The use of gunpowder in cannon artillery. Artillery Capping for gunpowder from an artillery shell

What makes a heavy artillery shell fly out of the barrel at great speed and fall far from the gun, tens of kilometers away?

What force throws the projectile out of the gun?

In ancient times, the elasticity of tightly twisted ropes made from ox guts or sinews was used to throw stone projectiles from a catapult.

The elasticity of wood or metal was used to throw arrows from bows.

The principle of operation of the catapult and bow is quite clear.

What is the principle of the design and operation of a firearm?

A modern firearm is a complex fighting machine that consists of many different parts and mechanisms. Depending on their purpose, artillery pieces are very diverse in appearance. However, the main parts and mechanisms of all weapons differ little from each other in terms of design and operation.

Let's get acquainted with the general structure of the weapon (Fig. 31).

The gun consists of a barrel with a bolt and a carriage. These are the main parts of any weapon.

The barrel serves to direct the movement of the projectile. In addition, a rotational movement is imparted to the projectile in the rifled barrel.

The bolt closes the bore. It opens easily and simply to load the gun and ejects the cartridge case. When loading, the bolt also closes easily and is firmly connected to the barrel. After closing the shutter, a shot is fired using a percussion mechanism.

The carriage is intended for attaching the barrel, to give it the position necessary for firing, and in field guns the carriage, in addition, serves as a vehicle for the gun in marching motion. (68)

The carriage consists of many parts and mechanisms. The base of the carriage is the lower machine with frames and running gear (Fig. 32).

When firing from a gun, the frames are moved apart and secured in the extended position, and moved for marching movement. By spreading the frames when firing the gun, good lateral stability and large horizontal fire are ensured. There are coulters at the ends of the beds. They secure the gun to the ground from longitudinal movement when fired.

The chassis consists of wheels and a suspension mechanism, which elastically connects the wheels to the lower machine during travel (with the beds folded together). During shooting, the suspension must be turned off; this is done automatically when the beds are opened.

The lower machine of the carriage houses the rotating part of the gun, which consists of the upper machine, aiming mechanisms (rotary and lifting), a balancing mechanism, sighting devices, a cradle and recoil devices. (69)

The upper machine (see Fig. 32) is the base of the rotating part of the tool. A cradle with a barrel and recoil devices, or a swinging part of the gun, is attached to it using trunnions.

The rotation of the upper machine on the lower one is carried out by a rotating mechanism, which ensures a large horizontal fire of the gun. The rotation of the cradle with the barrel on the upper machine is carried out using a lifting mechanism, which gives the barrel the required elevation angle. This is how the gun is aimed in the horizontal and vertical directions.

The balancing mechanism is designed to balance the swinging part and to facilitate manual operation of the lifting mechanism.

Using sighting devices, the gun is aimed at the target. The required horizontal and vertical angles are set on the sighting devices, which are then given to the barrel using aiming mechanisms.

Recoil devices reduce the effect of a shot on a gun and ensure the immobility and stability of the gun during firing. They consist of a rollback brake and a knurler. The recoil brake absorbs recoil energy when fired, and the knurl returns the rolled barrel to its original position and holds it in this position at all elevation angles. To reduce the effect of recoil on the gun, a muzzle brake is also used.

The shield cover protects the gun crew, that is, the artillerymen who perform combat work at the gun, from bullets and fragments of enemy shells.

This is a general, very brief description of a modern weapon. The structure and operation of individual parts and mechanisms of the weapon will be discussed in more detail in subsequent chapters.

In a modern artillery gun, powder gases, the energy of which has a special property, are used to eject shells from the barrel.

When operating the catapult, the people serving it tightly twisted ropes made of ox guts so that they would then throw the stone with great force. A lot of time and energy had to be spent on this. When shooting a bow, you had to pull the string with force.

A modern artillery gun requires us to expend relatively little effort before firing. The work done in a gun when fired is produced by the energy hidden in the gunpowder.

Before firing, a shell and a charge of gunpowder are inserted into the gun barrel. When fired, the powder charge burns and turns into gases, which at the moment of their formation have very high elasticity. These gases begin to press with enormous force in all directions (Fig. 33), and consequently, to the bottom of the projectile. (70)

Powder gases can escape from a confined space only towards the projectile, since under the influence of the gases the projectile begins to quickly move along the barrel bore and flies out of it at a very high speed.

This is the peculiarity of the energy of powder gases - it is hidden in gunpowder until we light it and until it turns into gases; then the energy of the gunpowder is released and produces the work we need.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO REPLACE GUNDOWDER WITH GASOLINE?

It's not just gunpowder that has latent energy; firewood, coal, kerosene, and gasoline also have energy that is released during their combustion and can be used to produce work.

So why not use another fuel, such as gasoline, for the shot instead of gunpowder? When burned, gasoline also turns into gases. Why not place a tank of gasoline above the gun and feed it through a tube into the barrel? Then, when loading, you will only need to insert the projectile, and the “charge” itself will flow into the barrel - you just have to open the tap!

It would be very convenient. And the quality of gasoline as a fuel is, perhaps, higher than the quality of gunpowder: if you burn 1 kilogram of gasoline, 10,000 large calories of heat are released, and 1 kilogram of smokeless gunpowder produces approximately 800 calories when burned, that is, 12 times less than gasoline. This means that a kilogram of gasoline provides as much heat as is needed to heat 10,000 liters of water by one degree, and a kilogram of gunpowder can heat only 800 liters of water by one degree.

Why don't they "shoot" gasoline?

To answer this question, we need to find out how gasoline burns and how gunpowder burns. (71)

In the open air, both gasoline and smokeless powder burn not very slowly, but also not very quickly. They burn but don't explode. There is not much difference between gasoline and gunpowder.

But gasoline and gunpowder behave completely differently if they are placed in a closed space, closed on all sides, deprived of air flow, for example, behind a projectile in a gun barrel tightly closed by a bolt. In this case, gasoline will not burn: its combustion requires an influx of air, an influx of oxygen.

Gunpowder in a closed space will burn very quickly: it will explode and turn into gases.

The combustion of gunpowder in a closed space is a very complex, peculiar phenomenon, not at all similar to ordinary combustion. This phenomenon is called explosive decomposition, explosive transformation or simply explosion, only conditionally retaining the more familiar name “combustion”.

Why does gunpowder burn and even explode without air?

Because the gunpowder itself contains oxygen, due to which combustion occurs.

In a confined space, gunpowder burns extremely quickly, a lot of gases are released, and their temperature is very high. This is the essence of an explosion; This is the difference between an explosion and ordinary combustion.

So, in order to get an explosion of smokeless powder, you must ignite it in a confined space. The flame will then spread very quickly, almost instantly, over the entire surface of the gunpowder, and it will ignite. The gunpowder will quickly burn and turn into gases.

This is how the explosion proceeds. It is possible only in the presence of oxygen in the explosive itself.

This is precisely the peculiarity of gunpowder and almost all other explosives: they themselves contain oxygen, and when burning they do not need an influx of oxygen from the outside.

Let's take, for example, gunpowder, which has been used in warfare since ancient times: black powder. It contains coal, saltpeter and sulfur mixed. The fuel here is coal. Nitrate contains oxygen. And sulfur was introduced so that the gunpowder would ignite more easily; In addition, sulfur serves as a bonding agent; it connects coal with saltpeter. During an explosion, not all of this powder turns into gases. A significant part of the burnt gunpowder in the form of tiny solid parts is deposited on the walls of the barrel bore (carbon deposits) and is emitted into the air in the form of smoke. That's why this kind of gunpowder is called smoky.

Modern guns usually use smokeless, pyroxylin or nitroglycerin gunpowder.

Smokeless powder, like smoky powder, contains oxygen. During an explosion, this oxygen is released, and due to it, the combustion of gunpowder occurs. When burned, smokeless powder turns into gases and does not produce smoke. (72)

So, gunpowder cannot be replaced with gasoline: gunpowder contains everything that is needed for its combustion, but gasoline does not contain oxygen. Therefore, when it is necessary to achieve rapid combustion of gasoline in a closed space, for example in the cylinder of a car engine, it is necessary to arrange special complex devices to pre-mix gasoline with air - to prepare a combustible mixture.

Let's do a simple calculation.

We have already said that 1 kilogram of gasoline, when burned, produces 10,000 large calories of heat. But it turns out that for every kilogram of gasoline to burn, you need to add 15.5 kilograms of air to it. This means that 10,000 calories come not from 1 kilogram of gasoline, but from 16.5 kilograms of combustible mixture. One kilogram of it releases only about 610 calories when burned. This is less than 1 kilogram of gunpowder.

As you can see, the mixture of gasoline and air is inferior to gunpowder in caloric content.

However, this is not the main thing. The main thing is that when gunpowder explodes, a lot of gases are formed. The volume of gases formed during the combustion of one liter of a mixture of gasoline with air, as well as one liter of smoke and one liter of smokeless pyroxylin powder, is shown in Fig. 34.

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This is the volume that gases would occupy when cooled to zero degrees C at a pressure of one atmosphere, that is, at normal pressure. And the volume of powder gases at the explosion temperature (again, at a pressure of one atmosphere) will be many times greater.

From Fig. 34 it can be seen that pyroxylin powder emits gases more than 4 times more than black powder with equal amounts by weight. Therefore, pyroxylin powder is stronger than black powder.

But this does not exhaust the advantages of gunpowder over conventional fuel, such as gasoline. The rate of conversion of gunpowder into gases is of enormous importance.

The explosive transformation of a powder charge during a shot lasts only a few thousandths of a second. The gasoline mixture in the engine cylinder burns 10 times slower.

The powder charge of a 76mm gun is completely converted to gases in less than 6 thousandths (0.006) of a second.

Such a short period of time is even difficult to imagine. After all, a “blink” - the blinking of a human eyelid - lasts about a third of a second. The powder charge explodes 50 times faster.

The explosion of a smokeless powder charge creates enormous pressure in the gun barrel: up to 3000–3500 atmospheres, that is, 3000–3500 kilograms per square centimeter.

With high pressure of powder gases and a very short time of explosive transformation, the enormous power that the firing weapon possesses is created. None of the other fuels can create such power under the same conditions.

EXPLOSION AND DETONATION

In the open air, smokeless powder burns quietly and does not explode. Therefore, when burning a tube of smokeless powder (Fig. 35)

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In the open air, you can use a clock to track the time of its burning: meanwhile, even the most accurate stopwatch cannot measure the time of explosive transformation of the same gunpowder in a gun. How can we explain this?

It turns out that it all depends on the conditions under which gases are formed.

When gunpowder burns in the open air, the resulting gases quickly dissipate: nothing holds them back. The pressure around the burning powder almost does not increase, and the burning rate is relatively low.

In a confined space, the gases formed have no outlet. They fill all the space. Their blood pressure rises quickly. Under the influence of this pressure, the explosive transformation occurs very energetically, that is, all the gunpowder turns into gases with extreme speed. The result is no longer ordinary combustion, but an explosion (see Fig. 35).

The greater the pressure around the burning gunpowder, the greater the speed of the explosion. By increasing this pressure, we can achieve a very high explosion speed. Such an explosion, occurring at a tremendous speed, tens and even hundreds of times greater than the speed of a conventional explosion, is called detonation. With such an explosion, ignition and explosive transformation seem to merge, occurring almost simultaneously, within a few hundred thousandths of a second.

The speed of the explosion depends not only on pressure. You can sometimes get detonation without applying much pressure.

What is better for shooting - an ordinary explosion or detonation?

The speed of detonation is much greater than the speed of an ordinary explosion. Perhaps the work done by gases during detonation will be greater?

Let's try to replace the explosion with detonation: for this, let's create a higher pressure in the barrel than what is usually obtained when the gunpowder is ignited.

To do this, fill the entire space in the barrel behind the projectile with gunpowder to capacity. Now let's ignite the gunpowder.

What will happen?

The very first portions of gas, having no outlet, create very high pressure in the barrel. Under the influence of such pressure, all the gunpowder will immediately turn into gases, this will increase the pressure many times more. All this will happen in a period of time immeasurably shorter than during an ordinary explosion. It will no longer be measured in thousandths, but in ten-thousandths and even hundred-thousandths of a second!

But what happened to the weapon?

Look at fig. 36.

The barrel couldn't stand it! (75)

The projectile had not yet even started moving when the enormous pressure of the gases already tore the barrel into pieces.

This means that the excessive speed of the explosion is not suitable for shooting. You cannot fill the entire space behind the projectile with gunpowder and thus create excessive pressure. In this case, the weapon may explode.

Therefore, when composing a charge of gunpowder, one never forgets about the space in which the gunpowder will be exploded, that is, about the volume of the so-called charging chamber of the gun. The ratio of the weight of the charge in kilograms to the volume of the charging chamber in liters is called the loading density (Fig. 37). If the charging density exceeds a known limit, there is a danger of detonation. Typically, the loading density in guns does not exceed 0.5–0.7 kilograms of gunpowder per 1 liter of charging chamber volume.

There are, however, substances that are manufactured specifically to produce detonation. These are high explosives or crushing explosives, such as pyroxylin and TNT. In contrast, gunpowder is called propellant explosives.

High explosives have interesting properties. For example, one of the destructive blasting substances - pyroxylin - was used about 100 years ago without any fear for the most peaceful purposes: for lighting candles in chandeliers. The pyroxylin cord was set on fire, and it burned completely calmly, slightly smoking, without an explosion, lighting one candle after another. The same pyroxylin, if dried and enclosed in a shell, explodes from impact or friction. And if there is an explosion of fulminate of mercury nearby, the dry pyroxylin will detonate.

Wet pyroxylin burns calmly when touched by a flame, but unlike dry pyroxylin it does not explode upon impact and does not detonate during an explosion of fulminate of mercury that occurs next door. (76)

Why does pyroxylin behave differently under different circumstances: sometimes it burns, sometimes it explodes, and sometimes it detonates?

The strength of the chemical connection of molecules, the chemical and physical nature of the substance and the ability of the substance play a role here. to explosive transformation.

Other high explosives also behave differently. For some blasting substances, the touch of a flame is enough for an explosive transformation; for others, the explosive transformation occurs from an impact; for others, it occurs only with a strong shaking of the molecules caused by the explosion of another explosive. The shock from the explosion spreads quite far, tens of meters. Therefore, many high explosives can detonate even when the explosion of the same or another high explosive occurs quite far from them.

During detonation, all high explosives are almost instantly converted into gases. In this case, the gases do not have time to spread in the air as they form. They strive to expand with tremendous speed and force and destroy everything in their path.

The closer to the explosive there is an obstacle that prevents the spread of gases, the stronger the impact of the gases on this obstacle. That is why a blasting substance, exploding in a vessel closed with a lid, crushes the vessel into small parts, and the lid of the vessel flies off to the side, but usually remains intact (Fig. 38).

Is it possible to use high explosives to load a gun?

Of course not. We already know that when gunpowder detonates, the gun barrel ruptures. The same thing would happen if we put a charge of high explosive into the weapon.

Therefore, high explosives serve mainly to fill the chambers of artillery shells. Blasting substances that are slightly sensitive to impact, such as TNT, are placed inside projectiles and are forced to detonate when the projectile meets the target. (77)

Some explosives are extremely sensitive: mercury fulminate, for example, explodes from a slight puncture or even from a shock.

The sensitivity of such explosives is used to ignite the powder charge and to detonate high explosives. These substances are called initiators. In addition to mercury fulminate, initiating substances include lead azide, lead trinitroresorcinate (TNRS) and others.

To ignite a powder charge, small portions of mercury fulminate are most often used.

However, mercury fulminate cannot be used in its pure form - it is too sensitive; mercury fulminate can explode and ignite a charge of gunpowder when it is not yet needed - from an accidental light impact during loading or even from shock while transporting charges. In addition, the flame from pure mercury fulminate does not ignite gunpowder well.

To use mercury fulminate, you need to reduce its sensitivity and increase its flammability. To do this, mercury fulminate is mixed with other substances: shellac, berthollet salt, antimonium. The resulting mixture ignites only with a strong blow or injection and is called an impact composition. The copper cup with the percussion compound placed in it is called a capsule.

When struck or punctured, the primer produces a very high-temperature flame that ignites the powder charge.

As we see, in artillery both initiating and propelling and high explosives are used, but only for different purposes. Initiating explosives are used to make primers, gunpowder is used to eject a projectile from a barrel, and high explosives are used to load most projectiles.

WHAT IS THE ENERGY OF POWDER?

When fired, part of the energy contained in the gunpowder charge is converted into the energy of projectile motion.

While the charge is not yet ignited, it has potential or latent energy. It can be compared to the energy of water standing at a high level at the sluices of a mill when they are closed. The water is calm, the wheels are motionless (Fig. 39).

But. So we ignited the charge. An explosive transformation occurs - energy is released. Gunpowder turns into highly heated gases. Thus, the chemical energy of gunpowder is converted into mechanical energy, that is, into the energy of movement of gas particles. This movement of particles creates the pressure of the powder gases, which, in turn, causes the movement of the projectile: the energy of the gunpowder turned into the energy of projectile movement. (78)

It's like we opened the floodgates. A stormy stream of water rushed from a height and quickly spun the blades of the water wheel (see Fig. 39).

How much energy is contained in a charge of gunpowder, for example in a full charge of a 76 mm gun?

It's easy to calculate. A full charge of pyroxylin powder for a 76-mm gun weighs 1.08 kilograms. Each kilogram of such gunpowder releases 765 large calories of heat during combustion. Each large calorie, as we know, corresponds to 427 kilograms of mechanical energy.

Thus, the energy contained in a full charge of a 76 mm gun is equal to: 1.08 × 765 × 427 = 352,000 kilograms.

What is a kilogram meter? This is the work that must be expended in order to lift one kilogram to a height of one meter (Fig. 40).

However, not all the energy of gunpowder is spent on pushing the projectile out of the gun, that is, on useful work. Most of the energy of the gunpowder is wasted: about 40% of the energy is not used at all, since some of the gases are uselessly ejected from the barrel after the ejected projectile, about 22% (79) is spent on heating the barrel, about 5% is spent on recoil and gas movement.

If we take into account all the losses, it turns out that only one third, or 33%, of the charge energy goes to useful work.

This is not so little. A gun as a machine has a fairly high efficiency. In the most advanced internal combustion engines, no more than 40% of all thermal energy is spent on useful work, and in steam engines, for example, in steam locomotives, no more than 20%.

So, 33% of 352,000 kilograms are spent on useful work in a 76-mm cannon, that is, about 117,000 kilograms.

And all this energy is released in just 6 thousandths of a second!

A simple calculation shows that the power of the gun is more than 260,000 horsepower. And what “horsepower” is can be seen from Fig. 41.

If people could do such work in such a short time, approximately half a million people would be required. This is the power of a shot from even a small cannon!

IS IT STILL POSSIBLE TO REPLACE GUNDPOWDER WITH SOMETHING?

The use of gunpowder as a source of enormous energy is associated with significant inconveniences.

For example, due to the very high pressure of powder gases, gun barrels have to be made very strong and heavy, and because of this, the mobility of the gun suffers.

In addition, when gunpowder explodes, an extremely high temperature develops (Fig. 42) - up to 3000 degrees. This is 4 times higher than the flame temperature of a gas burner!

1400 degrees of heat is enough to melt steel. The explosion temperature is thus more than twice the melting point of steel.

The gun barrel does not melt only because the high temperature of the explosion lasts for a negligibly short time and the barrel does not have time to heat up to the melting temperature of the steel. (80)

But still, the barrel gets very hot, and this is also facilitated by the friction of the projectile. When shooting for a long time, it is necessary to increase the time intervals between shots so that the barrel does not overheat. Some fast-firing small-caliber guns have special cooling systems.

All this, of course, creates inconvenience when shooting. In addition, high pressure, high temperature, as well as the chemical action of gases do not remain unnoticed by the barrel: its metal is gradually destroyed.

Finally, the inconvenience caused by the use of gunpowder also includes the fact that the shot is accompanied by a loud sound. Sound often reveals a hidden weapon and unmasks it.

As you can see, the use of gunpowder is associated with great inconvenience.

That is why they have long been trying to replace gunpowder with another source of energy.

Indeed, isn’t it strange that gunpowder still, like several centuries ago, reigns supreme in artillery? After all, over these centuries, technology has made great strides forward: from muscular strength they moved to the power of wind and water; then the steam engine was invented - the age of steam came; Then they began to use liquid fuels - oil, gasoline.

And finally, electricity penetrated into all areas of life.

Now we have access to such energy sources that six centuries ago, during the advent of gunpowder, people had no idea about.

Well, what about gunpowder? Can't it really be replaced with something more perfect?

Let's not talk about replacing gunpowder with other fuels. We have already seen the failure of this attempt using the example of gasoline. (81)

But why not, for example, use the energy of compressed air for shooting?

Attempts to introduce air guns and cannons into use have been made for a long time. But pneumatic weapons still did not become widespread. And it's clear why.

After all, in order to obtain the energy necessary for a shot, you must first expend much more energy to compress the air, since during a shot a significant part of the energy will inevitably be lost. While loading an air gun requires the energy of one person, loading an air gun requires the efforts of a large number of people or a special engine.

It is, however, possible to create a pneumatic gun with compressed air charges prepared in advance at factories. Then, when firing, it would be enough to put such a charge into the barrel and open its “lid” or “tap”.

There have been attempts to create such a weapon. However, they also turned out to be unsuccessful: firstly, difficulties arose in storing highly compressed air in a vessel; secondly, as calculations showed, such a pneumatic gun could throw a projectile at a lower speed than a firearm of the same weight.

Air guns cannot compete with firearms. Pneumatic guns, however, exist, but not as military weapons, but only for training shooting at a dozen or two meters.

The situation is even worse when using steam. Steam installations must be too complex and cumbersome to obtain the required pressure.

More than once attempts have been made to use a centrifugal throwing machine to throw projectiles.

Why not mount the projectile on a rapidly rotating disk? As the disk rotates, the projectile will tend to break away from it. If at a certain moment the projectile is released, it will fly, and its speed will be greater the faster the disk rotates. At first glance, the idea is very tempting. But only at first glance.

Accurate calculations show that such a throwing machine would be very large and cumbersome. It would require a powerful engine. And, most importantly, such a centrifugal machine could not “shoot” accurately: the slightest error in determining the moment of separation of the projectile from the disk would cause a sharp change in the direction of the projectile’s flight. And it is extremely difficult to release the projectile at exactly the right moment with the disk rotating quickly. Therefore, a centrifugal throwing machine cannot be used.

There remains one more type of energy - electricity. There are probably huge opportunities lurking here!

And so, two decades ago, an electric gun was built. True, not a combat sample, but a model. This model of electric (82) gun threw a projectile weighing 50 grams at a speed of 200 meters per second. No pressure, normal temperature, almost no sound. There are many advantages. Why not build a real military weapon based on the model?

It turns out it's not that simple.

The barrel of the electric gun must consist of conductor windings in the form of coils. When current flows through the windings, the steel projectile will be drawn successively into these coils by magnetic forces generated around the conductor. Thus, the projectile will receive the necessary acceleration and, after turning off the current from the windings, will fly out of the barrel by inertia.

An electric gun must receive energy to throw a projectile from the outside, from a source of electric current, in other words, from a machine. What should the power of a machine be to fire, for example, a 76 mm electric gun?

Let us remember that to throw a projectile from a 76-mm cannon, a huge energy of 117,000 kilograms is expended in six thousandths of a second, which is a power of 260,000 horsepower. The same power, of course, is required to fire a Tbg-millimeter electric cannon, throwing the same projectile over the same distance.

But energy losses are inevitable in a car. These losses can amount to at least 50% of the machine's power. This means that the machine with our electric gun must have a power of at least 500,000 horsepower. This is the power of a huge power plant.

You see that even a small electric weapon must be supplied with energy by a huge electrical station.

But not only is it necessary to impart the energy necessary for the movement of a projectile in an insignificant period of time, a current of enormous strength is needed; To do this, the power plant must have special equipment. The equipment used now will not withstand the “shock” that will follow during a “short circuit” of a very strong current.

If you increase the time the current affects the projectile, that is, reduce the power of the shot, then you will need to lengthen the barrel.

It is not at all necessary that the shot “last”, for example, one hundredth of a second. We could extend the firing time to one second, that is, increase it 100 times. But then the barrel would have to be lengthened by about the same amount. Otherwise, it will be impossible to impart the required speed to the projectile.

To throw a 76-mm projectile over a dozen kilometers with a shot lasting a full second, the barrel of the electric gun would have to be about 200 meters long. With such a barrel length, the power of the “throwing” power plant can be reduced by 100 times, that is, made equal to 5000 horsepower. But even this (83) power is quite large, and the gun is extremely long and cumbersome.

In Fig. 43 shows one of the electric gun projects. From the figure it is clear that one cannot even think about the movement of such a weapon with troops across the battlefield; it can only travel by rail.

However, the electric gun still has many advantages. First of all, there is not much pressure. This means that the shell can be made with thin walls and contain much more explosive than in a conventional cannon shell.

In addition, as calculations show, from an electric gun, with a very long barrel, it will be possible to shoot not tens, but hundreds of kilometers. This is beyond the capabilities of modern weapons.

Therefore, the use of electricity for ultra-long-range shooting in the future is very likely.

But this is a matter for the future. Now, in our time, gunpowder is indispensable in artillery; we, of course, need to continue to improve gunpowder and learn to use it in the best possible way. Our scientists have been and are doing this.

A FEW PAGES FROM THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN GUNDOWPOWDER

In the old days, only black powder was known. This type of gunpowder was used in all armies until the second half of the 19th century, before the introduction of smokeless gunpowder. (84)

The methods for making black gunpowder have changed very little over the course of several centuries. Russian gunpowder masters already in the 15th–16th centuries knew very well the properties of the various components of gunpowder, so the gunpowder they produced had good qualities.

Until the 17th century, gunpowder was produced primarily by private individuals. Before the campaigns, these individuals were told how much “potion” the boyar, merchant or priest’s court should supply to the treasury. “And whoever makes an excuse that he can’t get the potion, send pearl saltpeter masters to them.”

Only in the 17th century did the production of gunpowder begin to be concentrated in the hands of the so-called gunpowder persuaders, that is, entrepreneurs who produced gunpowder under contracts with the state.

In the second decade of the 18th century, Russian craftsmen, and above all the outstanding master Ivan Leontyev, eagerly set to work to improve gunpowder production in the country. They found that gunpowder becomes loose and, therefore, loses the ability to impart the required speed to the projectile as a result of the fact that the powder mixture is pressed under relatively low pressure; Therefore, they decided to compact the powder mixture with millstones, using them as rollers.

This idea was not new. Back in the middle of the 17th century in Russia, stone millstones were used in powder mills. Receipts for payment of money for millstones for making the “potion” have still been preserved.

However, later millstones were no longer used, probably because when struck and pushed, the stone millstones produced a spark that ignited the powder mixture.

Ivan Leontiev and his students restored the old Russian method of manufacturing gunpowder using millstones and improved it - millstones began to be made of copper, the shape of the millstones was improved, automatic wetting of the mixture was introduced, etc. All these improvements in the production of gunpowder contributed to the advancement of Russian artillery to one of the first places in Europe.

Gunpowder for the Russian army was produced by the Okhtensky powder factory in St. Petersburg, founded by Peter I in 1715 and currently existing. For several decades, about 30–35 thousand pounds of gunpowder were produced in Russia per year. But at the end of the 18th century, Russia had to fight two wars almost simultaneously: with Turkey (in 1787–1791) and with Sweden (in 1788–1790). The army and navy required significantly more gunpowder, and in 1789 the gunpowder factories were given a huge order for that time: to produce 150 thousand pounds of gunpowder. Due to an increase in gunpowder production by 4–5 times, it was necessary to expand existing factories and build new ones; In addition, significant improvements were introduced in the production of gunpowder. (85)

Nevertheless, work in gunpowder factories remained very dangerous and difficult. Constant inhalation of gunpowder dust caused pulmonary diseases, and consumption shortened the lives of powder workers. In the saltpeter varnishes, where the work was especially difficult, work teams changed weekly.

Unbearable working conditions forced workers to flee the gunpowder factories, although they were threatened with severe punishment for this.

An important step forward in the manufacture of black powder was the appearance of brown or chocolate prismatic powder. We already know from the first chapter what role this gunpowder played in military affairs.

In the 19th century, due to great achievements in the field of chemistry, new explosives were discovered, including new, smokeless gunpowder. Much credit for this belongs to Russian scientists.

Smokeless powder, as we already know, turned out to be much stronger than the old black powder. However, for a long time there was a debate about which of these gunpowders was better.

Meanwhile, the introduction of smokeless gunpowder in all armies proceeded as usual. The issue was resolved in favor of smokeless powder.

Smokeless powder is prepared mainly from pyroxylin or nitroglycerin.

Pyroxylin, or nitrocellulose, is obtained by treating fiber with a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids; Chemists call this treatment nitration. Cotton wool or textile waste, flax tow, and wood cellulose are used as fiber.

Pyroxylin in appearance is almost no different from the original substance (cotton wool, flax waste, etc.); it is insoluble in water, but dissolves in a mixture of alcohol and ether.

The honor of discovering pyroxylin belongs to the remarkable Russian powder master, a graduate of the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy, Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeev.

Before the discovery of pyroxylin, A. A. Fadeev found a wonderful way to safely store black powder in warehouses; he showed that if you mix black powder with coal and graphite, then when ignited in air, the gunpowder does not “explode, but only burns slowly. To prove the validity of his statement, A. A. Fadeev set fire to a barrel of such gunpowder. During this experience, he himself stood only three steps from the burning barrel. There was no explosion of gunpowder.

A description of the method of storing gunpowder proposed by A. A. Fadeev was published by the French Academy of Sciences, since this method was superior to all existing foreign methods.

Regarding the use of pyroxylin for the production of smokeless gunpowder, in the German newspaper Allgemeine Preussische Zeitung in 1846 it was published that in St. Petersburg Colonel Fadeev was already preparing “cotton gunpowder” and hoped to replace cotton wool with a cheaper material. (Biography of A. A. Fadeev. Magazine “Scout” No. 81, December 1891.) (86)

However, the tsarist government did not attach due importance to the invention of pyroxylin, and its production in Russia was established much later.

The famous Russian chemist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834–1907), having taken up the gunpowder business, decided to simplify and reduce the cost of making pyroxylin gunpowder. The solution to this problem was made easier after D.I. Mendeleev invented pyrocollodium, from which gunpowder could be obtained much more easily.

Pyrocollodium powder had excellent properties, but became widespread not in Russia, but in the USA. The “enterprising” ancestors of modern American imperialists stole the secret of making pyrocollodium gunpowder from the Russians, established the production of this gunpowder, and during the First World War supplied it to the warring countries in huge quantities, while receiving large profits.

In the production of pyroxylin powder, removing water from pyroxylin is very important. Back in 1890, D.I. Mendeleev proposed washing the pyroxylin mass with alcohol for this purpose, but this proposal was not accepted.

In 1892, an explosion of insufficiently dehydrated pyroxylin mass occurred at one of the gunpowder factories. After some time, a talented inventor, a nugget, chief fireworker Zakharov, who knew nothing about D.I. Mendeleev’s proposal, put forward the same project for dehydrating pyroxylin with alcohol; This time the proposal was accepted.

Nitroglycerin plays an equally important role in the production of smokeless powders.

Nitroglycerin is obtained by nitration of glycerol; In its pure form, nitroglycerin is a colorless transparent liquid resembling glycerin. Pure nitroglycerin can be stored for a very long time, but if water or acids are mixed with it, it begins to decompose, which ultimately leads to an explosion.

Back in 1852, the Russian scientist Vasily Fomich Petrushevsky, with the assistance of the famous Russian chemist N.N. Zimin, was engaged in experiments on the use of nitroglycerin as an explosive.

V. F. Petrushevsky was the first to develop a method for manufacturing nitroglycerin in significant quantities (before him, only laboratory doses were prepared).

The use of nitroglycerin in liquid form is associated with significant dangers, and great care must be taken when manufacturing this substance, which is extremely sensitive to shock, friction, etc.

V. F. Petrushevsky was the first to use nitroglycerin to produce dynamite and used this explosive in explosive shells and underwater mines. (87)

V.F. Petrushevsky's dynamite contained 75% nitroglycerin and 25% burnt magnesia, which was impregnated with nitroglycerin, that is, it served, as they say, as an absorber.

In a small reference on the history of the development of Russian gunpowder, it is not possible to even mention the names of all the wonderful Russian gunpowder scientists, through whose work our gunpowder industry has moved to one of the first places in the world.

REACTIVE FORCE

Gunpowder can be used to throw projectiles without the use of durable, heavy gun barrels.

Everyone knows the rocket. As we know, a barrel is not needed to propel a rocket. It turns out that the principle of rocket motion can be successfully used to throw artillery shells.

What is this principle?

It consists of using the so-called reactive force, which is why projectiles that use this force are called reactive.

In Fig. Figure 44 shows a rocket with a hole in the tail. After the ignition of the gunpowder inside the rocket, the resulting powder gases will “flow” through the hole at high speed. When a stream of gases flows out of the powder combustion chamber, a force arises directed in the direction of the movement of the stream; the magnitude of this force depends on the mass of the escaping gases and the speed of their flow.

It is known from physics that for every action there is always an equal reaction. In short, we sometimes say this: “action is equal to reaction.” This means that in the case we are considering, when a force appears directed in the direction of the movement of gases, an equal in magnitude but oppositely directed force should arise, under the influence of which the rocket begins to move forward.

This oppositely directed force is, as it were, a reaction to the emergence of a force directed towards the outflow of gases; therefore it is called reactive force, and the movement of the rocket caused by reactive force is called jet propulsion. (88)

Let's see what advantages the use of reactive force provides.

The powder charge for throwing the rocket is placed in the projectile itself. This means that a gun barrel is not needed in this case, since the projectile acquires speed not under the influence of powder gases formed outside the projectile, but under the action of the reactive force developing in the projectile itself when fired.

To guide the movement of the rocket, a light “guide”, such as a rack, is sufficient. This is very beneficial, since without a barrel the gun is much lighter and more mobile.

It is easy to attach several guides to a rocket artillery gun (on a combat vehicle) and fire in one gulp, firing several rockets at the same time. The powerful effect of such volleys was tested by the experience of firing Soviet Katyushas during the Great Patriotic War.

The rocket projectile does not experience high external pressure like an artillery projectile in the bore. Therefore, its walls can be made thinner and, thanks to this, more explosive can be placed in the projectile.

These are the main advantages of rockets.

But there are also disadvantages. For example, when firing rocket artillery, the dispersion of shells is much greater than when shooting from canned artillery guns, which means that firing rocket artillery shells is less accurate.

Therefore, we use both guns, both shells, and use the pressure of the powder gases in the barrel and the reactive force to throw the shells.

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To quickly and accurately determine the purpose of ammunition, its calibers and other basic characteristics necessary for proper configuration and operation, branding, painting and marking of ammunition are used.

Data on the manufacture of the projectile body, cartridge case, fuse, and ignition means are applied in the form of marks, and information about the type and equipment of the projectile, the manufacture of gunpowder and combat charge are applied in the form of markings and distinctive coloring.

Branding

Brands are signs (letters, numbers) extruded or stamped on the outer surface of projectiles, fuses or tubes, cartridges and ignition means.

Artillery shells have main and backup marks (Fig. 1).

The main marks include signs showing the plant number 3, batch number 4 and year of manufacture 5 , shell (bottom) of the projectile, metal smelting number 1, stamp of the technical control department of the plant 6, stamp of the military representative of the GRAU 8 and Brinell sample imprint 2.

Stamps are applied on the outer surface of the projectile by the manufacturer in accordance with the drawing. Their location can be different and depends on the caliber of the projectile, the metal and the design of its shell.

If the projectile has a screw head or screw bottom, then the factory number, batch and year of manufacture of these elements are also applied to them.

For armor-piercing tracer shells, the batch number, quality control department stamp and military representative's stamp are placed on the leading belt. This is explained by the fact that these marks are applied after heat treatment of the body. Duplicate marks are applied at factories that produce equipment for projectiles and serve in case of loss of markings. These include: code of the explosive (smoke-forming) substance 7 with which the projectile is equipped, and weight (ballistic) marks 9.

The meaning of marks on mines is the same as on artillery shells.

They are located on the tail section and on the mine stabilizer tube.

The contents and meaning of marks on warheads, missile parts and rocket candles do not differ from the generally established marks on shells of shells and mines.

The marks on fuses and tubes (Fig. 2) indicate:

· fuse brand 1 (established abbreviated name);

· manufacturer code 2 (number or initial letters);

· production batch number 3;

· year of manufacture 4.

In addition, on the rings of pyrotechnic remote fuses and tubes, the batch number of pressing the remote composition 5 is indicated.

On head fuses, stamps are applied on the side surface of the body. On bottom fuses that have a tracer - along the circumference of the body flange, and in the absence of a tracer - directly on the bottom section of the body. On remote fuses and tubes, similar marks are located on the outer surface of the housing plate so that they can be seen when the sealing cap is screwed on.

Stamps on cartridge cases (Fig. 3) and capsule bushings (Fig. 4) are placed only on the bottom.

Ammunition painting

The coloring of ammunition is divided into protective and distinctive.

Preservative painting serves to protect metal from corrosion. In peacetime, the outer surface of all shells and mines with a caliber of more than 37 mm is painted with gray paint or another paint specified by the technical specifications. The exceptions are practical shells, which are painted black, and propaganda shells and mines, which are painted red. Projectiles of calibers of 37 mm and less, as well as the centering bulges and leading bands of all projectiles, are not painted.

In addition, for projectiles intended for unitary loading shots, the junction of the projectile with the cartridge case is not painted. All unpainted elements of shells and mines are coated with colorless varnish.

In wartime, protective painting, as a rule, is not applied to shells and mines with a caliber of up to 203 mm. A lubricant is used as an anti-corrosion coating, which must be removed before firing at the firing position.

Distinctive coloring is applied to some shells, mines, casings, fuzes and primer bushings.

On shells and mines, distinctive coloring is usually applied in the form of colored ring stripes.

Distinctive stripes applied to the head of the projectile (mine) or under the upper centering thickening indicate the type of projectile and make it easier to recognize them by purpose.

The colors, location and meaning of distinctive markings on shells and mines are given in Table. 1.

Rice. 2. Stamps on fuses and tubes

To distinguish streamlined sub-caliber projectiles from other armor-piercing tracer projectiles, their 35 mm warhead is painted red.

Table 1

For fragmentation and smoke shells, the bodies of which are made of steel cast iron, a continuous black annular strip is applied above the lower centering thickening or leading belt. Thus, a steel cast iron smoke projectile will have two black stripes - one on the head and the other above the lower centering thickening. All other shells are easily recognized by their appearance and do not have a distinctive color.

On cartridge cases of unitary loading shots assembled with a reduced charge, a solid black ring stripe is applied above the marking. The same stripe applied to the cartridge case for a shot of separate cartridge loading indicates that the cartridge case contains a special charge intended for firing an armor-piercing tracer projectile.

A distinctive color is applied to fuses and tubes if there are several samples that are similar in appearance, but different in their effect on the target or purpose.

A distinctive color is applied to capsule bushings only after they have been restored. After the first restoration, one white stripe 5 mm wide is applied along the chord of the bottom cut of the capsule bushings, and after the secondary restoration, two white parallel stripes, each 5 mm wide, are applied.

Ammunition indexing

All artillery weapons, including ammunition, are divided into ten sections (types).

Department numbers have a two-digit number and begin with the number 5. If there is another number at the beginning of the department number, then this means that this item is not under the jurisdiction of the GRAU.

Shots, shells, mines, fuses, tubes and their capping are assigned to the 53rd department; charges, cartridges, ignition means, auxiliary elements of shots and their closure - to the 54th department; small arms ammunition and hand grenades - to the 57th department. Each item is assigned a short symbol - an index.

In ammunition, indices are assigned to artillery rounds, their elements and closures.

Indexes can be full or abbreviated.

The full index consists of two numbers in front, one - three letters in the middle, and three numbers to the right of the letters.

For example, 53-UOF-412. The first two digits indicate the weapons department to which the sample belongs, the letters indicate the sample type (in most cases, they are the initial letters of the sample name), the last three digits indicate the sample number.

If a shot or its element (projectile, charge) is adopted for firing from a specific weapon (mortar), then it is assigned the same number as the weapon. If the shot element is intended for firing from different guns of the same caliber, then a zero is placed instead of the last digit of the index. For example: 53-G-530.

The meanings of the letters included in the ammunition indices are given in table. 2.

Weapons department no.	Letter designations	Name of items
	U	Unitary cartridge
IN	Separately loaded shot
F	High Explosive Grenade
ABOUT	Frag grenade
OF	High explosive fragmentation grenade
OR	Fragmentation tracer projectile
OZR	Fragmentation-incendiary-tracer projectile
BR	Armor-piercing tracer projectile
BP	HEAT rotating projectile
BC	Cumulative non-rotating projectile
G	Concrete-piercing projectile
D	Smoke shell
	Incendiary projectile
WITH	Lighting projectile
A	Propaganda projectile
PBR	Practical armor-piercing tracer projectile

In the case when a new model of ammunition is adopted for service, similar in purpose and name to an existing model for a given weapon, but having features that affect ballistics or operational properties. one to three letters are placed at the end of the index.

For example, a 100-mm field gun mod. 1944 had an armor-piercing tracer pointed-head projectile index 53-BR-412. A 100-mm armor-piercing tracer projectile with a blunt point and a ballistic tip is being adopted. Unlike the first one, it is assigned the index 53-BR-412B. Later, the same gun was equipped with an armor-piercing tracer projectile with improved armor penetration (a projectile with armor-piercing and ballistic tips), which was assigned the index 53-BR-412D.

The abbreviated index differs from the full index in that it does not have a first two-digit number. For example, BR-412D; UOF-412U.

The markings on shots, shells, mines, cartridges and closures are marked with an abbreviated index, and the markings on caps and ammunition cases, as well as in technical documents, are marked with a full index.

Marking

Markings are inscriptions and symbols painted on ammunition and its closure.

Markings are applied to shells, mines, cartridges, caps and their sealing with special black paint. Practical equipment painted black is marked with white paint.

Marking of projectiles. Markings are applied to the head and cylindrical parts of the projectile (Fig. 5). On the head part there is information about the equipment of the projectile. These include: code of the explosive 6 with which the projectile is loaded, number of the loading plant 1, batch 2 and year of the equipment 3. On the cylindrical part there is an abbreviated name (index) 8, projectile caliber 4 and ballistic (weight) marks 5. For armor-piercing tracer projectiles except of the above data, under the code of the explosive, the mark of the bottom fuse 9 is applied, with which the projectile is brought into its final loaded form.

Codes are used to abbreviate explosive, smoke-producing and toxic substances.

The most common explosives used to fill projectiles have the following codes:

· TNT – t;

· TNT with a smoke-reinforcing block - TDU;

· TNT with dinitronaphthalene – TD-50, TD-58;

· TNT with hexogen – TG-50;

· TNT, hexogen, aluminum, golovax – TGAG-5;

· ammotol – A-40, A-50, A-60, A-80, A-90 (the figure shows the percentage of ammonium nitrate);

· ammotol with TNT stopper – AT-40, AT-50, etc.;

· phlegmatized hexogen – A-IX-1;

phlegmatized hexogen with aluminum powder – A-IX-2

On smoke shells, instead of the explosive code, the smoke-forming substance code 7 is placed.

The weight (ballistic) sign applied to the projectile shows the deviation of the weight of a given projectile from the table weight. If the projectile has a table weight or a deviation from it upward or downward of no more than 1/3%, then the letter H is written, which means the weight is normal. If the weight of the projectile deviates from the table by more than 1/3%, then this is reflected by the “plus” or “minus” signs. For each sign, a weight fluctuation is given within 2/3% of the table value (Table 3).

Table 3. Values ​​of weight marks marked on projectiles

Note. Shells with the LG and TZh marks are allowed only in wartime with special permission from the GRAU.

Marking on the sleeve. Markings are applied to the body of the cartridge case with the charge by the artillery base that assembled the unitary loading shot or the charge of the separate loading shot.

The markings indicate: abbreviated shot index 2, caliber and abbreviated name of the artillery system from which shot 3 is intended, grade of gunpowder 4, batch number 5 and year of manufacture of gunpowder 6, powder factory code 7, batch number 8, year of assembly 9 and number of the base (arsenal) 10, which collected the shot.

Instead of a shot index, a charge index is applied to the cartridge case for a shot of separate cartridge loading.

If the charge is assembled with a phlegmatizer, then the letter “F” is placed below the shot assembly data 11. In some cases, the markings on the cartridge case may be supplemented with the inscriptions 1: “Full variable”, “Reduced”, “Special”, etc.

Marking on the closure. Markings on the sealed box containing the shots indicate:

– on the front wall of the box – abbreviated designation of gun 1, for which the shots are intended to be fired, type of combat charge 2, type of projectile 3, weight sign 4, number of shots in the box 5, batch of shots assembled, year of assembly and number of the base that collected the shots 6 , brand of head fuses 7 screwed into shells, factory number, batch and year of manufacture of fuses 8, month, year and number of base 9, which carried out bringing the shots into their final loaded form; if the shots are stored in an incompletely loaded form, then the fuse marking is not applied to the front wall of the box;

– on the end wall of the box – shell index 10, loading plant number 11, batch 12 and year the shells were loaded 13, explosive code 14, if the box contains shots with armor-piercing tracer shells, then after the explosive code the brand of the bottom fuse with which the projectile was fired is indicated in a fully equipped state;

– on the lid of the box there is a danger sign and a load discharge 15.

The merciless “god of war” in armed conflicts of the first half of the twentieth century was artillery. Not an elegant, fast fighter plane or a formidable tank, but a simple and unpretentious-looking mortar and cannon destroyed fortifications, firing points and command posts in a tornado of deadly fire, quickly and mercilessly destroyed the enemy who had risen to attack (they accounted for half of all killed and wounded in World War II), paved the way for their tanks and motorized infantry.

((direct))

Among all the components of artillery equipment, ammunition should be considered the most important. Ultimately, it is the projectile (mine, bullet) that is the “payload” for the sake of delivering which to the target the entire huge complex, consisting of people, guns, artillery tractors, cars, communication lines, spotter aircraft, etc., works.

Astronomical figures

Low shooting accuracy was compensated for in that era by the huge consumption of ammunition (according to the standards, 60–80 shells were supposed to be used to suppress one machine gun point). As a result, even in terms of the simplest characteristic - total weight - artillery shells were significantly superior to the weapon with which they were brought down on the enemy’s head.

Thus, established by order of the People's Commissariat of Defense No. 0182 (by a strange irony of history, this order was signed on May 9, 1941), the ammunition load for the most popular 122-mm howitzer in the Red Army was 80 rounds. Taking into account the weight of the projectile, charge and closure (shell box), the total weight of one ammunition load (about 2.7 tons) was greater than the weight of the howitzer itself.

However, you can’t fight much with just ammunition. As a rule, for an offensive operation (which corresponds to 10–15–20 days in calendar terms), the planned consumption of ammunition was 4–5 rounds of ammunition*. Thus, the weight of the required ammunition was many times greater than the weight of the guns involved. Unfortunately, the Second World War was not limited to one or two operations, and ammunition consumption began to be measured in absolutely astronomical figures.

In 1941, the Wehrmacht spent about 580 kilotons of ammunition of all types on the Eastern Front, which is approximately 20 times the total weight of all artillery systems operating on the front (and even ten times the weight of all German tanks and self-propelled guns). And subsequently, both the production of ammunition in Germany and their consumption became even greater. The production of ammunition in the USSR for the entire period of the Great Patriotic War is estimated at a crushing figure of 10 million tons.

Collage by Andrey Sedykh

Here it is also necessary to remember that a ton is different from a ton. If the weight of a gun is the weight of relatively cheap ferrous metal (the carriage elements are made of simple low-alloy steel), then expensive brass, copper, bronze, and lead are spent on the production of an artillery round; the production of gunpowder and explosives requires a huge consumption of chemicals, which are scarce in war conditions, expensive and highly explosive. Ultimately, the cost of producing ammunition during the Second World War was comparable to the total cost of producing everything else (tanks, guns, airplanes, machine guns, tractors, armored personnel carriers and radars).

Oddly enough, it was precisely this most important information about the material preparation for the war and its progress that was traditionally kept silent in Soviet historiography. Those who want to verify this for themselves can open, for example, the 2nd volume of the fundamental 6-volume “History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union” (M., Voenizdat, 1961). To describe the events of the initial period of the war (from June 22, 1941 to November 1942), the team of authors needed 328 thousand words in this volume. And why isn’t there! The labor initiatives of home front workers and the uplifting plays of Soviet playwrights are listed; neither the vile machinations of the faithless allies (that is, the USA and Great Britain), nor the leading role of the party are forgotten... But the specific figure for ammunition consumption in the operations of the Red Army appears only once (“ during the defensive battle of Stalingrad, 9,898 thousand shells and mines were delivered to the troops of the Stalingrad and Don fronts"), and even then without the detail required within the framework of a scientific monograph. Not a word at all about the consumption of ammunition in the operations of 1941! More precisely, there are words and there are many of them, but without numbers. Usually the words are: “having used up the last shells, the troops were forced to...”, “an acute shortage of ammunition led to...”, “already on the third day the ammunition was almost completely exhausted...”

We will try, as far as possible within the framework of a newspaper article, to partially fill this omission.

To whom has history given little time?

Let us immediately note that Comrade Stalin loved and appreciated artillery, and fully understood the role and importance of ammunition: “Artillery decides the fate of the war, mass artillery... If you need to fire 400-500 thousand shells a day to smash the enemy’s rear, smash the enemy’s forward edge in order to he was not calm, so that he could not sleep, it was necessary not to spare shells and cartridges. More shells, more ammunition, fewer people will be lost. If you skimp on cartridges and shells, there will be more losses...”

These remarkable words were spoken at the April (1940) Meeting of the Red Army's senior command staff. Unfortunately, such a correct statement of tasks was not properly reflected in the real state of affairs with which the Soviet artillery approached the threshold of the Great War a year later.

As we can see, while surpassing Germany in the number of guns of all main types, the Soviet Union was inferior to its future enemy both in the total amount of accumulated ammunition reserves and in the specific number of shells per barrel. Moreover, it was precisely this indicator (the number of accumulated ammunition per unit of gun) that turned out to be the ONLY one by which the enemy had a significant quantitative superiority over the Red Army (of course, we are talking about the main components of material preparation for war, and not about some ungulate rasps) .

And this is all the more strange considering that Germany was in a particularly difficult situation in accumulating ammunition for a future war. Under the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty, the victorious countries set strict limits for it: 1000 artillery rounds for each of the 204 75 mm guns and 800 rounds for each of the 84 105 mm howitzers. And it's all. A meager (compared to the armies of the great powers) number of guns, 270 thousand (less than Comrade Stalin proposed to use in one day) medium-caliber artillery rounds and zero large-caliber rounds.

Only in the spring of 1935 did Hitler announce Germany's withdrawal from the terms of the Treaty of Versailles; There were just over four years left before the start of the World War. History gave Hitler little time, and nature gave him even fewer raw materials. As is known, the extraction and production of copper, lead, tin, saltpeter and cellulose in Germany is not very good. The Soviet Union was in an incomparably better position, but by June 1941, Germany had accumulated about 700 kilotons of “payload” (shells) of medium-caliber artillery (from 75 mm to 150 mm), and the Soviet Union - 430 kilotons. 1.6 times less.

The situation, as we see, is quite paradoxical. The following idea is generally accepted: Germany had enormous scientific and technical potential, but was limited in raw materials, while the “young Soviet republic” had just embarked on the path of industrialization and therefore could not compete on equal terms in the field of “high technology” with German industry. In fact, everything turned out to be exactly the opposite: the Soviet Union produced an incomparably larger number of more advanced tanks, surpassed Germany in the number of combat aircraft, guns and mortars, but at the same time, possessing huge reserves of non-ferrous metal ores and raw materials for the chemical industry, it lagged significantly behind in mass production and accumulation of ammunition.

How KV was “lowered” to the level of the German “four”

In the general situation with the supply of ammunition to the Red Army on the eve of the war, there was a failure that is completely difficult to explain with reasonable arguments. The troops had very few armor-piercing rounds for the 76 mm cannon. Specifically, this “very little” is expressed by the figure of 132 thousand armor-piercing 76-mm rounds available as of May 1, 1941. In terms of one divisional or tank 76-mm gun, this means 12.5 rounds per barrel. And this is on average. But in the Western Special Military District, which found itself in the direction of the main attack of two Wehrmacht tank groups, the corresponding figure was only 9 armor-piercing shells per barrel (the best situation - 34 AR shells per barrel - turned out to be in the Odessa district, that is, exactly where there were no not a single German tank division).

Ammunition for:	Germany		USSR
	Total (million pieces)	For one barrel (pcs.)	Total (million pieces)	For one barrel (pcs.)
81 mm (82-, 107 mm) mortars	12,7	1100	12,1	600
75 mm (76 mm) field guns	8,0	1900	16,4	1100
105 mm (122 mm) howitzers	25,8	3650	6,7	800
150 mm (152 mm) howitzers	7,1	1900	4,6	700
Total artillery shots	43,4	2750	29,9	950
Total artillery rounds and mines	56,1	2038	42,0	800

The shortage of armor-piercing 76-mm rounds has largely “nullified” two significant military-technical advantages of the Red Army: the presence in the rifle division’s armament of 16 “divisions” of F-22 or USV, capable of penetrating the frontal armor of any German tank in the summer of 1941, and long-barreled “three-inch” guns on new types of tanks (T-34 and KV). In the absence of armor-piercing shells, the latest Soviet tanks “sank” to the level of the German Pz-IV with a short-barreled 75-mm “cigarette butt”.

What was missing to organize mass production of 76-mm armor-piercing rounds? Time? Resources? Production capacity? The T-34 and KV tanks were adopted by the Red Army on December 19, 1939. The F-22 divisional 76-mm cannon was put into service even earlier - in 1936. At a minimum, from this moment on, we should be concerned with the production of ammunition that would allow us to fully realize the combat potential of these weapon systems. The production capacity of the Soviet economy made it possible by June 1941 to accumulate 16.4 million high-explosive fragmentation rounds for 76-mm regimental, divisional and mountain guns and another 4.9 million rounds for 76-mm anti-aircraft guns. Total - 21.3 million 76-mm artillery rounds. At the same time, it should also be taken into account that an armor-piercing shot is in no way superior to a high-explosive fragmentation shot in cost and resource intensity, and an anti-aircraft shot is much more complex and more expensive than an armor-piercing shot.

The most convincing answer to the question about the ability of Soviet industry to establish mass production of armor-piercing shells can be considered the presence of 12 million armor-piercing rounds for 45-mm cannons at the beginning of the war. And even this quantity was still considered insufficient, and in the ammunition production plan for 1941, a separate line was prescribed for the production of 2.3 million armor-piercing 45-mm rounds.

Only on May 14, 1941, the alarming situation with the shortage of 76-mm armor-piercing rounds was realized by the country's leadership. On this day, a resolution was adopted by the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the VKP(b), according to which at plant No. 73 alone it was planned to increase the production of 76-mm BR rounds to 47 thousand per month. The same decree ordered the production of ballistic missiles for the 85-mm anti-aircraft gun (at a rate of 15 thousand per month) and the heavy 107-mm hull gun. Of course, in the few weeks remaining before the start of the war, it was not possible to radically change the situation.

Everything is relative

“So that’s why German tanks crawled to Moscow and Tikhvin!” - the hasty reader will exclaim and will be deeply wrong. Everything is learned by comparison, and comparing the number of ballistic missile shells with the number of artillery barrels is only one of many evaluation criteria. After all, the projectile is not intended to grind down a gun barrel, but to hit the enemy. Armor-piercing shells are not fired “at areas”, “fire curtains” are not set up, barrage fire is not conducted, and they do not have to be spent in millions. Armor-piercing shells are used when firing a direct shot at a clearly visible target.

In the German invasion army, there were about 1,400 targets that would have been worth spending a three-inch armor-piercing projectile on (strictly speaking, even fewer, since among the Pz-IV medium tanks included in this figure there were a number of early series vehicles with 30 mm frontal armor ). Dividing the actually available shells by the number of tanks, we get an impressive figure: 95 pieces of 76-mm armor-piercing shells for one medium German tank or self-propelled gun with reinforced frontal armor.

Yes, of course, war is not solitaire, and in war you cannot ask the enemy to move medium tanks to the firing positions of 76-mm “divisions”, and other lightly armored little things - closer to anti-tank “forty-fives”. But even if circumstances force us to spend scarce 76-mm BR shells on any armored tracked vehicle that appears in the sights (and there were no more than four thousand of them in the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front, including machine-gun wedges and light self-propelled guns), then even then, purely arithmetically, in our There are 33 projectiles available for one target. If used skillfully, it is quite enough to guarantee defeat. “Very little” this will be only in comparison with the gigantic scale of production of armor-piercing 45-mm shells, of which by the beginning of the war three thousand pieces had been accumulated per German tank.

The above “arithmetic” is too simple and does not take into account many important circumstances, in particular the real distribution of the available ammunition resource between various theaters of operations (from Brest to Vladivostok) and central artillery supply depots. On the eve of the war, 44 percent of the total stock of artillery rounds was concentrated in the western border districts; the share of 45-mm artillery rounds (all types, not just ballistic missiles), concentrated in the western districts, amounted to 50 percent of the total resource. A significant portion of 45-mm rounds were not found in infantry (rifle) divisions, but in tank (mechanized) units and formations, where light tanks (T-26 and BT) and armored vehicles BA-6/BA-10 were armed with 45-mm guns . In total, in the five western border districts (Leningrad, Baltic, Western, Kiev and Odessa) there were almost 10 thousand “forty-five” guns under armor, which even exceeded the number of towed 45-mm anti-tank guns, of which there were “only” 6870 units in the western districts.

"Mud-clay"

On average, each of these 6,870 guns carried 373 armor-piercing 45 mm shells; In the districts themselves, this figure varied from 149 in Odessa to 606 in Western. Even counting at the very minimum (not taking into account the presence of their own tanks, not taking into account the troops and weapons of the Leningrad and Odessa districts), on the morning of June 22, 1941, German tanks were expected to meet 4997 anti-tank “forty-fives”, in the charging boxes of which 2.3 million armor-piercing rounds were stored . And another 2551 divisional 76-mm cannon with a very modest supply of 34 thousand BR rounds (an average of 12.5 per gun).

It would be appropriate to recall the presence in the three border districts of 2201 anti-aircraft guns of 76 mm and 85 mm caliber, and 373 hull 107 mm guns. Even in the complete absence of BR rounds, they could be used to fight tanks, since the energy of these powerful guns made it possible to accelerate a high-explosive fragmentation or shrapnel projectile to speeds sufficient to penetrate the armor of German light tanks at a kilometer range.** As well as It was to be expected that a particularly large number of artillery rounds for anti-aircraft guns had been accumulated (more than 1,100 per 76-mm anti-aircraft gun in the western districts).

Two weeks after the start of the war, on July 5, 1941, signed by Lieutenant General Nikolai Vatutin, who assumed the duties of Chief of Staff of the North-Western Front (on the eve of the war - Head of the Operations Directorate, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army), the “Instructions for combating tanks” were issued. enemy”, which instructed “to prepare mud and clay, which is thrown into the viewing slots of the tank.” And if Vatutin’s desperate order can still be classified as a tragic curiosity, then the infamous Molotov cocktails in July 1941 were quite officially adopted by the Red Army and were produced by dozens of factories in millions of quantities.

Where have other, incomparably more effective means of fighting tanks than “mud-clay” and bottles gone?

*For example, in the original (dated October 29, 1939) plan for the defeat of the Finnish army on the Karelian Isthmus, the following ammunition consumption was planned: 1 ammunition for combat in the border zone, 3 ammunition for breaking through a fortified area (Mannerheim Line) and 1 ammunition for the subsequent pursuit of a retreating enemy

**As practice has shown, the most effective was the use of shrapnel shells with the fuse set “on impact”; in this case, in the first microseconds of interaction between the projectile and the armor, the impact of the steel body of the projectile led to cracking of the cemented surface of the armor plate, then, after the fuse and expelling charge were triggered, the lead shrapnel pierced the armor. The use of HE shells to combat armored vehicles was possible in two versions. In one case, the fuse was set to “non-explosion” or simply replaced with a plug; penetration of the armor occurred due to the kinetic energy of the projectile. Another method involved shooting at the sides of the tank at high angles; the projectile “slipped” along the surface and exploded, while the energy of the shock wave and fragments was enough to penetrate the side armor, the thickness of which on any German tanks in the summer of 1941 did not exceed 20–30 mm

For the first time, guns using gunpowder as a propellant appeared in the 14th century. From the walls of the fortresses, stone cannonballs were thrown from “shooting pipes” at the attackers. There was a lot of smoke, fire, and roar, but such shooting caused little damage to the attackers.

In Russia, in the Galishsh and Alexander Chronicles (1382), the use of weapons called “mattresses”, “pusk-chi”, “guns” in defense against the Tatar-Mongol hordes was described for the first time.

In 1480, during the reign of Ivan III, the “Cannon Yard” was built in Moscow, which was the first cannon factory in the world. One of the goals of its creation was to streamline the manufacture of guns, in which the parameters for strength requirements, caliber and design would be maintained. This will ensure

established the conditions for the rapid and targeted development of artillery, which was successfully used in the wars waged by Ivan III and Ivan IV.

At the beginning of the 17th century. Russian craftsmen created a new generation of guns that were loaded not from the muzzle, but from the breech. These were guns with wedge and screw-in bolts, which were the prototypes of the bolts used in modern artillery guns. In addition, the guns had a rifled barrel, which opened up the possibility of moving from cannonballs to more powerful cylindrical projectiles. However, these inventions significantly outstripped the technical production capabilities of that time, so their mass application was delayed for 150-200 years.

During the reign of Peter I, artillery underwent a serious organizational and technical transformation. Peter I divided all artillery into four types: siege, garrison (fortress), regimental and field. Organized the calibers and mass of charges and shells. The results were not long in coming. At the beginning of the 18th century. in the war with Sweden, whose army was considered invincible thanks to its artillery, Russian troops won brilliant victories near Narva and Poltava. During the capture of Narva, for example, artillery shelling was carried out continuously for 10 days. 12,358 cannonballs and 5,714 mortar bombs were fired at the fortress, 10 thousand pounds of gunpowder were consumed

The history of Russian artillery has many glorious pages. These are victories over the Prussian king Frederick II (mid-18th century), the capture of Izmail in the war with Turkey (1790), the defeat of French troops in the war of 1812, many naval battles (Battle of Chesme 1779, battles during the defense of Sevastopol in 1854, Crimean War 1853-1856, etc.).

The most intensive development of artillery occurred in the second half of the 19th century. Improvement of the technical base made it possible to completely switch to the production of rifled guns with breech loading. The first steps were taken to increase the rate of fire of guns, in particular, thanks to the creation of a high-speed piston bolt and a unitary artillery cartridge, in which the projectile and powder charge were connected into one whole using a cartridge case. But the most rapid, revolutionary development of artillery began after the invention of smokeless gunpowder (1886). Smokeless gunpowder was three times stronger than smoky gunpowder. This made it possible to increase the firing range and accuracy.

Smokeless powder also eliminated the enormous amount of smoke that, during mass shooting with black powder, created a smoke screen that did not allow targeted fire.

The development of artillery led to the creation of several types of guns, each with its own design features and purpose - these are cannons, howitzers, and mortars. Later, mortars and recoilless rifles appeared.

The guns (Fig. 10.1) were intended for firing over long distances (up to 30 km) at ground and air targets.

The caliber of guns is from 20 to 180 mm. Barrel length 40 - 70 calibers. The initial speed of the projectile is at least 600 m/s (for some tank guns it reaches 1600 m/s, for example, in the Leopard - 2 tank). The guns fire at low elevation angles (usually up to 20 degrees). The projectile's flight path is flat (sloping).

Howitzers are used to fire at hidden targets. They have a shorter barrel (10-30 calibers), fire at large elevation angles (mounted trajectory), howitzer calibers are 100 mm or more. The initial speed of a projectile is less than that of a cannon projectile. For example, the projectile speed of a 76 mm cannon is 680 m/s, and that of a 122 mm howitzer is no more than 515 m/s. The reduction in speed is achieved by reducing the ratio of the mass of the gunpowder charge to the mass of the projectile in comparison with the gun. The firing range is about 18 km.

In Fig. Figure 10.2 shows the appearance of the howitzer.

Currently, guns that combine the properties of a howitzer and a cannon (the possibility of flat and mounted firing) are becoming increasingly popular.

These are howitzers - guns. Their caliber is from 90 mm or more, the barrel length is 25-^0 calibers, the firing range is about 20 km.

Mortar-type weapons have been used since the 15th century. They had co-

short barrel (no more than 10 calibers), large caliber, fired powerful bombs with a large explosive charge and were intended to destroy particularly strong structures. The flight path had a large steepness (steep overhead trajectory). The initial flight speed of the projectile was about 300 m/s, and the flight range was relatively short. The ratio of the mass of the gunpowder charge to the mass of the projectile was even less than for a howitzer. The modern army does not have mortars. However, by the beginning of World War II, the reserves of the Red Army High Command included 280 mm caliber mortars with a firing range of 10 km (initial projectile speed 356 m/s).

To replace mortars in all armies of the world at the beginning of the 20th century. new type of guns arrived - mortars. These are smooth-bore guns for mounted firing, providing the ability to defeat the enemy located in trenches located adjacent to their positions (400 - 500 m). Today in service are mortars of calibers from 60 to 240 mm, with a mine weight from 1.3 to 130 kg and a firing range from several hundred meters to 10 km.

The initial flight speed of the mine with the smallest charge of gunpowder is only 120 m/s.

By design, the mortar is a steel pipe smooth inside, supported by a ball heel on a plate (Fig. 10.3).

Firing is carried out by lowering the mine with its tail into the barrel (large-caliber mortars are loaded from the breech). In the mine stabilizer tube

there is a tail cartridge with the main charge of gunpowder. In the bottom of the cartridge there is an igniter primer that bumps

on the firing pin when the mine reaches its lowest position, it explodes and initiates the combustion of the powder charge. The main charge of gunpowder is taken small. If necessary, an additional charge of gunpowder is placed on the stabilizer tube to increase the firing range. The mortar's rate of fire reaches 15-20 rounds per minute.

In the first quarter of the 20th century. A new type of artillery guns appeared - recoilless (dynamo-reactive) guns, designed to destroy manpower, destroy fortifications and, mainly, to fight tanks. The operating principle of a recoilless rifle is shown in Fig. 10.4.

The shell casing has holes covered with cardboard. When fired, the cardboard breaks through and through the opened holes, part of the gaseous combustion products enters the breech, in the rear of which there are nozzle holes. The resulting reaction force balances the recoil force. This eliminates the need to make complex anti-tank devices, which greatly simplifies the design of the gun. Recoilless rifles have a rifled barrel. For firing, unitary cartridges with fragmentation, high-explosive fragmentation, and cumulative grenades are used, which correspond in power to conventional projectiles. Considering that part of the energy of the powder gases is spent on recoil compensation, the initial speed

flight is about 300 m/s, the firing range is significantly less than conventional guns and shooting is most effective at visible targets. Depending on the caliber, recoilless rifles can be portable or placed on a vehicle.

Before moving on to consider the influence of various factors on an artillery shot, let us dwell on the very concept of “shot”. This term has two meanings. One of them implies the phenomenon of a shot from a firearm, and the second - the product, ammunition, with which the shot is fired.

The phenomenon of a shot is the process of ejecting a projectile due to the energy of powder gases. When fired, in a fraction of a second, powder gases having a temperature of 3000-3500 ° C develop a pressure of up to 300-400 MPa and push the projectile out. This useful type of work requires 25-30% of the energy of the powder charge.

An artillery shot as a weapon (ammunition) represents a complete set of all the elements necessary to fire one shot. It includes: a projectile, a projectile fuse, a propellant (combat) charge of gunpowder in a cartridge case or cap, a means of igniting the propellant charge (igniter capsule, ignition tube, etc.), auxiliary elements (phlegmatizer, decoupler, flame arrester, cardboard elements).

The main ballistic indicators of an artillery shot are: the maximum pressure in the gun barrel (p t) and the speed of the projectile at the barrel exit (U 0).

It was previously noted that smokeless powder burns in parallel layers on all sides of the powder element. The combination of this quality with the energy characteristics of the gunpowder, shape, grain size and sample size allows you to adjust the basic ballistic parameters of the shot and create charges with specified properties.

Gunpowder, depending on the energy indicator (heat of combustion pg), is divided into three groups:

High-calorie, having () 4200-5300 kJ/kg (1000-1260 kcal/kg). To increase the calorie content, explosives with a high heat of combustion (octogen, RDX, DINA) are introduced into their composition. High-calorie powders are used for mortar rounds;

Medium-calorie powders with () 3300-4200 kJ/kg (800-1000 kcal/kg) are used to make charges for low-power guns;

Low-calorie (“cold”) powders having<3 Г 2700-3300 кДж/кг (650-800 ккал/кг), используются для зарядов к ору­диям больших калибров. Применение «холодных» порохов для
powerful guns is caused by the desire to minimize the heat (erosion) of the internal surface of the barrel, which is directly dependent on the temperature and pressure of the shot.

The rate of gas release during the combustion of gunpowder is to a certain extent regulated by the shape of the powder elements. From the pirok-. siline powders, elements are made in the form of grains with one or seven channels, as well as in the form of tubes (Fig. 10.5 A). Tubes, plates, tapes and rings are prepared from ballistic powders (Fig. 10.5 b)

Channel grains have a progressive combustion character, since the burnout of gunpowder from the surface of the grain and channels leads to an increase in the combustion area. Tubular gunpowders are close to a constant gas release rate. Ribbons and rings (mortar powders) have a regressive combustion pattern.

Powders with a progressive gas release rate are used in long-barreled guns (cannons), since in order to impart high speed to the projectile over a significant length of the barrel, the pressure must be close to the maximum.

For guns with short barrel lengths, tubular powders are used. This is due to the fact that the maximum pressure in a short

bone guns should last a shorter period of time and its value may be lower than in cannons.

In mortars, the initial speed of the mine is low and, therefore, there is no need to create high pressure with a long period of its retention. Therefore, gunpowder with a regressive combustion pattern is quite suitable for mortar powder charges.

Depending on the chemical nature and form, artillery powders are marked as follows:

Grained pyroxylin powder is designated by shot,

the numerator of which shows the thickness of the burning arch in tenths of a millimeter, and the denominator is the number of channels. For example: 7/7 - vault thickness 0.7 mm, seven channels; 14/7 - vault thickness 1.4 mm, seven channels; 7/1 - vault thickness 0.7, one channel;

Tubular gunpowder is also designated by shot, but with the addition of the letters TP. For example: 10/1TP - arch thickness 1 mm, one channel, tubular;

Ballistic tubular powders do not have the letter index TP, since they are not manufactured in the form of grains, but they do have the letter index H, for example: 30/1Н denotes tubular nitroglycerin powder with a burning arch thickness of 1 mm and one channel;

Belt gunpowder has the letter index L and a number indicating the thickness of the burning arch in hundredths of a millimeter. For example: NBL-35 - nitroglycerin ballistic tape with a burning arch thickness of 0.35 mm;

Ring-shaped gunpowder has a letter index K and three digital indicators, two of which are written in the form of a fraction (numerator - internal, denominator - external diameter, mm) and the third, separated from the fraction by a line, indicates the thickness of the burning arch in hundredths of a millimeter, for example, NBK30/65-12;

Nitroglycerin ballistic ring powder with an internal diameter of 30 mm. external 65 mm and the thickness of the burning arch is 0.12 mm.

Depending on the gun system, caliber and task performed, different grades of gunpowder are used. All powder charges certainly have two main elements - a sample of gunpowder and an igniter. According to the mounting arrangement, charges are divided into constant and variable. Both can be full or reduced. Constant charges are used in unitary cartridges (Fig. 10.6), which represent factory-assembled artillery shots in the form of a projectile and a powder charge combined with a shell casing, and cannot be changed before firing. Typically, unitary cartridges are used for small and medium caliber guns.

In some cartridge-loading shots with a combat charge of grained powder, central ones are used to ensure simultaneous ignition of the gunpowder throughout the entire volume of the charge; perforated paper tubes filled with hollow cylinders of black powder (Fig. 10.6 b). When a flame extinguishing agent is introduced into the tube, it also acts as a flame arrester.

As the caliber increases, the unitary cartridge becomes inconvenient for loading due to its large mass and size. In this case, cased and caseless separate loading is used.

With separate case loading, a projectile is first sent into the gun barrel, and then - a cartridge case with a portion of gunpowder, which is located in caps (bags made of flammable fabric). In large-caliber guns (ship guns, coastal defense), in which caseless separate loading is carried out, a sample of gunpowder is placed in the chamber in caps without a case.

Separate charging options are shown in Fig. 10.7.

Moreover, the weight can be changed immediately before firing in accordance with the combat mission being solved. The design of mortar powder charges is shown in Fig. 10.8. The figure shows that the amount of gunpowder in a mortar shot has a main charge and an additional charge in the form of caps placed on the shank of the mine, the number of which varies depending on the given firing range.

Percussion, grating or electrical excitation primers are used as igniters in artillery and mortar rounds. Igniter capsules are usually mounted in an igniter sleeve, which has increased ignition ability due to black powder pressed into the sleeve.

For the purpose of quick and complete ignition, additional igniters are used in cap-loading charges, which are cakes of black powder pressed or poured into the cap.

In addition to the two main components (the sample and the igniter), additional elements can be included in the charge - reflux gasser, copper reducer and flame arrester. The first two are used to reduce the height of the trunk. A flash suppressor is used to extinguish muzzle and backfire. The muzzle flame represents hot luminous gaseous products, as well as the glow from the afterburning of products of incomplete oxidation.

The length of the muzzle flame, depending on the gun system, the properties of the gunpowder and meteorological conditions, can be from 0.5 to 50 m, and the width - from 0.2 to 20 m.

The flame from a 76-mm cannon at night can be seen from an airplane 200 km away.

Naturally, this significantly unmasks artillery combat positions, especially during night firing.

Backfire is the flame that occurs when the breech of a gun is opened. It is especially dangerous when fired from tank guns. The fight against muzzle and backfire is carried out by introducing muzzle and backfire flame arresters into the charge. The muzzle flash suppressor is usually a cap with powdered potassium sulfate, taken in an amount of 2-15% of the mass of gunpowder, located in the upper part of the charge.

Backfire flame arresters represent a sample (about 2% of the weight of the gunpowder charge) of flame-extinguishing powder (pyroxylin powder containing 45-50% of a flame-extinguishing substance, for example potassium sulfate) placed in a cap, located in the lower part of the charge.

The ballistic performance of a shot depends on a number of factors, the decisive ones being the design of the gun and the nature of the powder charge (weight, speed and volume of gas release during combustion, maximum pressure in the gun barrel, etc.).

In table 10.2 shows the firing characteristics of some gun systems. The table shows that when moving from cannons to howitzers, the firing range decreases. This is natural, since in a howitzer shot the mass of the powder charge in relation to the mass of the projectile is 2-A times less compared to the ratio in a cannon shot. The maximum firing range for the guns considered does not exceed 40 km.

The question arises: is it possible to create long-range artillery systems?

One of the reasons preventing a significant increase in firing range is air resistance to the flight of the projectile. Moreover, the degree of resistance increases with increasing projectile speed. For example, the estimated flight range of a 76-mm cannon projectile in airless space is 30-40 km, while in practice, due to air resistance, this distance is reduced by 10-15 km.

In 1911, the famous Russian artilleryman Trofimov proposed to the Main Artillery Directorate of the Tsarist Army to build a cannon that would have a firing range of 100 km or more. The main idea of ​​long-range was to launch a projectile to a high altitude, where the atmosphere is very rarefied, there is no resistance and the projectile travels a long distance without hindrance. However, this proposal did not receive support in the Main Artillery Directorate. And seven years later, the Germans fired at Paris from a cannon from a distance of more than 100 km. Moreover, the principle of ensuring long-range capability completely repeated Trofimov’s idea. The long-range gun was a weapon with a total mass of 750 tons, a projectile caliber of 232 mm, a barrel length of 34 m, and an initial projectile speed of 2000 m/s. The projectile was fired at a high angle (about 50°), pierced the dense layers of the atmosphere, rising approximately 40 km, and by this time had a speed of 1000 m/s. In a rarefied atmosphere, the projectile flew 100 km and descended along the descending branch of the trajectory, covering another 20 km of distance.

Thus, the total range was 120 km. However, firing from such a gun required disproportionate consumption of gunpowder. A projectile weighing 126 kg required a gunpowder charge of 215 kg, i.e. the ratio of gunpowder charge to projectile mass was close to two, whereas for conventional guns it is 0.2-0.4.

In addition, the gun barrel could withstand no more than 50-70 shots and after that the 34-meter barrel needed to be replaced.

All of the above casts doubt on the rationality of creating long-range artillery cannons.

As part of the current modernization of the armed forces, it is proposed to supply not only new equipment and equipment, but also various auxiliary equipment. The other day it became known that the Ministry of Defense plans to eventually switch to using new containers for ammunition. Instead of the usual wooden closures, it is proposed to use new boxes of an original design for storage and transportation.

Deputy Minister of Defense General of the Army Dmitry Bulgakov spoke about plans to switch to new containers for ammunition. According to the deputy minister, next year the military department plans to begin full-scale use of new closures for ammunition. For the foreseeable future, only certain types of shells, etc. will be supplied in new boxes. products. The new closures have already been tested and can now be used by the military.

D. Bulgakov also spoke about some of the features of the new packaging. According to him, the new closures are made from modern materials whose characteristics are superior to wood. The main advantage over existing wooden boxes is fire resistance. The Deputy Minister of Defense explained that thanks to the use of special materials, the new box is capable of withstanding flames of up to 500°C for 15 minutes. This will allow the fire crew to arrive at the fire site on time and prevent the negative consequences of the fire. Also, the use of new containers will increase the shelf life of ammunition. When placed in storage, the new closure will last approximately 50 years.

General view of the new closure with a projectile

To date, according to D. Bulgakov, military tests of two types of new boxes have been carried out. The military checked containers for artillery shells of 152 and 30 mm caliber. The new type of closures are recognized as meeting the requirements, which opens the way for them to the troops. Based on the test results, it was decided to supply new shells of 30 and 152 mm calibers in new closures.

Soon photographs of promising containers for separately loaded artillery rounds appeared in the public domain. As follows from these photographs, when developing a new container, it was decided to create standardized boxes with the possibility of relatively simple adaptation to specific ammunition. For this purpose, the closure consists of several main parts: a unified box and lid, as well as inserts-cradles in which the “payload” is secured.

The main elements of a promising closure are a special plastic box of a rectangular oblong shape. The dimensions of this product are designed so that it can accommodate various types of ammunition. Thus, photographs show that 152 mm and 122 mm shells can be transported in boxes of the same size with different supports.

The main box and its lid are made of a special composite material, the type and composition of which has not yet been specified. Various assumptions have been made in discussions about closures, but they have not yet been supported by any acceptable evidence. Perhaps the new box is proposed to be made of fiberglass with special additives that increase strength and provide flame resistance. Thus, resistance to heat, including contact with open fire, is ensured, first of all, by the outer “shell” of the closure.

The outer box is made of two parts of a similar shape, but of different sizes: the lid has a smaller height compared to the main box. To increase the strength and rigidity of the structure, numerous protrusions are provided around the box and lid. There are recesses on the sides of the main box that can be used as carrying handles. The box and the lid are joined together using a protrusion and a recess running along the perimeter of the joint. In this case, the lid is equipped with a rubber seal that seals the container. They are connected to each other using a set of hinged locks. Three such devices are provided on the long sides of the closure, and two on the short sides.

The inside of the box and lid are covered with a layer of fibrous material, which can serve as additional thermal insulation. Thus, the body of the box protects the contents from open fire, and the internal thermal insulation prevents it from overheating. In addition, the thermal insulation probably plays the role of a seal, ensuring a tighter fit of the cradle liner.

Another capping option designed for a smaller caliber projectile

To rigidly fix the payload inside the new closure, it is proposed to use two plastic supports placed in the box and its lid. These products provide recesses of appropriate shapes and sizes into which the projectile and cartridge case or other products supplied to the troops should be placed. The closures shown in the photographs have a curious feature: on the “working” surface of their inserts, next to the main recesses, additional recesses and protrusions are provided. With their help, the correct joining of the cradle is ensured and the prevention of their shift relative to each other.

Currently, there are versions of similar products for several types of artillery shells, and in the future new modifications may appear with updated inserts adapted to accommodate other payloads, up to small arms cartridges, hand grenades, etc.

The proposed closure design allows us to successfully solve the main problems of transportation, storage and use of various types of ammunition. The durable plastic outer shell of the box provides protection from mechanical damage and, unlike wood, does not burn and can withstand high temperatures for a long time. Sealing the joints prevents moisture from entering the box and thereby protects its contents from corrosion. Finally, there is an advantage in service life. The possibility of using the new closure for 50 years is declared.

New plastic closures for ammunition are expected to replace existing wooden products. For this reason, many discussions of the innovation attempt to compare old wooden and new plastic boxes. At the same time, it turns out that in some cases new closures may indeed be better than old ones, but from the point of view of other features they are inferior to them.

Perhaps the greatest interest is in the abandonment of wood in order to solve fire safety problems. Indeed, fires regularly occur in ammunition depots, resulting in the destruction of a large number of shells, as well as the destruction of buildings. In addition, many times during such events people suffered, both military personnel and residents of nearby settlements. For this reason, the fire resistance of the new boxes could be considered a very useful innovation, which, with certain reservations, could even justify the existing disadvantages.

However, the absence of any wooden elements in some situations can turn into a disadvantage. Empty wooden ammunition caps have traditionally been not only a multi-functional container, but also a source of wood. Wooden boxes can be used by troops for a variety of purposes. With their help, you can build some objects, such as dugouts, trenches, etc., and a disassembled box becomes firewood for a fire. Plastic containers can be used for construction, but it will be impossible to keep warm or cook food with it.

Trials by Fire

An important feature of the new closure is its lighter weight. By using relatively thin plastic housings and inserts made of similar materials, significant weight savings can be achieved in comparison with wooden packaging.

When evaluating a new ammunition container, you should consider not only compliance and some additional “consumer characteristics”, but also cost. Unfortunately, at the moment there is no information about the price of the new boxes. There is some information about orders for various containers for the armed forces, but this cannot be directly linked to the new boxes. However, it is obvious that promising plastic containers should be noticeably more expensive than traditional wooden ones. How much is still unknown.

Troops have tested two options for new closures this year, according to the Undersecretary of Defense. These products are designed to transport shells of 30 and 152 mm caliber. The tests were completed successfully, which resulted in the decision to use new packaging in the future. Already next year, the armed forces should receive the first batch of artillery shells, packed in new boxes. In addition, there is information about the existence of closures for 122-mm shells, and the design of this product makes it possible to build boxes for other products. Thus, new types of closures may appear in the foreseeable future.

According to the military department, the promising closures fully comply with the requirements and will be supplied starting next year. It is not yet entirely clear what the pace of supply of new packaging will be and whether it will be able to completely replace existing wooden boxes. Nevertheless, there is every reason to believe that promising closures will not only be able to reach the military, but also win a prominent place in warehouses from traditional containers.

Based on materials from sites:
http://vz.ru/
http://vpk-news.ru/
http://redstar.ru/
http://twower.livejournal.com/