliber was needed. In early 1913, such a howitzer was designed by a member of the Artillery Committee, Durlyakhov, together with a group of engineers from the Metal Plant in St. Petersburg. It was a powerful howitzer with a caliber of 420 millimeters. All calculations convinced that its effect even on the most powerful fortifications would be unusually strong. However, there was no plant in Russia that would undertake to manufacture such weapons. The War Department, of course, was in no hurry to implement this invention. It transferred an order for one prototype howitzer to the French Schneider factory. And they weren't in too much of a hurry to get it done. A prototype howitzer was already made during the war, but it was never received by the Russian army.

Meanwhile, in Germany it became known about the experiments at Berezan and about the design of a powerful howitzer by Russian artillerymen. And there is every reason to think that the Germans hurried to draw the appropriate conclusions from this ... Thus, there can be no question of the originality of the invention of the German "Fat Bertha"; it is obvious that the German artillerymen do not have to brag and be especially proud of this howitzer.

Only the suspicious slowness of the War Ministry prevented the Russian gunners from fielding the siege howitzer, which proved so necessary during the World War, on the battlefield.

The fate of the invention of the talented Russian artilleryman V. Tarnovsky was a little better. He foresaw the enormous role that military aviation would later play, and long before the war he proposed the original design of a special anti-aircraft gun. But even this proposal was not taken seriously. Tarnovsky eventually ceded his idea to the Putilov factory, where he belatedly started designing the gun together with the factory engineer Lender. The first four anti-aircraft guns of Tarnovsky and Lender were made only in March 1915.

Every major war brings something new to the art of war. But no war has brought as many surprises as the world war. It overturned many assumptions and theories, it raised such questions in the face of which the bourgeois military art for a long time turned out to be completely powerless.

The hopes of all the belligerent countries for exceptional maneuverability and the short duration of the war were completely unjustified. The maneuvering period of the war ended rather quickly. The unusually increased strength of the fire forced the troops to dig deep into the ground, erect an uninterrupted line of the strongest fortifications in the field and go on to a long positional struggle.

The imperialist world war also introduced many new things into the development of artillery. Never before has the role of this type of troops been as great as on the battlefields of 1914–1918. Not a single operation, not a single offensive, not a single defensive battle could be successfully carried out without a sufficient concentration of artillery fire. The fate of many battles was decided exclusively by artillery. The power of artillery fire increased so much that often nothing could resist it - neither earthen fortifications, nor reinforced concrete shelters, nor steel armor, nor the will and endurance of the soldiers of the warring armies.

There have never been so many guns on the battlefield as in the First World War. During their offensive in Galicia, in the autumn of 1914, the Russians concentrated more than one and a half thousand guns for the general battle that decided the outcome of the operation. And during the unsuccessful attempt of the Germans, at the end of the same year, to break the Russian armies near Lodz, almost three thousand guns participated from both sides. The massing of artillery reached unprecedented proportions during the positional period of the war, especially in the Western European theater. Some battles in this war can be safely called artillery. In 1917, to break through the German positions at Malmaison, the French concentrated 1860 guns on a very small stretch. In the area of ​​the main attack, the saturation with artillery was so great that for every four and a half meters there was one gun.

The consumption of shells during the war reached an unheard-of value. In the battles near Verdun, from August 13 to 27, 1917, 4 million shells were fired. Their total weight reached 120 thousand tons. For every meter of the front, there were 6 tons of metal! There were battles in the World War in which the consumption of shells reached one million in just one day - this is about the same amount of shells that Russia spent during the entire Russo-Japanese War.

From the very first months of the war, it became clear that the desire for "unity of caliber and projectile" was wrong. The rapid-firing 76-millimeter cannon was far from being able to solve all the new tasks that the World War posed for artillery. It took guns of a wide variety of types and calibers - and in large numbers. We needed both quick-firing guns, and field mounted fire guns - howitzers, and long-range guns, and heavy siege-type howitzers. Special melee weapons were also needed - for trench warfare, and anti-aircraft guns - for fighting an air enemy, as well as light assault guns - for direct escort of infantry in battle. The need for heavy artillery was especially acute, the shells of which could destroy artificial obstacles and strong earthen and reinforced concrete shelters.

Russian gunners did not have the abundance and variety of technical means that their main enemy, the Germans, had.

The guns of the Russian artillery were in no way inferior in their combat qualities to the guns of the same type in Germany and Austria, but in almost all battles the Austro-German artillery outnumbered the Russian. Each German corps had 160 guns, including 35 howitzers. And in the Russian corps, there were only 108 guns, including 12 howitzers. Russian corps did not have heavy artillery at all, and each German corps had four heavy batteries.

During the unsuccessful offensive of the Germans at the end of 1914 on the left bank of Poland, they had a quantitative superiority in artillery in all battles. In the battle near Vlatslavsk, the Russians had 106 guns, while the Germans had 324; in the battle at Kutno, the Russians had 131 guns, and the Germans - up to 400, etc. And so in almost all battles. This huge discrepancy in the saturation of military equipment had to be compensated by the artillerymen with the art of their shooting.

For all the belligerent states, the grandiose scope that the world imperialist war assumed was unexpected. It required the use of a colossal amount of a wide variety of technical means. The consumption of fire supplies exceeded to a large extent all pre-war calculations and showed the insignificance of peacetime mobilization stocks. It became obvious that the armies should be saturated with military equipment on an incomparably larger scale than planned on the eve of the war. Under these conditions, the work of the rear, industry, the state of the entire economy of the country, of course, played a decisive role. All states began hastily re-equipping their troops with more modern, powerful equipment.

In setting the size of stocks of artillery shells, the War Department proceeded from the following considerations. During the entire war with Japan, the Russians used up an average of 720 rounds for each 76-millimeter cannon. New war should require more ammo. And the War Department set an increased rate for a future war - 1,000 shots per cannon during the year. In addition, the general staff, carried away by the ideas of a short-term war, was going to fight for no more than six months. Therefore, the Ministry of War complacently believed that the artillery was provided with shells for the entire duration of the war with a large supply. This complacent mood was not disturbed by the fact that the set of shells for light howitzers was by no means completely ready by the beginning of the war, and for heavy field guns there were only half of the prescribed stocks. The leaders of the army were not worried, convinced that the fate of the war would be decided by quick strikes in field maneuver battles, where 76-mm guns would play the main role.

Reality brutally shattered all these calculations and assumptions. Already at the end of the first month of the war, the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief informed the Minister of War that the artillery was operating successfully, but that "the situation with regard to the supply of cannon cartridges was critical." And in early September 1914, the Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the Southwestern Front urgently telegraphed Nicholas II that he was forced to suspend military operations on the entire front until stocks of 76-mm cannon cartridges were replenished.

By the end of 1914, the supply of 76-mm shells had dried up. And it was not possible to replenish it, since the mobilization of Russian factories that manufactured shells was not prepared in advance and their productivity was extremely low. Sukhomlinov carried out the task of German intelligence - to disrupt the supply of shells to the front, not to give guns to the front, not to give rifles.

At the beginning of 1915, the lack of 76-mm shells was felt so acutely that their consumption on the day of the battle had to be limited to 5-10 shots per gun. Under the threat of court martial, the commanders of batteries and artillery battalions had to strictly comply with this order. Of course, under such conditions it was impossible to even think about an offensive.

The lack of shells in the Russian army decreased to some extent only by 1916, the third year of the war. By that time, the upper echelons of power were convinced of the subversive activities of Sukhomlinov. In addition, Russian patriotic entrepreneurs mobilized all the country's internal resources for military needs, and weapons ordered from foreign factories also began to arrive. However, we note that until the end of the war, Russia was not able to supply its army with a sufficient number of shells.

With the transition to positional warfare, there was an especially acute shortage of shells for howitzer and heavy artillery. Namely, in positional conditions, the fire of howitzers and heavy guns is especially important, since no advance is possible unless the enemy’s defensive fortifications are first destroyed and his firing points hidden in strong shelters are not suppressed.

Thus, during almost the entire war, Russian artillerymen had to reckon with the lack of shells and often limit their actions because of this. As a result, Russian artillery used up significantly fewer shells during the World War than the artillery of other countries. During all the years of the war, Russian gunners fired no more than 50 million shells of all calibers, including chemical shells. This expense was enormous, even unbearable for the state in which the economy of tsarist Russia was then. But if we compare this figure with the consumption of shells in other warring countries, then it will seem very small. During the war, British artillery fired 170 million shells, German - 272 million, and French artillery used up almost 200 million shells of only two calibers (75 mm and 150 mm).

The grandiose scale of the world war affected not only the number of expendable shells. A significant increase in the number of guns was also required. Artillery had to solve a variety of tasks. The artillery was supposed to stop the advance of the enemy infantry and put it to flight; artillery was to clear the way for its advancing infantry, suppress enemy artillery fire, destroy its barbed wire and all other artificial obstacles, destroy machine-gun nests, deprive the enemy infantry sitting in the trenches of its defense capability; smash the deep rear of the enemy, warehouses, stations, headquarters; artillery was supposed to fight enemy aircraft ... It is difficult to say what artillery was not supposed to do during the world war.

The total number of guns during the war increased in Russia one and a half times, and in France and Germany - three times.

In the Russian army, heavy artillery for special purposes consisted of more than 600 guns of various models and calibers. Among them were 120-mm long-range guns, and 152-mm howitzers, and guns of very large calibers, such as 280-mm Schneider howitzers, 305-mm howitzers of Vickers and the Obukhov plant, and others. The TAON also included several Tarnovsky anti-aircraft guns and a large number of British and French mortars. In addition, TAON was attached to a sapper battalion, a railway company, aviation and aeronautical detachments.

The TAON included 152-mm Kane coastal guns, firing at a distance of more than thirteen kilometers, and 120-mm guns from the Obukhov plant with a firing range of 14.4 kilometers. Obukhov 305-mm howitzers fired shells weighing almost 400 kilograms at a distance of up to 13 kilometers. The shells of the 305 mm howitzers had a large bursting charge, and therefore their destructive effect was very impressive.

Kane guns and howitzers of the Obukhov plant were transported only by railway. Some of the TAON guns were moved with the help of tractors, and some of the guns were transported disassembled by horse traction, and then they were assembled directly at the position itself.

The most long-range in the Russian army was a 254-millimeter coastal gun. She shot for more than twenty kilometers. Several of these guns, taken from coastal fortresses, were on the Austro-German front. A special railway platform served as a carriage for each gun, from where it fired. Fire from the platform could only be fired in the direction of the railway track. Therefore, it was necessary to adjust branches to the main rail track in order to turn the gun in the direction of fire.

During the shooting, the rail track was strengthened with additional sleepers, as the track settled due to the enormous pressure during the shot.

World War II created a new type of artillery - the so-called trench artillery. It consisted of bombers, mortars and assault guns. Even during the Russo-Japanese War, when trenches and trenches began to be widely used, the troops themselves began to manufacture handicraft melee weapons. These were guns with a very short muzzle, sending shells of high explosive force along a very steep trajectory. They called them mortars.

The firing range of mortars is very short, but such guns are very convenient for hitting an enemy hiding in trenches and trenches.

During the World War, close combat trench guns became very widespread. Bomb throwers were intended mainly to destroy living targets. The infantry used them in cases where it was not possible for some reason to use light field artillery, and the fire of rifles or machine guns alone was not enough. Mortars, on the other hand, were put into action to destroy dugouts, trenches and various barriers. By the end of the war, the Russian army had 14 thousand mortar bombers, 4,500 light mortars and only 267 heavy mortars - the latter were clearly not enough, and there were already more light bombers than the army demanded.

Special guns were needed to accompany the infantry during the attack and subsequently secure it in the taken sections of the enemy position. The 76-millimeter field gun could not follow its infantry everywhere: it was too heavy for this, and a team of six horses was required to transport it. We needed much lighter and more mobile tools that could be rolled by hand by two or three people. Such guns began to gradually appear in the Russian army. They were at the disposal of the infantry itself and served mainly to knock out and destroy enemy machine guns and light guns. If they were not put out of action in a timely manner, they inflicted huge losses on the attacking infantry and deprived it of an offensive impulse.

Russian assault artillery had a rather motley composition. There were guns taken from the navy, and the so-called "short mountain guns", and guns taken from fortresses, and, finally, a number of small-caliber guns of 47 and 37 millimeters. Among the latter, the 37-mm cannon of the system of the Russian inventor Rosenberg was distinguished by high combat qualities.

In general, assault artillery was clearly not enough. Assault guns were about five times less than they were required. Technologically weak industry in Russia could not quickly master the production of new types of weapons.

During the World War, military aviation developed widely. Initially, aircraft served only for reconnaissance and artillery fire correction. Then they were adapted for bombing and machine-gun fire on earthly targets.

The threat from the air became very serious.

Russia, like other states, turned out to be unprepared to fight an air enemy. I had to hastily find artillery that could repel enemy air raids. At first, at the front, they tried to fire on aircraft from field 76-mm cannons. To do this, a small ditch was dug under the trunk of their gun carriage in order to raise the muzzle of the gun as high as possible. But this gave a very weak effect, especially since the height and speed of the flight of airplanes continuously increased.

Then they began to adapt naval rapid-fire guns with a caliber of 75 millimeters for anti-aircraft fire. They were still more effective shooting at airplanes than simple field guns. Finally, in March 1915, with a great delay, the first Tarnovsky anti-aircraft guns were made. But it was a drop in the ocean. Production of special anti-aircraft guns it was a very difficult thing. Therefore, it was not necessary to count on the rapid production of a large number of such guns. Most often, they resorted to the device of makeshift installations, with the help of which it would be possible to conduct anti-aircraft fire from conventional 76-mm field guns. Such installations were made by means of military units. And in this area, Russian artillerymen showed a lot of ingenuity. The simplest devices were all kinds of pedestals, on which the guns were mounted so that the muzzle of the gun looked as high as possible. And by the end of the war, even a special machine for anti-aircraft firing of the B.N. system was designed. Ivanova. This machine had a circular rail, which made it possible to rotate the gun in a circle during firing and follow the movement of the aircraft with the muzzle.

Most anti-aircraft installations moved disassembled with the help of horse traction. In the same places that were subjected to systematic enemy air raids, fixed anti-aircraft batteries were placed more than complex device. Finally, vehicles were adapted for the rapid transfer of anti-aircraft guns to a particular area. Each such "car battery for shooting at air fleet"consisted of four Tarnovsky anti-aircraft guns.

The guns were mounted on specially adapted armored vehicles. Steel armor protected the drivers, gunners and vital parts of the vehicle from shrapnel and long-range rifle fire. The cars also served as charging boxes. In addition, each battery was followed by 4 armored vehicles, exclusively for the transport of shells, gasoline and oil. Three passenger cars transported battery commanders and signalmen; scouts with such a battery traveled on motorcycles; and, finally, this whole cavalcade was closed by a kitchen-storehouse, also installed on the car.

Automobile anti-aircraft batteries were already quite perfect, at that time, military weapon to fight the air enemy. However, for the entire duration of the war, only 9 automobile batteries were formed - a completely insignificant number in terms of the scale of the world war. And in total, by the end of the war, there were no more than 70 guns of the Tarnovsky system at the front.

Yes, Russian gunners during the World War were much worse equipped with the latest military equipment than their opponents, the Austro-Germans. But on the other hand, the Russian gunners fired very accurately. And there were often cases when the high art of shooting made up for the lack of guns and shells. Russian gunners were able to achieve great results with little means.

The war with Japan confirmed the absolute necessity of shooting from closed positions with the help of a goniometer. After the end of this war, Russian gunners began to improve in the art of such shooting. Soon, all battery commanders not only imbued with respect for the goniometer, but also completely mastered its use in a variety of conditions. By the beginning of World War II, Russian gunners were excellent at shooting from closed positions. In this respect, the Austro-Germans lagged far behind the Russian gunners. During the maneuverable period of the war, the Austro-German gunners occupied mainly half-open or completely open positions. They often tried to famously ride with their battery to the top of some hill or hillock, and for this they were just as often cruelly beaten by the skilful fire of Russian artillery. During the war, the Austro-German gunners had to retrain, borrowing Russian techniques for the closed location of batteries, and partly the rules of firing.

Artillerymen were the most educated and advanced part of the Russian army. Jr officers received a very solid training in special schools. Most of the commanders not only knew their job well, but also had fairly extensive knowledge in other areas of science, especially in mathematics and chemistry.

Ordinary artillery personnel were recruited from the most literate and intelligent people. In addition, the common work of mastering complex equipment, where each gun is a kind of production unit, developed among ordinary gunners a collective spirit of comradely soldering and mutual support. No wonder among them it was widely believed that the origin of the word "artillery" is due to the fact that artillerymen work as an "artel".

Fireworks (junior officers) were prepared most thoroughly. They superbly managed the entire work of the gun crew and could, if necessary, replace the commander of an artillery platoon. The fireworkers not only knew their job perfectly as practitioners, but also understood the theoretical foundations of artillery firing.

Senior commanders received combat training at the officer's artillery school. This school played an important role in its time in educating the bulk of Russian artillerymen to the level of modern war requirements. Through the school, new ideas were put into practice in the field of artillery tactics, techniques and shooting rules. Any senior commander, before he received command of a battery, division or battalion of fortress artillery, took a course in an officer's school.

Education in this school was delivered very well. Much attention was paid to practical training and shooting. In this respect, the Russian officer school favorably differed from similar schools in other countries, where a purely theoretical, lecture method of teaching prevailed. The school had its own well-equipped training ground near the city of Luga. The range allowed firing from guns of any caliber, as well as performing a variety of maneuvers. The terrain at the training ground is very rugged and therefore very convenient for conducting a wide variety of combat exercises. The range was equipped with mechanical targets. Some of them made themselves felt with light or smoke flashes, others lowered and rose with the help of special cables, and still others could even move mechanically from one place to another. All this brought the situation of shooting practice closer to the conditions of a real battle.

Senior commanders who went through this school perfectly mastered the art of shooting from closed positions and were quite well versed in the tactical issues of using artillery in battle.

Unfortunately, such an assessment cannot be given to the combined arms commanders of the Russian army. For the most part, they did not understand the properties and tasks of artillery and therefore could not often use it properly. During the World War, there were frequent cases when artillerymen acted in battle at their own discretion and, on their own initiative, carried out certain combat missions.

The Russian gunners were preparing to wage the world war in a resolute offensive spirit. They were well aware that modern conditions the battle situation is changing rapidly and there is not always time to wait for orders from above. The artillery commander must in these cases take independent solutions. In battle, it often happens that an opportunity for an advantageous action of artillery appears suddenly, the outcome of the case is decided in minutes, and the properties of artillery just make it possible to inflict defeat in the shortest possible time. Therefore, Russian gunners attached great importance to any manifestation of personal initiative, decisiveness and speed of action.

A striking example of such a decisive offensive action is the maneuvers of the Russian horse artillery. Great mobility and rapid firing were especially required from horse artillery. By all means they tried to develop dashing and unrestrained forward impulse among horse artillerymen.

During maneuvers, Russian horse artillerymen performed, for example, such a spectacular and bold trick. As soon as the cavalry reorganized into battle formation, the horse batteries jumped out at full quarry from some flank, ahead of their cavalry. Then the guns were quickly removed from the limbers and a sudden rapid fire was opened on the advancing enemy cavalry. To perform such a maneuver and open rapid fire, horse artillery took no more than two minutes. Their cavalry, going on the attack, quickly covered the enemy cavalry rushing towards them, and after that the fire of the horse batteries was transferred to the artillery and machine guns of the enemy.

The experience of the maneuvering period of the World War confirmed that, in general, the training of Russian artillerymen was quite correct. The World War on the Russian front began with oncoming battles on the borders of Russia with Germany and Austria. The wide frontier spaces, which did not hamper the actions of the troops, made it possible to carry out the most daring maneuvers. At that time, Russian artillerymen dealt mainly with open enemy manpower or with light field fortifications. There was still enough ammunition, and the gunners did not have to save. The fire of the Russian artillery was terrifying, and the art of shooting left nothing to be desired. No wonder the 76-mm cannon was nicknamed the "scythe of death."

At the very beginning of the war, Russian troops invaded Germany and captured part of East Prussia. During this offensive, the Battle of Gumbinen broke out.

On August 20, 1914, the strong units of the 17th German Corps under General Mackensen attacked two Russian divisions. Forces met unequal. Mackensen had much more infantry and more artillery, and he also had at his disposal heavy guns, which the Russians did not have at all in this sector of the front.

First, the German batteries opened heavy fire. They released great amount shells of various calibers. Then the German infantry moved forward and cut into a wedge between two Russian divisions. The Russian gunners immediately took advantage of this: they opened flank-cross fire on the advancing Germans from two sides - two batteries from the north and two batteries from the south. Shrapnel from 76-millimeter cannons showered bullets on the advancing enemy lines. The German infantry suffered huge losses.

Three hours later, its miserable remnants rushed back in complete disarray, leaving the wounded and dead on the battlefield.

Following that, the Germans tried to outflank one of the divisions. The German infantry marched in thick chains, keeping the alignment, as in a parade. Some German officers even rode on horseback in the ranks of their units. The Russian gunners let the enemy in at a fairly close distance and suddenly immediately unleashed a hurricane of shrapnel fire on him. The German infantry began to thin out greatly, broke up into separate groups and, finally, lay down, continuing to suffer heavy losses. The enemy artillery tried in vain to put out the fire of the 76-mm cannons in order to save their infantry: the Russian batteries stood in well-hidden positions and were invulnerable.

In the same battle, the gunners severely reprimanded the Germans for their manner of riding into open positions. It was near the village of Matishkemen. Two German batteries, wanting to help out their infantry, famously rode to open space 1,200 paces from the entrenched Russian infantry. But the Germans managed to fire only one shot. The gunners suddenly opened their lethal fire from their 76mm cannons. Literally in a few minutes, the German batteries were destroyed by well-aimed fire. The infantry, which went over to the attack, captured 12 German guns and 24 ammunition boxes.

In the battle on August 26, 1914, the German artillery was located east of the village of Tarnaaka. In the first line were three light batteries in a half-covered position. Behind them are three howitzer batteries. They occupied a position closed to the east, but half-closed to the northeast. The Russian batteries were five kilometers northeast of the German ones. On their right flank was a battery of 122mm howitzers. This howitzer battery was tasked with destroying enemy artillery. The task is not easy, given that the Germans had much more guns.

When it began to get dark in the evening, the commander of the howitzer battery saw the brilliance of the shots of the German guns, repulsing the attacks of the Russian infantry with rapid fire. From these flashes, he determined the exact sight for each of his howitzers and then moved on to defeat. They fired with combined fire: either grenades or shrapnel.

An hour has passed. The fire of the German artillery gradually subsided. And soon neither flashes of enemy guns, nor explosions of shrapnel over the Russian infantry, which rushed to the attack, became visible. After the capture of the German positions, it turned out that out of 34 guns, three were hit, one of the howitzers, thrown by a grenade explosion over a charging box, lay a few steps away from it. Nearby lay nine blown up and broken ammunition boxes, and almost all of the German gunners were killed or wounded.

So one battery, despite the extremely difficult firing conditions, destroyed six batteries of the Germans.

The desire of Russian gunners to shoot from closed positions, of course, does not give any reason to reproach them for lack of courage. Possessing quite the art of firing from closed positions, they did not even think of going to an open position and steadfastly holding out under enemy fire when this was not necessary. But if there was one...

On the night of October 10, 1914, the vanguard units of the 25th Russian Corps crossed to the left bank of the Vistula River near New Alexandria. In the morning they were attacked by a superior Hungarian force supported by heavy artillery. The Hungarians, bypassing both flanks of the Russians and surrounding them in a tight half-ring, began to press against the Vistula. The only bridge along which the Russians could retreat beyond the Vistula was under heavy fire from enemy artillery. The situation has become extremely difficult. Withdrawal threatened with complete disaster. The situation was saved by artillerymen. They boldly rode out into the open and began to shower shrapnel on the attacking Hungarians. For almost six hours they were under the strongest rifle fire of the Hungarian infantry, which in some places approached already 400 meters. But the gunners held firm and repelled all enemy attacks.

And in April 1915, during the attack on Chernivtsi, such an incident occurred. Russian infantry captured the crest of the heights near the village of Rapanche. But behind the crest she was met by the destructive machine-gun fire of the enemy. Only artillery could suppress machine-gun fire. However, the gunners could not see from their observation posts what was happening behind the ridge. Then a platoon of a mountain battery rushed to the ridge on a quarry. When he reached it, the Russian infantry had already been almost completely knocked off the ridge by the Austrian counterattack. The gun teams that appeared were also killed. The commander of the mountain platoon was taken prisoner. But the surviving soldiers of the gun crew did not lose their heads. They managed to fire 4-5 shrapnels at buckshot right at point-blank range to the advancing Austrians. The enemy stopped in confusion and lay down. This made it possible for the Russian infantry to again take possession of an important ridge and hold on to it.

Russian gunners were also brought up in the spirit of quick and decisive action, which helped them seize the initiative and decide the outcome of the battle. This quality is especially important in an oncoming battle.

On August 26, 1914, in Galicia, a Russian division clashed with an Austrian division. At the forefront of the Russian division was an artillery battalion consisting of three light batteries of 76-millimeter cannons. In anticipation of an imminent clash, the Russians and Austrians began to deploy in advance into battle formation. The 24 guns of the Russian avant-garde quickly took up position, and the gunners prepared to open fire. The artillery of the Austrian avant-garde was very late, and this gave the Russians a great advantage. As soon as the firing lines of the Austrians appeared on the ridge in front of the lying hills, Russian batteries immediately fell upon them with rapid fire. The 44th Austrian Regiment, having fallen under a sudden shrapnel fire, was almost completely destroyed within fifteen to twenty minutes. An hour and a half later, the Austrian vanguard artillery finally opened fire. But too late: the Austrians lost their offensive initiative and had to go on the defensive. But they didn't succeed either. The Russian troops used their fire superiority and with an energetic attack finally defeated the Austrians.

Horse artillery was especially quick to maneuver. In a battle with the Austrians near the city of Tomashev, the Don Cossack batteries showed an example of a lightning strike. The vastly outnumbered Austrians forced the Russians to retreat to the Tomashevsky Forest. Behind the firing lines of the Austrians was a close reserve column of three battalions. At this time, two Cossack batteries at full quarry rushed, hiding behind the crest of a hill, to the flank of the advancing Austrians. Quickly removing the guns from the limbers, the horse artillerymen opened rapid flanking fire two minutes later: one battery on the reserve column, and the other on the advancing chains.

And those precious minutes decided the whole thing. After two or three minutes, the orderly advancing chains and the reserve column were literally swept away by hurricane fire.

The Austrian artillery, which came to the rescue of its infantry, tried to open fire, but quickly left its position and rushed back, seized by general panic. The battle ended with the complete annihilation of the 44th Austrian regiment - one of the best regiments, which was recruited from the inhabitants of the city of Vienna. The tragic death of this regiment at the very beginning of the war made a depressing impression on the inhabitants of the capital of Austria-Hungary.

During the First World War, anti-aircraft fire was so imperfect that to destroy one aircraft, even with the help of special anti-aircraft guns, it was required to fire from 3 to 11 thousand shells. However, Russian gunners sometimes showed examples of incomparably more accurate shooting at an air enemy.

In 1916, the 7th separate Russian light battery defended the Romanian city of Medzhidie from air raids. On October 1, six German bombers appeared in the area where the battery was located. The artillerymen opened fire. Fleeing from the projectile, two enemy planes immediately quickly left. The rest dispersed across the sky above the city and hastily dropped their bombs. Then the airplanes entered from different directions into the so-called "dead funnel" of the Russian battery, that is, into the zone where its shells could not hit. The aircraft descended and several bombs fell on the battery. Eight Russian anti-aircraft gunners were wounded and shell-shocked. But no one left for dressing until the end of the battle, everyone remained in place. The German planes were leaving. The 7th battery fired several volleys at them. The third volley covered one of the planes. He quickly went down, then caught fire and fell like a flaming torch into the location of the neighboring Romanian troops.

A short time later, from the observation posts, they reported by telephone that again five German aircraft rushed towards the city. But only two planes dared to go to the city itself. They flew with great apprehension, making sharp turns and turns all the time. The bombs they dropped were few and random. At the same time, the remaining three planes descended in turn to the dead funnel of the Russian battery and tried to hit the gunners with bombs and machine-gun fire. However, the German pilots did this so timidly and uncertainly that they could not cause any harm. Flying home, the German bombers rose very high at large intervals from each other. Russian anti-aircraft gunners chose one of the enemy aircraft and concentrated their fire on it. Soon, a large metal part separated from the aircraft and fell, which turned out to be the engine hood. The engine stopped, and the plane began to descend towards its positions. He flew over the trenches of the Serbian infantry, falling lower and lower. But he failed to pull through the wire fences, he buried his nose in them and helplessly froze in place.

An hour later, the German bombers reappeared. This time there were four. As they approached the city, they split into pairs. But the first pair immediately turned back under fire from the 7th battery without dropping a single bomb. The second pair also did not complete the task: after dropping only a few bombs, they followed the first.

The death of two German bombers and the flight of four others - such was the result of the firing of Russian anti-aircraft gunners that day. At the same time, only 364 shells were used up - a figure that at that time can be considered insignificant.

In the Russian theater of war, the maneuver period lasted until approximately the autumn of 1915, when both sides, having exhausted their forces and materiel, dug into the ground and switched to trench warfare. Under these conditions, everyone had to retrain and develop new tactics for the struggle for fortified zones. And the Russian gunners did not lag behind in this respect. They quickly learned that breaking through the enemy's fortified zone is not a field battle in which the situation is assessed on the move, almost at lightning speed, but a well-thought-out and strictly calculated operation. If during an attack in maneuverable conditions, especially in a meeting engagement, it is impossible to foresee all the actions of artillery in a rapidly changing situation, if under these conditions any attempt at an accurate timetable is doomed to failure in advance and even harmful, since it would only tie up the initiative of the artillerymen, then in a breakthrough Fortified zones, on the contrary, are the key to success - in a strictly thought-out plan, in the exact distribution of tasks for individual batteries, in the strict and methodical implementation of the combat schedule. The Russian gunners not only learned this basic principle well, but more than once carried it out very successfully. In cases where their actions were not paralyzed by a complete lack of guns and shells, they carried out breakthroughs of the fortified zone in a truly exemplary way. An example of this can be at least the work of artillerymen on the site of the 11th Army Corps during the famous Brusilov breakthrough in the summer of 1916.

Thanks to the power of their fire and the excellent training of their personnel, Russian artillery quickly achieved brilliant results. At the beginning of September 1914, the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief informed the Minister of War: “All the burden modern fighting- on artillery. She alone sweeps away the deadly machine guns of the enemy and destroys his artillery. Our infantry will not boast of its artillery. She shoots great."

Even the opponents had to recognize the high skill of shooting Russian gunners. The German generals Franus and Hindenburg wrote in their conclusions about the actions of the Russian army that Russian artillery "shoots well", takes exclusively closed positions "with great skill" and already from long distances often develops "such a strong and intense fire that misleads our troops in relation to their numerical superiority, which in fact does not exist.

Russian officers who had been in German captivity said that in August 1914, among numerous newspaper articles praising the “valor of German weapons”, a note appeared in which, despite all the chauvinistic frenzy, the author had to recognize the brilliant actions of Russian artillery. This note had a very significant title: "Hats off to the Russian gunners."

And Russian gunners during the World War more than once proved the correctness of this high assessment.

As we see, main value Russian artillery were its people. The high art of shooting, the bold initiative and the courageous heroism of ordinary Russian gunners brought them many well-deserved victories. Many of these people subsequently formed the backbone of the artillery cadres of the Red Army.

Russian light field artillery gun, caliber 76.2 mm.

It was actively used in the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, the Russian Civil War and other armed conflicts involving countries from the former Russian Empire (the Soviet Union, Poland, Finland, etc.) All variants of this gun were used in the Great Patriotic War .

These guns were in mass production for 36 years and were in service for about 50 years, they made a worthy contribution to all the wars waged by Russia from 1900 to 1945.

Tactical and technical characteristics of the gun.

Years of issue --1903-1919

Released, pcs. -- about 17 100

Caliber, mm -- 76.2

Barrel length, klb - 30

Weight in the stowed position, kg - 2380

firing angles

Elevations (max.), ° -- +17

Descents (min.), ° -- -3

Horizontal, ° -- 5

firepower

Max. firing range, km - 8.5

Rate of fire, rds / min - 10-12

At the end of the 19th century, all types of artillery pieces underwent drastic changes. The advent of piston closures and unitary ammunition significantly increased the rate of fire. Elements began to be introduced into the design of the gun carriages, ensuring the rollback of the barrel along its axis. Sights have appeared that provide firing from closed firing positions. As a result of all these innovations, artillery began to take on the appearance inherent in modern artillery systems.

In those years, Russia was at the forefront of technological progress in the field of artillery. So, already in 1882, the Baranovsky 2.5-inch rapid-fire cannon was adopted, which had all the signs of a modern artillery gun. Russia also looked at foreign samples. So, in 1892-1894, on the initiative of the Chief artillery control comparative tests were carried out with rapid-fire field guns with a unitary shot: 61 and 75 mm guns of the Nordfeld system, 60 and 80 mm of the Gruzon system and 75 mm of Saint-Chamon. However, none of the foreign guns satisfied the GAU, and in December 1896, tactical and technical requirements for a new three-inch rapid-fire field gun were formulated and a competition was announced for the best design of such a gun.

The Alexandrovsky, Metallic, Obukhovsky and Putilovsky factories, as well as foreign firms Krupp, Chatillon-Camentry, Schneider, Maxim took part in the competition. According to the terms of the competition, each enterprise had to submit two copies of a three-inch rapid-fire gun that met the requirements of the GAU and 250 ammunition for each gun.

According to the test results, the development of the Putilov plant, designed by engineers Zabudsky and Engelhardt, was recognized as the best. In 1899, military tests of the new gun began. The tests were carried out in five military districts in various climatic conditions. They were attended by six foot and two horse artillery batteries, equipped with new guns.

The tests were considered successful, and by the Highest Command of February 9, 1900, the gun was put into service under the name 3-inch field gun mod. 1900 In the army, she received an affectionate

nickname - three-inch.

Serial production of guns was organized immediately at four factories: Putilov, St. Petersburg gun, Perm and Obukhov. In total, during serial production (1900-1903), about 2,400 guns were manufactured and delivered to the troops. The design of the 3-inch gun mod. 1900 represented a dramatic leap in quality over the 87 mm field guns of the 1877 pattern. However, there were still many obsolete elements in the design of her gun carriage. The barrel did not roll back along the axis of the channel, but parallel to the beds and rolled along with the barrel along the carriage sled. The hydraulic recoil brake cylinders were located inside the frame, and the knurler consisted of rubber buffers, put on a steel rod of the buffer column.

Everything made it difficult to operate the gun in the troops. Therefore, soon after the adoption of the sample system. In 1900, at the Putilov plant, engineers Bishlyak, Lipnitsky and Sokolovsky began design work to improve the design of the gun carriage.

The design of the barrel and bolt and the internal ballistics of the new gun practically did not differ from the characteristics of the mod. 1900. The only difference was the absence of trunnions and a trunnion ring. In the new gun, the barrel was attached to the carriage cradle with the help of a beard and two guide grips. The design of the carriage has become completely different. The recoil devices are now placed in a cradle under the barrel. The hydraulic-type recoil brake was placed inside a cylindrical cradle, and its cylinder was attached to the barrel and rolled back when fired along with it. The knurler springs were put on top of the brake cylinder of the recoil parts, they were compressed when fired, thus accumulating the recoil energy, which was later used to return the barrel to its place. Rollback occurred along the axis of the bore. The cradle was attached to the carriage with the help of trunnions. Both guns had screw-type lifting and turning mechanisms.

The design of the gun provided for the maximum use of carbon and low-alloy steel to simplify mass production and reduce the cost of production, but such a replacement did not lead to a deterioration in the characteristics of the gun. The new three-inch carriage was equipped with mechanisms that provided horizontal aiming within 1 ° and vertical from -6.5 ° to + 17 °. The gun itself was equipped with a sight with a longitudinal level, a mechanism for taking into account lateral corrections and a goniometer with two movable diopters. These devices allowed the crews to fire not only direct fire, but also from closed positions, when the enemy did not see the battery.

In the same year, in accordance with the order of the Main Artillery Directorate, the gun was presented for comparative tests along with the same type guns of the Krupp, Saint-Chamond and Schneider systems. All the guns submitted for testing recoil occurred along the axis of the bore, they all had a hydraulic recoil brake, and a spring-type knurler. After test firing and carriage of guns over a distance of 600 miles, the design of the Putilov plant was recognized as the best. In accordance with the Imperial order of January 16, 1901, 12 new guns were manufactured at the Putilov factory, which were handed over to the troops for testing. Based on their results, the plant was asked to make some changes to the carriage design by April 1902.

After repeated military tests, by order of the GAU of March 3, 1903, the gun was put into service under the name 3-inch field gun mod. 1902.

In the same year, an order was issued for the production of 4520 guns. The production of guns was organized at the Putilov, Obukhov and Perm plants. In addition, barrels were made at the St. Petersburg gun factory, the carriages for which were assembled at the St. Petersburg, Kiev and Bryansk arsenals.

In 1906, the cannon was modernized: a shield cover was installed on the three-inch gun, in connection with which two seats for calculation numbers were excluded from the design, in addition, a panoramic sight with an artillery panorama of the Hertz system, which were produced at the Obukhov plant, was installed on the gun.

The whole guns were made by the Putilov, Obukhov and Perm plants. The St. Petersburg Arms Plant made only barrels from the blanks of the Perm and Obukhov plants, the gun carriages for it came from the St. Petersburg, Kyiv and Bryansk arsenals. Since 1916, the Tsaritsyno group of factories has joined in the manufacture of cannons. Note that all factories, except for the Tsaritsyn troupe, were state-owned (the Putilov factory was nationalized during the war).

Before the start of the Great War, 4520 guns were fired

in 1915 - 1368,

in 1916 - 6612

in 1917 - 4289 (out of 8500 ordered)
Total 16,789 guns.
The production program of the tsarist government for 1918 was planned production of 10,000 guns

At the beginning of 1917, the GAU announced a competition for a new carriage forlight field artillery gun that could be towed usingtrucks at a speed of at least 45 km/h. This dramatically increased mobility.Russian field artillery and increased its effectiveness.
In addition, the GAU worked out the issue of the feasibility of modernizing the gun of 1902 in terms oflengthening the barrel by 10-15 calibers, or announce a competition for the development of a new lightweight three-inchfield gun with a barrel length of 45-50 calibers.

On June 15, 1917, there were 8605 serviceable 76-mm field guns in the active army (984 of them were model 1900 and 7621 were model 1902), in addition, there were at least 5000 pieces in warehouses inside Russia. both new and requiring repair 76-mm field guns.

By the end of 1917, the production of guns had practically ceased.

Even the beginning of the Civil War at first did not necessitate the resumption of production - there were enough three-inchers in Russia - both in the Red and White armies. However, soon the pre-revolutionary stock began to dry up, and already in 1919 about 300 field guns were manufactured.

During the First World War, some of the batteries armed with 3-inch field guns were equipped with Ivanov machine tools. Such machines made it possible to fire at air targets - airships and airplanes.

The divisional cannon of the 1902 model was the basis of the artillery of the Russian Empire. the three-inch took part in the fighting during the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China, in the Russo-Japanese and World War I.

In terms of its characteristics, the Russian three-inch gun was superior to the German and French counterparts of the 75 and 77 mm caliber and was highly appreciated by both the Russian military and allies and opponents. Among the Germans and Austrians, our three-inch gun was nicknamed the "scythe of death", since the advancing Austro-German infantry, falling under the deadly fire of the shrapnel of our cannons, was destroyed almost to the last man.

To field and horse guns -- 5 774 780

To mountain guns -- 657 825

Total -- .6432605

The consumption of shells already in the first months of the war significantly exceeded the calculations of the command, and in 1915 there were cases of a shortage of 76-mm shells at the front. Which led to limiting the consumption of shells. However, an increase in the production of ammunition at domestic factories and orders abroad led to the fact that by the end of 1915, the supply of shells began to significantly exceed their consumption. That made it possible to remove the limits on the consumption of shells by the beginning of 1916.

In total in 1914-1917. Russian factories produced about 54 million 76-mm rounds. 56 million 76-mm rounds were ordered abroad, about 37 million arrived in Russia.

In 1915, the length of the 76-mm guns mod. In 1900 and 1902, chemical, smoke, incendiary, lighting and anti-aircraft shells began to arrive. It should be noted that the use of chemical munitions was effective not only against infantry units, but was also used to suppress artillery batteries. So, on a clear, quiet day on August 22, 1916, at a position near the village of Lopushany, not far from Lvov, an Austrian 15-cm howitzer brigade, with the help of a spotter aircraft, opened fire on a battery of 76-mm field guns mod. 1902 Austrian howitzers were hidden from Russian guns by high ridges and were outside the zone of destruction of Russian guns. Then the commander of the Russian battery decided to respond with chemical "suffocating" ones, firing at the areas behind the crest, behind which smoke was found from the shots of the enemy battery about 500 m long, rapid fire, 3 shells per gun, jumps through one division of the sight. After 7 minutes, having fired about 160 chemical shells, the battery commander ceased fire, because the Austrian battery was silent and did not resume fire, despite the fact that the Russian battery continued to fire on the enemy’s trenches and clearly gave itself out by the brilliance of shots.

By the mid-20s, the three-inch design was somewhat outdated. In Poland, where there were a significant number of guns, the three-inch gun was modernized in 1926. The Polish three-inch gun was recalibrated to update worn-out barrels and unify ammunition with the 75 mm Schneider gun mod. 1897. In the Polish army, these guns, designated 75 mm armata polowa wz. 02/26 were in service with horse artillery divisions in cavalry brigades and regimental two-gun batteries of infantry regiments. By 1939, the Polish Army had 466 such guns.

In the Soviet Union, work on the modernization of the 1902 model gun began in 1927 and continued until 1930. The order for the development of a project for the modernization of the gun was issued by the design bureau of factories No. 7 in St. Petersburg, No. 13 (Bryansk) and Motovilikhinsky (Perm). The purpose of the modernization was determined primarily by increasing the maximum firing range and increasing the speed of towing. The project of the Motovilikha plant, developed under the guidance of designer V.N. Sidorenko, despite the high cost compared to others. It was possible to increase the firing range by lengthening the barrel to 40 calibers and increasing the elevation angle. To ensure the movement of the breech of the gun when firing at high elevation angles, the design of the frame was changed - in its middle part there was now a through window. A balancing mechanism was added to the carriage design. New sights of panoramic type with a normalized scale were installed on the gun.

The design of the upgraded carriage made it possible to use both new barrels extended to 40 calibers and barrels 30 calibers long.

The upgraded three-inch gun was put into service under the name 76-mm divisional gun of the 1902/30 model. The production of the three-inch gun continued until 1937 and was discontinued due to the adoption of the 76 mm F-22 divisional gun of the 1936 model.

Tactical and technical characteristics after modernization

Years of release -- 1931-37

Released, pcs. -- 4350

Weight and size characteristics

Caliber, mm -- 76.2

Barrel length, klb - 40

Weight in combat position, kg - 1350

15" gun Mk. I

Classification

Production history

Operation history

Weapon characteristics

Projectile characteristics

381 mm gun Mk I- British 15-inch naval gun, developed in 1912. The Mk.I was the most common and arguably the most effective large caliber gun in the British Navy. It was installed on ships serving from 1915 to 1959 and was the main gun of the Royal Navy during both World Wars.

HMS Warspite shelling the coast of Sicily, 1943

general information

The battle path of 15 "guns began in 1915 during the Dardanelles operation, in which the newly built battleship Queen Elizabeth took part. Then there was the Battle of Jutland, a record hit by the Worspite on the Giulio Cesare from a distance of 24 kilometers in the battle near Calabria , the sinking of three Italian cruisers at Cape Matapan and many other battles.The last shot at the enemy was fired 30 years later, in 1945, when the same Queen Elizabeth fired at Japanese fortifications in the Andaman Islands.

Tool design and production

The design of the gun was developed on the basis of the successful 13.5 "/45 gun (created to arm Orion-type superdreadnoughts). The "dreadnought race" that went before the First World War increased the requirements for the performance characteristics of ships very quickly and the developers of the 15 "gun went for a very risky step, reducing the test program to a minimum before launching into production. The risk was justified: the battleships of the Queen Elizabeth type were in time for the Battle of Jutland, and their immediate opponents, the German battleships of the Baden type, were "late".

The barrel of the gun had a "wire" design, traditional for British guns of the early 20th century: a layer of steel wire was wound between the inner (tube A) and outer (tube B) gun-carrying tubes to increase the tensile strength of the barrel. The gun was equipped with a piston-type breechblock. The barrel length of the gun was 630 inches (16 meters - 42 calibers), the length of the rifled part of the barrel: 516 inches (13.1 m). The barrel resource was approximately 335 shots with an armor-piercing projectile when fully charged. The gun was lined, the worn gun was replaced in the factory inner part pipes a. Interesting fact-- the gun was considered completely "shot" if its caliber at the beginning of barrel cutting increased by 0.74 inches (1.9 cm).

Between 1912 and 1918, 186 15-inch barrels were produced. Production was carried out at several factories at once:

• Elswick Ordnance Company, Elswick, Newcastle: 34;
• Armstrong Whitworth, Openshaw, Manchester: 12;
• William Beardmore & Company, Parkhead, Glasgow: 37;
• Coventry Ordnance Works, Coventry: 19;
• Royal Gun Factory, Woolwich: 33;
• Vickers, Son and Maxim , Sheffield: 49 units

When repairing ships, worn barrels were removed and immediately replaced with new ones stored in arsenals. And the removed guns were sent for repair and then for storage. Therefore, the gun barrel for half a century of service, as a rule, ended up on several ships. For example: as you know, the towers of the last British battleship HMS vanguard were taken from the battlecruisers HMS Courageous and HMS converted into aircraft carriers Glorious, but of the eight main caliber guns, only one began its service on these ships, and then its "previous duty station" was HMS Warspite .

List of ships

The guns were used on several types of British warships up to HMS vanguard, the last British battleship built.

Ships armed with 15" Mark I guns:

• Queen Elizabeth class ships of the line
• Rivenge-class battleships - 5 ships with eight guns each
• Rinaun-class battlecruisers - 2 ships with six guns each
• Battlecruiser HMS Hood- 8 guns
• Glories-class battlecruisers - 2 ships with four guns each
• Erebus type monitors
• Monitors like "Marshal Ney" - 2 ships with two guns each
• Roberts-type monitors - 2 ships with two guns each
• HMS ship of the line vanguard- 8 guns (in turrets intended for battlecruisers Coreyjes and Glories)

The gun was also used in coastal defense.

shells

What, in fact, can be seen from the following tables? The range of shells for the guns was quite wide. At the same time, the mass of projectiles for various purposes was approximately the same, to simplify the operation of aiming systems. If during the First World War the shells were often modified, because they suffered from "childhood diseases" (see the replacement of explosives in armor-piercing shells) on the one hand and were created "for the task" (long high-explosive shells for monitors, shrapnel shells to combat torpedo boats) on the other hand, then the fleet approached the Second War with ammunition of an established design, with which it went through the entire war.

Shells of the First World War

Shells of the interwar period and the period of the Second World War

Armor-piercing projectile APC Mk.XXIIb

Notes.

1. What does "N klb" mean? The British gunners tried to increase the range of the projectile by sharpening its head and thereby improving the flow around it. The parameter "N klb" is the radius of curvature of the head of the projectile in calibers.
2. The Battle of Jutland revealed that English armor-piercing shells do not penetrate armor, as their equipment, lyddite, is prone to rupture "on the armor" from a strong blow. A new explosive, "shellite", was developed, but shells with it appeared in the cellars only by 1918.
3. "Long" 8-caliber high-explosive shells were used only on monitors; on battleships, their dimensions did not match the feeding mechanisms.
4. Elongated 6-caliber shells were developed in 1938 and could initially only be used on battleships that were modernized in the mid-1930s ( Warspite, Renown, Valiant and queen elizabeth). By the middle of the war (1943) feed mechanisms had been adapted to use these shells on all surviving ships with 15" guns.
5. From the previous note, in particular, it follows that HMS Hood never had elongated shells in the ammunition load.

Ammunition

About 100 shells per barrel were placed in the cellars of battleships. Battlecruisers of the Koreydzhes type were designed with 80 shells per barrel, but after the battle at the Falklands it turned out that the consumption of shells was much higher than planned and the capacity of the cellars of the "white elephants" was increased to 120 shells.

The ammunition load of the ships varied greatly depending on the current combat mission. Battleships entered service with only armor-piercing shells. By the end of the First World War, for example, "Rinaun" carried 72 APCs, 24 CPCs (for "insurance" APCs that did not penetrate armor) and 24 HEs (for shooting along the coast). During the Second World War, the "standard" ammunition load consisted mainly of armor-piercing shells (in the cellars there were 5 high-explosive shells per barrel), for the tasks of shelling the coast, armor-piercing shells were unloaded and received high-explosives. According to the project, the Vanguard carried 95 armor-piercing, 5 high-explosives and 9 practical shells, but after the battleship was in the role of the "royal yacht" in 1947, it passed most of its further service with empty cellars.

The ammunition load of monitors in the First World War consisted mainly of high-explosive shells and "several" semi-armor-piercing ones. In World War II, they carried 25% of armor-piercing and 75% of land mines.

Charges

The standard charge was (approximately) 200 kg of cordite. Each charge consisted of four "quarter-charges" equal mass, and it was allowed to fire with a reduced (3/4) charge to increase the steepness of the trajectory or simply to reduce gun wear.

Between the wars, a "reinforced" 222 kg charge was developed to increase the firing range of the guns. This charge, as expected, sharply increased barrel wear and was used only on ships that did not have increased gun elevation angles.

Armor penetration table

The frontal sheet of the turret of the battleship "Baden", pierced by a 15 "shell during a test shelling, 1921

There are many variants of armor penetration tables according to different data and for different projectiles. This table was compiled by the British Admiralty in 1935 according to calculated data, without full-scale tests. The figures are given for the vertical side (and obviously the deck)

1) This distance is outside the range of the guns mounted on the ships.

Tower installations

Making a tower for the HMS monitor Abercrombie

Note. 1) It is indicated that on battleship HMS Ramillies(1916) two of the four towers were of the Mk.I * type, and on the battlecruiser HMS Renown(1916) two of the three turrets were Mk.I. The Mk.I turrets originally ordered for the Ramillis were installed on HMS monitors that were being urgently built. Marshall Ney(1915) and HMS Marshall Soult(1915). The reasons for the appearance of Mk.I towers on the Rinaun are still unclear.

Differences in plant types

Mark I* different from Mark I the presence in the reloading compartment of the so-called. "Kenyon doors" - a rotating partition that separated the under-tower space from the cellars and prevented the fire from breaking through down in case of a fire in the tower.

Installation Mark II for the cruiser "Hood" was significantly redesigned. The main external difference is the increased height of the tower, which made it possible to increase the elevation angles of the guns.

Indices Mark I/N and Mark I*/N received towers that were modernized during the overhaul of four ships in the mid-1930s. The guns received increased elevation angles due to the expansion of gun ports and changes in lifting mechanisms. The embrasures of the sights were also moved from the roof to the front sheet, and thus the problem with firing one tower over another was solved (see "horizontal aiming angles" below).

Tower Mark I/N RP 12 was created on the basis of the Mark I * turret and absorbed all the experience of finalizing the turrets of 15 "guns over a third of a century. Enlarged gun embrasures received armor caps on top, a remote control system for turning the turrets was introduced, etc. (see the description of the HMS ship vanguard).

Monitor towers are beyond the scope of this article.

Tactical and technical characteristics

Model of the gun turret of the battleship Queen Elizabeth

• elevation/declination angles: see table above;
• elevation speed: 5 degrees / sec;
• traverse angles: -150 / +150 degrees 1) ;
• horizontal aiming speed: 2 degrees / sec;
• loading angles: from -5 to +20 degrees 2) ;
• rate of fire: 2 rounds per minute 3) .

Notes.

1. On the Mk.I turrets, the embrasures of the sights were placed very poorly, in front of the turret roof. Therefore, on ships that had a linearly elevated arrangement of towers (that is, on almost all ships), the upper towers could not fire on top of the lower ones, in a sector from -30 to +30 degrees from the diametrical plane. This shortcoming was eliminated only on the Mark I / N, Mark I * / N, Mark II and Mark I / N RP 12 installations - that is, on only six ships from all that used 15 "guns.
2. Formally, the mechanisms made it possible to load the gun up to an elevation angle of +20 degrees. In practice, due to the insufficient power of the hydraulic drive of the rammer, there was a risk of "not biting" the leading belt of the projectile at the beginning of the rifling and ... falling back. Therefore, they preferred to lower the barrels for loading to an angle of +5 degrees.
3. The rate of fire "2 rounds per minute" was achieved once on one ship. The standard for the fleet was one shot in 36 seconds.

The armor protection of the turrets varied considerably from ship to ship. Therefore, for information on armoring turret mounts and turret barbettes, the reader should refer to the descriptions of individual ships.

Notes

Links

• NavWeaps.com - Britain 15"/42 (38.1 cm) Mark I
• https://sergey-ilyin.livejournal.com/158698.html - "British 15" towers, determinant".
• https://sergey-ilyin.livejournal.com/164551.html - "Migrations of British 15" towers".