Head fuse ktm 1. VIII. Abbreviated designations used when marking in German ammunition. See what "Fuses" are in other dictionaries

How the ktm-1 fuse works

So far, we have talked about the action of the fuse only in the most general terms, without going into details; therefore, you may have a legitimate question: how to handle the fuse when transporting shells or mines? After all, you just push the fuse, it will immediately work (or, as the gunners say, “work”); this will cause a grenade to burst and your people may suffer.

But in reality this is not so. The designers made handling the fuse quite safe. This is achieved by the fact that additional details are placed in it, which ensure its safety.

Rice. 95. This is how the fuse of the KTM-1 brand is arranged; the right figure shows the location of the parts of the fuse before the shot

For example, let's introduce you in more detail to the device of a very common fuse of the KTM-1 brand. This fuse was created by the Soviet designer M. F. Vasiliev. The main parts of the KTM-1 propeller and their mutual arrangement are shown in fig. 95. Pay attention to the fact that this fuse has not one striker, but two: one is the head, and the other is the inertial action.

The KTM-1 fuse has two actions: instant and delayed; the nature of the action depends on whether the fuse cap is removed or not removed before loading: if removed, the fragmentation effect of the projectile is obtained; if not removed, - high-explosive.

How the KTM-1 fuse works, follow the pictures (Fig. 96). Imagine that the cap is removed from the fuse. At the moment of the shot, by inertia, the head drummer settles down; settling, it compresses the spring. At the same moment, a massive copper extensor cylinder also descends by inertia and sits on a clawed fuse, which, for clarity, is shown separately in Fig. 97. In this case, the outwardly bent ends of the fuse legs jump over the annular ledge made inside the extensor, and thus the extensor is firmly fastened to the clawed fuse. But the clawed fuse, in turn, is put on the inertial drummer. And it turns out that all these three parts - the extensor, the clawed fuse and the inertial drummer - are now firmly fastened to each other with the help of the fuse tabs and begin to act together as one.

But then the projectile flew out of the barrel, the effect of the first push stopped.

Rice. 96 This is how the KTM-1 fuse works: the position of the parts at the time of the shot, during the flight of the projectile and at the moment the projectile hits the obstacle, if the cap was removed before firing and if the cap was not removed

The spring, compressed at the moment of firing by the head drummer, decompresses and pushes the head drummer forward, returning it to its original position. And the other spring pushes forward the inertial drummer, firmly fastened to the extensor; in this case, the primer approaches the sting of the head drummer. This position is maintained throughout the flight of the projectile. As soon as the projectile hits the barrier, the head drummer will quickly move back - towards the primer located on the inertial drummer, and prick it; followed by an explosion of the igniter capsule. The beam of fire from this explosion will instantly penetrate the detonator cap; the explosion of the detonator cap will be transferred to the detonator, and from it to the bursting charge. All this will happen almost instantly, and therefore the fragmentation effect of the grenade will turn out.

Rice. 97. This view has a claw fuse (part of the fuse is cut off so that its internal structure can be seen)

If the fuse cap was not removed before loading, then at the moment the projectile hits the obstacle, the head drummer will remain in its place, and the lower one - the inertial drummer - will move forward by inertia, and the primer will prick on the sting (see Fig. 96, bottom figure). This takes more time than when the cap is removed; the fuse will be slower, the projectile will penetrate deeper into the barrier before the fuse works, and the result will be a high-explosive action of the projectile.

There are many more fuses of various types; they differ in the arrangement of details, but the essence of their action is the same.

| |

“We went to the shaft - an elevation formed by nature and fortified with a palisade. All the inhabitants of the fortress were already crowding there. The garrison stood at gunpoint. The gun was moved there the day before. The commandant paced in front of his small formation. The proximity of danger animated the old warrior with unusual vivacity. Across the steppe, not far from the fortress, twenty men rode on horseback...

People traveling around the steppes, noticing movement in the fortress, gathered in a group and began to talk among themselves. The commandant ordered Ivan Ignatich to point his cannon at their crowd, and he himself put the wick. The core whirred and flew over them without doing any harm. The riders, scattered, immediately galloped out of sight, and the steppe became empty.

This is how Pushkin describes the shooting of the artillery of the Belogorsk fortress in the story "The Captain's Daughter". The core, released by the commandant of the Belogorsk fortress, flew over. But even if Ivan Ignatich hadn't missed, his core would still have done little. It differed little from the ancient stone cores. It was simply a cast-iron ball a little larger than a large apple. Of course, such a projectile could incapacitate an enemy soldier only if it hit him directly. But as soon as the core flew at least half a meter from a person, he remained alive and unharmed. Only falling into a dense crowd, the core could incapacitate several people.

However, it must be said that the artillery of the Belogorsk fortress was not the last word in technology even for its time. In the same 18th century, explosive shells already existed. Such shells - they were called grenades and bombs - bursting, hit living targets with fragments in an area with a radius of 10-15 steps.

A cast-iron ball was cast hollow and filled with gunpowder (Fig. 84).

In the hole left - the "point" - the grenades inserted a wooden tube filled with a slowly burning powder composition, which ignited when fired and burned for several seconds. When the composition in the (131) tube burned to the end and the fire reached the gunpowder, an explosion occurred. The grenade was torn apart and shrapnel hit people nearby.

It often happened that way. Having flown with a piercing howl, the grenade flopped deafly to the ground, and the powder composition in the tube still continued to burn; it was easy to tell by its strong hiss. There were daredevils who, risking their lives, pulled out a burning pipe from a grenade that had fallen nearby - and the grenade did not explode, did not cause harm.

If they wanted the grenade to burst faster, they simply cut off a part of the wooden tube with a knife before loading the gun. By the way, we note that the name "pipe" has survived to this day, although the complex mechanism that bears this name has nothing to do with the old wooden pipe, except for the purpose - to break the projectile. How a modern pipe works, you will learn by reading this chapter to the end. Just like a grenade, the bomb also worked. I must say that earlier "grenades" and "bombs" were called explosive shells of exactly the same device; all the difference between them was only in weight: if the shell weighed less than a pood (1 pood = 16.4 kilograms), it was called a grenade, and if more than a pood, then a bomb.

In a ball grenade and even a bomb, relatively little gunpowder can be placed. This grenade is weak. She flies badly, and her fragments scatter not far. An oblong projectile is much more profitable (Fig. 85).

As soon as they managed to make an oblong projectile stable in flight, ball grenades and bombs were immediately abandoned. They became the property of museums. (132)

But black powder is not so good for grenade equipment either: it has relatively little power, and it does not scatter fragments well. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, much more powerful blasting (crushing) explosives were invented: pyroxylin, melinite, TNT, RDX. Instead of gunpowder, they began to fill the shells with them. Such shells are much better at destroying enemy buildings and trenches, and their fragments scatter with great force. Advances in technology - and especially chemistry - made it possible to choose an explosive that is almost safe to transport and handle, is not afraid of shocks, blows and pricks; it explodes only under the action of a special "detonator". This substance is TNT, which is now equipped with almost all shells.

HOW GRANATE WORKS

“It was a warm August day in 1944. Soviet troops were completing the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders. The remnants of the defeated Nazi troops, retreating, clung to the defensive lines that they had prepared in advance. On this day, there was a battle for a large village, in which the Nazis tried to hold on at all costs. There was a swampy river in front of the village, and our tanks lingered in front of it; because of this, they could not help the infantry, which had already captured a section of the opposite bank.

I was sitting among the branches of a tall pine at the edge of the forest. This was my vantage point. From here, I had a good view of the entire battlefield.

I saw that our infantry lay down in front of the village. And from the side of the village, the crack of an enemy machine gun was clearly heard. This machine gun prevented our infantry from advancing, it did not allow a single shooter to raise his head. And the crossing of tanks was still delayed, and only artillery could help the infantry.

But it was impossible to determine where the machine gun was hiding, despite the fact that its annoying crackle was clearly audible somewhere very close by.

Our batteries fired heavily on the outskirts of the village, but the machine gun still did not stop.

Suddenly, one of our 152-millimeter grenades, accidentally not reaching the village, exploded at the very root of an old oak that stood alone on a small hillock between the village and the edge of the bushes where our infantry lay down. The mighty tree shuddered and, as if reluctantly, rose into the air. For a moment, roots torn from the ground hung helplessly over a column of smoke, and after that the oak fell heavily to the ground.

And then I noticed what I had been looking for for so long: an enemy machine-gun nest (Fig. 86).

The cover of the dugout was now clearly visible through binoculars: it consisted of four layers of logs laid one on top of the other. A long slit blackened below - a loophole for a machine gun. All this was perfectly (133) camouflaged by tall grass and low-hanging branches of the tree while it was intact.

Now that the target had been discovered, it was not difficult to transfer the fire of my 152-mm howitzers to it. Shells began to burst one after another near the machine-gun nest. A few minutes later, one of the explosions enveloped the entire target in smoke - and at the same moment, like splashes of water into which a stone was thrown on a grand scale, logs flew in all directions: the projectile hit right on target.

The enemy machine gun fell silent.

Thanks to the artillerymen, - the commander of the rifle company transmitted by phone.

Our infantry began to move forward quickly, and in a few minutes the Russian “cheers” were already heard in the streets of the village.

Soon the battle died down. Having seized a free moment, I went to look at the "work" of my favorite 152 mm howitzer. Without difficulty I found a familiar place: here is an oak uprooted with roots; the whole field is dotted with deep craters dug by our shells.

I climbed into one of the funnels. She came right up to my neck. It was so large that 15 people could fit around its circumference. (134)

And where is the machine-gun nest with a four-layer overlap? He is gone: in his place is a big hole. At the very bottom of it you can see broken, split pillars: here was the machine-gun nest.

About ten paces from the pit, I managed to find the barrel of a machine gun half covered with earth; elsewhere lay a battered steel helmet. This is all that remains of the Nazi machine gunners and their machine gun” (Fig. 87).

This is how an artillery officer told us about one of the combat episodes, in which he happened to be a participant.

You see that modern grenades are incomparably stronger than the artillery cannonballs of the Belogorsk fortress.

Of course, the destructive effect of a grenade depends on its caliber and weight, and on how large its bursting charge is. For example, in a crater from a 76 mm grenade in medium-density soil, you can hide only knee-deep, in a crater of a 122-mm grenade - only up to your waist, and in a funnel of a 152-mm grenade you can covertly place several people standing tall (Fig. 88).

But the rupture of a 420-mm shell digs out such a deep hole that a city one-story house would fit in it. The explosion of a 420 mm projectile ejects more than 250 cubic (135) meters of earth; to take out so much earth, 60 good diggers have to work all day, and to take it away, 30 railway platforms are needed! Even the gigantic Soviet walking excavator can take out that much earth in just 18 steps.

The destructive effect of a grenade produced by the gases of the bursting charge is called its high-explosive action.

The magnitude of the high-explosive action, the strength of the grenade can be judged by the volume of the funnel: the larger the volume of the funnel, the greater, consequently, the high-explosive action of the grenade.

HOW MUCH HUNDREDTHS OF A SECOND MEAN

The high-explosive action of a grenade depends not only on its caliber, but also on the moment at which it explodes. The same 420-millimeter grenade that rips out a crater the size of a house may not dig a crater at all, unless it explodes at the wrong time.

To obtain the greatest high-explosive action, it is important that the grenade explodes not at the very moment when it hits the ground, but a little later, already deepening into the ground. It is also not indifferent to what depth the grenade will have time to go into the ground: the grenade should burst not too early and not too late.

If the grenade penetrates too deep into the soil before it explodes, it may happen that the explosion will not be able to eject all the earth lying above the projectile; the explosion only compresses, compacts the soil, forming (136) a kind of cave in the place where the projectile burst. Funnels will not work at all.

Such an explosion underground is called a camouflage (Fig. 89). Most often, camouflages are obtained in soft soil, for example, in swampy.

When a grenade explodes too early, without having had time to go deep into the ground or other obstacle, most of the gases formed during its explosion will go up and to the sides; the high-explosive effect of the grenade in this case will be small.

It is calculated that explosive action will be best if the explosion occurs approximately 3-5 hundredths of a second after the grenade has touched the ground.

In this case, the high-explosive action of the grenade will manifest itself in full: the elastic gases formed during the explosion will throw out a whole fountain of earth, dig a deep funnel, and cause great destruction.

But is it possible to achieve an explosion just in time?

It turns out it's possible. To do this, a grenade must be equipped with a very precisely working mechanism that would control its explosion, would cause it at the right time.

An old wooden pipe is no longer suitable here: after all, it is impossible to accurately calculate when it will burn out, you cannot achieve accuracy in hundredths of a second from it.

In addition, the old ball-shaped grenades almost did not go deep into the ground, and their high-explosive effect was negligible; at best, they destroyed only light ground structures with the force of the explosion.

HOW THE GRANATE IS WORKED

A modern grenade is much more complicated than an old one, but it also acts incomparably stronger and more accurately.

A grenade (Fig. 90) or a mine (Fig. 91) is filled with a very strong explosive - TNT.

To cause an explosion of TNT filling a grenade, a push or a prick is not enough; it is necessary to blow up another substance next to TNT - tetryl. An explosion of tetryl causes an explosion of a TNT explosive charge in a grenade or mine.

But tetryl, in turn, does not explode from shocks and blows; otherwise, grenades and mines would have burst at the moment of the shot, not yet flying out of the bore. To explode a tetryl, it is necessary to make an explosion of a third substance next to it - mercury fulminate, which, as you know, is used in capsules.

The explosion of a mercury fulminate capsule is caused in many ways. If you get acquainted with the two most common, you will clearly understand the essence of this matter. (137)

FUSE

The grenade, as well as the mine, is equipped with an ingenious, complex and precise mechanism - a fuse. The essence of the action of the fuse can be understood if you imagine a diagram of its device (Fig. 92).

A tube is screwed into the head of the projectile - the fuse body. A metal rod is inserted into the body - a striker, which can move along the body. Sharp, like a needle, the end of the drummer - the sting, is located above the detonator cap at a small distance from it. The blunt end of the drummer protrudes outward. When a projectile flying head first falls to the ground or hits an obstacle - the wall of a house, a dugout, etc. - the blunt end of the striker stumbles upon this obstacle; the drummer moves back, piercing the detonator cap with his sharp sting; there is an explosion of explosive mercury contained in it, which was pierced with its tip by a sting that penetrated into the primer. This explosion is immediately transmitted to the tetryl detonator, and from it to the explosive charge of a grenade or mine. This is the essence of the action of the fuse. In fact, it is much more complicated to protect people working with the projectile, (138)

from accidents if a projectile or mine is accidentally dropped on the ground.

The fuses of another system do not have a sting at all. The main part of such a fuse resembles a primus pump tube; it contains a piston with a leather collar. Under the piston, at a short distance from it, there is an igniter cap, and below it is a detonator cap. When a mine meets an obstacle, the piston is sharply pressed into the tube - the sleeve. From this, the air in the sleeve is quickly compressed, and from compression it heats up so much that by this heating and its pressure it causes the capsule to explode (Fig. 93).

{139}

IS IT POSSIBLE TO CONTROL THE GRENADE EXPLOSION?

Everyone who has been to war knows such cases: an enemy shell or mine explodes two or three steps from a soldier sitting in a trench; a mighty wave of hot air picks him up, throws him to the bottom of the trench: he loses consciousness, but, waking up, he is convinced that he is not even wounded, but only badly bruised - “shell-shocked” - and that his trench is intact.

What's the matter? How could it happen that a man remained alive a stone's throw from a shell explosion and that the trench was undamaged?

The explanation is very simple: a grenade or mine exploded as soon as it touched the ground. She gave a lot of fragments that flew over the trench without even injuring the soldier sitting in it. Since the projectile exploded without going deep into the ground, its high-explosive action was negligible, it did not even destroy the earthen trench. But he had a strong fragmentation effect. But no one was outside the trench. The soldier sitting in the trench experienced only the action of the blast wave.

As we said above, to get a high-explosive action of a projectile, you need to make it go deep into the ground before it explodes,

The fuses, with the device diagram of which you have just met, act instantly. They provide the projectile with a good fragmentation action, and the high-explosive action in this case is negligible. This is because the fuse is acting too fast. You need to slow down its action, give the projectile time to go deep into the ground and then only break it.

Is it possible to control the burst of the projectile in this way?

It turns out it's possible. It is only necessary to complicate the device of the fuse a little so that it can act differently in different cases.

Imagine that the basic fuse mechanisms remain unchanged, but the tetryl detonator is moved away from the primer that explodes at the moment the projectile hits the ground: they are separated by some space so that the explosion of the primer is not immediately transmitted to the tetryl detonator. Then the primer will cause with its explosion not a detonation - not a burst of a projectile, but only the appearance of fire inside the fuse - ignition: it will turn from a detonator capsule into an igniter capsule. Let's pass the fire from this explosion through the channel to another primer, which will be located next to the tetryl detonator and will cause its explosion at the right time. This second primer will therefore be a detonator cap. But so far we have not changed anything in essence: the beam of fire from the igniter capsule will almost instantly reach the detonator capsule through the channel, blow it up, and with it the tetryl detonator and explosive charge. The fuse action will still be almost instantaneous, the projectile will have a good fragmentation action and a weak high explosive. Now let's close the channel (140) connecting both capsules; this is easy to do with a shut-off valve. Let's turn the valve so that there is no direct communication between the capsules through the channel (Fig. 94). For the beam of fire, let's leave another path from the igniter capsule to the detonator capsule - a longer detour along the circumferential channel, and in the middle of this circumferential channel we will put a "retarder" - a column of slowly burning powder composition. Then the beam of fire from the primer-igniter will not pass through the closed direct channel at all, but in the circumferential channel it will only reach the moderator and ignite it. When the moderator burns out, a beam of fire from it will penetrate through the circumferential channel to the detonator cap and cause it to explode, and with it the explosion of tetryl and explosive charge. But during the time that the moderator burns, the projectile will have time to go deep into the ground.

Do not think that the moderator burns for a very long time: it takes only three to five hundredths of a second to burn out. This is such a small period of time that the human consciousness does not catch. But this time is quite enough for the projectile to go deep into the barrier and only then burst. In this case, the projectile will produce destruction by the force of the gases formed during the explosion of the bursting charge; now the projectile will have a good high-explosive action, but the fragmentation action will decrease, since most of the fragments will remain inside the funnel.

There is another way to control projectile burst; you will get acquainted with this method when you read about the device of the KTM-1 fuse. (141)

HOW THE KTM-1 FUZE IS DESIGNED

But in reality this is not so. The designers made handling the fuse quite safe. This is achieved by the fact that additional details are placed in it, which ensure its safety.

For example, let's introduce you in more detail to the device of a very common fuse of the KTM-1 brand. This fuse was created by the Soviet designer M. F. Vasiliev. The main parts of the KTM-1 fuse and their relative position are shown in fig. 95. Pay attention to the fact that this fuse has not one striker, but two: one is the head, and the other is the inertial action.

How the KTM-1 fuse works, follow the drawings (Fig. 96). Imagine that the cap is removed from the fuse. At the moment of the shot, by inertia, the head drummer settles down; settling, it compresses the spring. At the same moment, the massive copper extensor cylinder also descends by inertia and sits on the pawl fuse, which, for clarity, is shown separately in Fig. 97. In this case, the outwardly bent ends of the fuse legs jump over the annular ledge made inside the extensor, and thus the extensor is firmly fastened to the clawed fuse. But the clawed fuse, in turn, is put on the inertial drummer. And it turns out that all these three parts - the extensor, the clawed fuse and the inertial drummer - are now firmly fastened to each other with the help of the fuse tabs and begin to act together as one.

But then the projectile flew out of the barrel, the action (143) of the first push stopped. The spring, compressed at the moment of firing by the head drummer, decompresses and pushes the head drummer forward, returning it to its original position. And the other spring pushes forward the inertial drummer, firmly fastened to the extensor; in this case, the primer approaches the sting of the head drummer. This position is maintained throughout the flight of the projectile. As soon as the projectile hits the barrier, the head drummer will quickly move back - towards the primer located on the inertial drummer, and prick it; followed by an explosion of the igniter capsule. The beam of fire from this explosion will instantly penetrate the detonator cap; the explosion of the detonator cap will be transferred to the detonator, and from it to the bursting charge. All this will happen almost instantly, and therefore the fragmentation effect of the grenade will turn out.

If the fuse cap was not removed before loading, then at the moment the projectile hits the barrier, the head drummer will remain in its place, and the lower one - the inertial drummer - will move forward by inertia, and the primer will prick on the sting (see Fig. 96, bottom figure). This takes more time than when the cap is removed; the fuse will be slower, the projectile will penetrate deeper into the barrier before the fuse works, and the result will be a high-explosive action of the projectile.

There are many more fuses of various types; they differ in the arrangement of details, but the essence of their action is the same.

Grenade Fragmentation

What can a grenade do with the fuse set to fragmentation?

The body of a 76 mm grenade weighs about 5 kilograms. It shatters into about 1000 pieces. Some of them - very small fragments, weighing less than 5 grams - cannot do much harm: they are only able to injure a person who is very close to the place where the shell exploded. And the rest of the fragments - larger ones - are "lethal". Scattering to the sides, they are capable of incapacitating a person, a horse, damaging an enemy vehicle or weapon.

In this case, the fragments scatter not equally in all directions: mainly to the right and left, somewhat less forward and even less backward (Fig. 98). (144)

The area on which fragments of a grenade inflict a fairly reliable defeat on the enemy can, with some approximation, be taken as a rectangle.

The measure of the fragmentation action of a grenade or mine is the area of a rectangle within which, when one grenade explodes, at least 50% of the targets located on it will be hit. The area of such a rectangle is usually called the area (or zone) of the actual lesion.

Separate fragments fall far beyond the area of actual destruction; often they fly 100-200 meters from the place where the grenade exploded. And individual fragments of shells of larger calibers - for example, 152-millimeter ones - sometimes fly even further: 300-400 meters from the place where the shell burst. But when gunners compare the fragmentation effect of grenades or mines of various calibers, they are not referring to such individual fragments, but to the area within which at least half of the targets located on it are hit, that is, the area of actual destruction.

Fragments of a 76-mm grenade inflict a real defeat on an area of 450 square meters, that is, on such an area as approximately occupies a separate courtyard with outbuildings and (145)

a small garden (Fig. 99); fragments of a 152-mm grenade - on an area of 1750 square meters, that is, on one sixth of a hectare (Fig. 100).

The greater the angle at which the projectile meets the target - the angle of the meeting - the more damaging fragments will be. The best fragmentation action is obtained at meeting angles close to 90° (from 75° and more).

A mine fired from a mortar flies along a very steep trajectory and falls to the ground at an angle close to 90°. Fragments of its body scatter almost evenly in all directions (Fig. 101); therefore, the mine inflicts a real defeat on the area, which in shape is a circle. You will get acquainted with the dimensions of this circle for a mine of each caliber by carefully examining Fig. 102. On it

are shown to compare the area of actual destruction by fragments of grenades of different calibers. This drawing clearly shows the remarkable property of a mine: its fragmentation effect is much stronger than that of a grenade of the same caliber. This is because the grenade falls less steeply (Fig. 103), and most of its fragments do not inflict damage: some fall into the ground at the very place where the grenade fell, others fly up and fall to the ground, having already lost their destructive power. Thus, a grenade or mine, equipped with a modern fuse, is capable of not only destroying trenches, dugouts and other structures: with its fragments, it also strikes live targets well.

ARMOR-PIERCING SHELL

There are cases when it is especially important that the grenade breaks through a solid barrier before the explosion and only then explodes. Getting into a tank, for example, is only half the battle; it is also necessary to make sure that the grenade breaks through the armor and explodes inside the tank: only then will it seriously damage the tank, destroy its engine, disable its crew, make the tank incapacitated.

But an ordinary grenade, which has a relatively weak warhead, breaks itself against strong armor. Its rupture occurs outside the tank and often does not cause great harm to him. However, a large-caliber grenade explosion can cause serious damage to the tank, even if the armor remains intact: the tank crew can be shell-shocked from the concussion during the explosion of a large explosive charge, and the tank’s armament can be damaged; the blast wave sometimes even rips off the turret from the tank and completely disables the tank.

But for guns of medium and small calibers, special "armor-piercing" shells are needed, which are arranged differently than ordinary ones. Such a projectile must be very strong, especially its head; it is made thick and solid, and the fuse is screwed into the bottom (Fig. 104). Such a fuse is called a bottom fuse.

The projectile itself is made of the best hardened steel, and in order (148) to prevent the destruction of the entire projectile at the moment of impact, triangular undercuts are machined on its head (see Fig. 114).

Methods for manufacturing such especially strong steel were developed by the famous Russian metallurgist scientist D.K. Chernov; he described them in his work "On the preparation of steel armor-piercing shells", completed in 1885. D.K. Chernov had in mind the manufacture of shells capable of penetrating the armor of ships; but his method has come in handy even today for the manufacture of shells for anti-tank guns.

A durable armor-piercing projectile pierces the tank's armor. The fuse of an armor-piercing projectile counts on a delayed action in order to give the projectile time to penetrate the armor inside the vehicle and explode there.

The penetration of a projectile into a solid barrier and the destruction of the barrier by the impact force is called its impact action (Fig. 105). Therefore, they say about an armor-piercing projectile that it has a good impact effect.

But the mere massiveness of an armor-piercing projectile is not enough to ensure its reliable action. Participants of one of the battles tell about such a case.

An enemy gun suddenly opened fire on one of our tanks. Terrible blows one after another shook the mighty fighting machine - it was enemy shells hitting the tank. But for some reason, their explosions took place away from the tank, a few meters from it. The armor was not pierced anywhere, the tank remained unharmed and continued to move. In the meantime, the crew of the tank discovered the enemy cannon and knocked it out with a few successful shots from their own cannon. The gun was silent. (149)

What saved the tank? Why didn’t the shells that hit him penetrate the armor, didn’t burst inside the tank? The fact is that the projectile reliably pierces the armor if it hits it at a right angle, that is
when the meeting angle is equal to or close to a straight line (Fig. 106). When the meeting angle is small and the projectile strikes obliquely, then it can slide along the smooth surface of the armor and fly off to the side. As the gunners say, at a small angle of impact, the projectile ricochets.

Obviously, the Nazi gunners did not shoot very skillfully - all their shells hit the beveled armor plates of the Soviet tank and ricocheted. This circumstance helped our tank to remain unscathed.

To reduce the ricocheting of large-caliber armor-piercing shells, their special "armor-piercing" tips are made blunt (see Fig. 104). The blunt "armor-piercing" tip is made of a relatively soft metal; this allows him not to slide on the armor, but to stick to it, as it were; therefore, a projectile equipped with such a tip usually does not ricochet, even if the angle of impact is small. But this is not the only purpose of the "armor-piercing" tip; in addition, it does not allow the body of the projectile to break from a strong impact on the armor, because the soft metal of the tip softens the blow. Flattening upon impact with strong armor, the relatively soft blunt tip heats up strongly and becomes even softer because of this; thus, it serves as a kind of "lubricant" for the body of the projectile, creating better conditions for it to penetrate armor. But a blunt tip would experience tremendous air resistance during the flight of the projectile. Therefore, another tip is put on top of it - a weak, but well-streamlined ballistic tip (see Fig. 104), which is easily destroyed as soon as the projectile touches the target. You will understand its meaning better when you read chapter six. Such a device for an armor-piercing projectile was created and proposed by the hero of the Russian-Japanese war, Admiral S. O. Makarov.

In the future, armor-piercing shells with tips were borrowed from the Russians by the British, Germans, French, Americans, who learned a lot from the Russian army and navy. (150)

RICOCHET SHOOTING

Ricochet is harmful when you need to shoot at armor. But gunners can also benefit from the ricochet.

You already know that with a delayed action fuse on soft ground, deep craters and even camouflages are obtained. But this happens at large angles of the meeting of the grenade with the ground. At a small meeting angle - no more than 18-22 degrees - a grenade with a delayed-action fuse will slide along the ground, leaving a furrow in it 1-2 meters long, and fly further. A stone also flies exactly the same way, bouncing off the water, if it is skillfully and strongly thrown at a small angle to its surface (Fig. 107).

The stone may bounce several times in this case. The grenade, after the ricochet, will not fly long: after hitting the ground, it will immediately explode under the action of the fuse.

Most often, the gap occurs at a height of 3–4 meters above the ground, 10–15 meters from the furrow that the grenade drew on the ground. Fragments of a grenade that exploded after a ricochet inflict a real defeat on enemy soldiers in approximately the same area as when firing a grenade with a fuse set to fragmentation.

But ricochet shooting has its advantages. Fragments of a grenade that exploded on the ground can only hit open targets; soldiers, (151) hiding in the trenches, they will hit only when the grenade explodes in the trench itself. Fragments of a grenade exploding in the air,
they can also hit those soldiers who took refuge in trenches, pits or ravines with steep slopes (Fig. 108).

This is the advantage of a ricochet grenade and is used by artillerymen to destroy enemy infantry dug in in cases where it is possible to obtain angles of the projectile with the ground less than 18–22 degrees and when there is sufficiently hard ground in the target area.

SUB-CALIBER PROJECT

In order to enhance the effect of an armor-piercing projectile, one must first of all try to increase the speed of its flight. You know from physics that the energy of a body is equal to half of its mass times the square of its speed. If the mass of the projectile is doubled, its energy will be doubled, and if its speed is doubled, the energy of the projectile will be quadrupled.

That is why designers strive primarily to increase the flight speed of armor-piercing projectiles.

But it was not a professional designer who managed to witty solve this problem, but a retired Russian sergeant major (foreman) Nazarov, who back in 1912 invented a sub-caliber projectile. The tsarist officials did not appreciate the great practical significance of this projectile and rejected Nazarov’s invention, and a year later the invention of the sub-caliber projectile was patented by the German “cannon king” Krupp: military secrets were poorly kept in the tsarist military ministry.

What is this projectile and how does it work?

First of all, it should be noted that the sub-caliber projectile does not have an explosive charge at all: it inflicts damage only with its strong core (Fig. 109), the caliber of which is much smaller than the caliber of the gun; hence the name of the projectile.

The core is made of a very hard and heavy alloy, and the body of the projectile is made of ordinary steel. The ballistic tip is made of light metal or even plastic. (152)

Its peculiar shape also contributes to a decrease in the weight of a sub-caliber projectile: if you remove the ballistic tip from it, then in its outline it resembles a spool of thread.

As a result, the weight of a sub-caliber projectile is two times less than the weight of a conventional armor-piercing projectile of the same caliber: for example, an armor-piercing projectile of a 76-millimeter cannon weighs 6.5 kilograms, while its own sub-caliber projectile weighs only 3.02 kilograms.

But what is the significance of the low weight of a sub-caliber projectile?

The combat charge of the gun is capable of giving the projectile a push of a certain force. If this force is expended once in order to throw a heavier projectile, and another time in order to throw a lighter projectile, then it will turn out that the lighter projectile, as having a smaller mass, will receive a greater speed than the heavy one when pushed by the same force. And indeed: the initial speed of a 76-mm high-explosive fragmentation grenade is 680 meters per second, and a sub-caliber projectile for the same gun is 950 meters per second. This difference is even greater for the shells of the 57 mm anti-tank gun,

And the greater the speed of the projectile, the thicker armor it is able to penetrate. Indeed, a sub-caliber projectile pierces armor almost twice as thick as that which an ordinary armor-piercing projectile pierces.

When it hits a tank, the soft tip and body of the sub-caliber projectile are destroyed, while the hard core pierces the armor and penetrates the inside of the vehicle. In this case, the body of the sub-caliber projectile becomes (when the projectile hits the target) the same "lubricant" for the core, (153) as the blunt tip of the armor-piercing projectile, invented by S. O. Makarov, for the body of this projectile.

While the core of the projectile pierces the armor, it loses most of its speed, but at the same time it heats up strongly from friction and reaches a temperature of up to 900 degrees. At the same time, fragments of pierced armor are also heated.

Having penetrated inside an enemy tank, a sub-caliber projectile acts like a big bullet; fragments of armor pierced by him also defeat the tank crew. From the high temperature, gasoline vapors inside the tank ignite, and a fire starts in the car. Once in fuel tanks or ammunition, a sub-caliber projectile causes a fire or explosion.

But the sub-caliber projectile also has a negative side: due to its lightness and unfavorable shape, it quickly loses speed in flight; therefore, it is only suitable for shooting at short distances - 300–500 meters. Why this happens, you will understand by reading chapter six.

GAS JET THAT PUNCHES ARMOR

At the exhibition of captured weapons in the Central Park of Culture and Leisure in Moscow, at one time the attention of visitors was attracted by Nazi German tanks brought to Moscow from the battlefields, knocked out by Soviet artillery. There were also T-3 medium tanks and T-4 heavy tanks from the first years of the war; there were also "Tiger", "Panther" tanks and "Ferdinand" self-propelled artillery mounts with a frontal armor of 200 millimeters, which first appeared on the battlefields in the summer of 1943, and "Royal Tigers" of the 1944 model, - in a word, the entire arsenal of Hitler's tank technology. Holes gaped in each of these tanks - traces of the work of Soviet artillery. Tolst was the armor of enemy tanks, made in the last years of the war; but there was no such thick armor that a Soviet armor-piercing projectile would not have pierced.

With particular interest, visitors to the exhibition looked at the peculiar holes that could be observed on some captured tanks: the edges of these holes looked like the armor was melted.

How did they melt such thick armor? - many visitors of the exhibition asked each other this question in bewilderment. And if an artilleryman was in the crowd of visitors at that time, he would say, proud of the Soviet technology that managed to overcome the strength of the fascist armored monsters:

This is the work of our armor-burning projectile! Clean job, right?

Armor-piercing projectile! What is it, how does it burn through armor? Indeed, in order to melt steel, it must be heated in an open-hearth (154) furnace to a very high temperature - 1400-1500 degrees, and, moreover, maintain this temperature for a long time; and the projectile explodes instantly. When does he have time to melt the steel? And what temperature should develop during this explosion so that in a few thousandths of a second, during which the shell burst acts on the tank’s armor, this armor has time to heat up so much that it melts? Perhaps the projectile is filled with some special substance?

These are the questions that involuntarily arose among the visitors of the exhibition when looking at the peculiar holes in the armor of fascist tanks.

Artillerymen willingly satisfied the curiosity of the visitors.

An armor-piercing projectile is filled with the most common explosive that other projectiles are equipped with. There is no trick in its device, with the exception of just one feature: the projectile is not completely filled with explosive; in the upper part of the explosive charge, a depression was left, similar in shape to an ordinary funnel (Fig. 110). It is this depression in the bursting charge that, it turns out, plays a huge role; it radically changes the action of the projectile.

You already know that if there is a funnel-shaped recess in the explosive, the gases of the bursting charge do not diverge evenly in all directions, but, colliding, merge into one powerful jet directed from the recess (Fig. 111). It turns out a directed gas jet; it resembles a strong jet of water from a hose, but only acts, of course, immeasurably stronger than a water jet. It is this powerful jet of highly heated gases, together with small particles of a metal (155) funnel, striking the armor with great force, breaks through it (see Fig. 110). At the same time, it heats the armor at the point of impact so much that the edges of the hole turn out to be melted, as if the armor was not pierced, but burnt. Hence the name of the projectile - armor-burning. The name is not entirely correct: it reflects the external sign of the action of the projectile, and not its essence. The essence of the action of the projectile lies in the strong impact of the gas jet on the armor, in its so-called cumulative action. Shells of this type are now called - cumulative.

A remarkable feature of the cumulative projectile is that it does not penetrate armor with its body or core, but only with the force of impact of gases and small particles of a metal funnel. Therefore, neither the strength of the body of the projectile, nor the speed of its flight are of the same importance as for conventional armor-piercing projectiles. A cumulative projectile flies at a relatively low speed.

A high speed is even harmful to a cumulative projectile: at high speed, the projectile could break on the armor before the gases had time to gather into a powerful jet.

The cumulative projectile also has one more feature: the detonator is placed near the bottom, and not in the head part: it turns out that such a position of the detonator further enhances the directional effect of the gas jet. While the beam of fire goes through the through channel from the fuse to the detonator, the thin head of the projectile manages to break on the armor and the projectile comes close to the armor with its funnel-shaped recess. The action of the directed jet of gases is thus so strong that the gas jet pierces thick steel armor.

SHOOTING ON CONCRETE

At the end of 1939, the Finnish government, instigated by the American-British and German imperialists, began military operations against the Soviet Union and created a threat to Leningrad. To ensure the safety of this important industrial center, the Soviet troops, (156) going on the offensive, came close to the fortifications of the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus in December. Reinforced concrete long-term structures blocked the path of our troops: behind the thick reinforced concrete wall of each such structure were machine guns and guns; through small narrow windows - loopholes - they fired deadly fire. Only at the cost of huge losses could the offensive be continued as long as these fortifications remained intact.

That is why it was decided to first destroy the long-term structures and only after that advance further; but it was not so easy to destroy them. The enemy carefully hid and covered each reinforced concrete fortification with earth and stones, he also built a lot of false structures.

Therefore, before destroying the concrete, it was necessary to make sure that the structure was located exactly here, and then remove the earth and stones that covered it from the concrete. That is why at first they opened fire on all suspicious places with ordinary high-explosive grenades familiar to us.

These grenades exploded with a rattle and crackle when they hit concrete walls. But the fortifications continued to stand steadfast and sow death. Moreover, the infantry soldiers saw with their own eyes how heavy grenades, instead of breaking through the walls of the fortifications, burst in the air, bouncing like a ball from these solid walls.

It was then that the legend of the "rubber firing points" was born. A thick layer of rubber, - some talkative "eyewitnesses" assured, - covers each of the fortifications, shells bounce off this rubber and tear in the air, without causing any harm to the fortifications.

Of course, the gunners only chuckled when they listened to such stories. They knew perfectly well what was the matter: an ordinary grenade could not penetrate a thick layer of strong concrete; moreover, it usually cannot even go deep into a concrete wall: its body, which is not strong enough for this, collapses when it hits concrete, and the gap really occurs in the air, and if the meeting angle is not large enough, then the projectile ricochets and again bursts in the air; no rubber, of course, there is no mention of it.

A high-explosive grenade designed to destroy earthen fortifications is not suitable for destroying concrete. This requires a special projectile. And artillerymen have such a projectile.

As soon as the concrete is “opened”, that is, by firing high-explosive grenades, the “pillow” covering the fortification made of earth and stone is removed from it, concrete-piercing shells are used.

Like an armor-piercing projectile, a concrete-piercing projectile is made from the strongest steel, its head is hardened. A fuse designed for delayed action is placed at the bottom of the projectile (Fig. 112). But still, concrete is not as strong as armor, so the head (157) the part and walls of a concrete-piercing projectile may be thinner than an armor-piercing one. This means that more explosive can be placed in such a projectile, and its effect upon rupture will be stronger.

However, as with armor shooting, the strength and power of the projectile alone does not ensure the success of the shooting; it is also necessary to ensure that the angle of the projectile’s meeting with the concrete surface is not less than 60 degrees, otherwise the projectile will not go deep into the concrete, but will only chip off an insignificant layer from it or, even worse, ricochet and explode in the air without causing any harm to the target.

On the other hand, if large-caliber concrete-piercing shells hit successfully, they are able to destroy the most durable structure. Concrete-piercing artillery shells of the Soviet Army clearly testified to this during the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line in the war with the White Finns in the winter of 1939/40, and then in numerous battles of the Great Patriotic War. With the help of these shells, the Soviet Army took even the strongest fortresses, including Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad) - a fortress that the Nazis considered completely impregnable. Concrete walls 1.5 meters thick, fastened with ten layers of reinforcement from three-centimeter round iron, turned out to be unreliable protection from Soviet artillery fire. After the shelling, these walls had an unsightly appearance: everywhere the concrete was gnawed and chipped so much that the iron rods of the reinforcement, tangled and bent by the force of shell explosions, stuck out in different directions, like giant grass crumpled by the feet of a giant (Fig. 113). And where two or three shells hit the same place, there was a gaping hole in the thickness of the wall. The garrison of the fortification either could not withstand the continuous blows of enormous force, which gradually destroyed the roof and walls of the fortification, and fled, or perished under the rubble. In both cases, the structure, broken by concrete-piercing shells, ceased to serve as an obstacle to the advance of our infantry. (158)

PROJECT LEAVING A TRAIL IN FLIGHT

When you have to shoot at a target that is moving fast - on an airplane or on a tank - it is useful to see the entire path of the projectile, its entire trajectory: this makes it easier to zero in, since the shooter can see whether the projectile flew above or below the target, to the right or left of it and in which direction you need to turn the gun to hit the next shot.

But an ordinary projectile is not visible during flight.

That is why they invented special projectiles that leave a mark in the air - tracer projectiles (Fig. 114).

Such a projectile traces, that is, marks its path with a stream of colored smoke - red, green, yellow. To do this, a special composition is pressed into the body of the bottom fuse or into a special tracer (see Fig. 114). This composition is called tracer.

When fired from the flame of propellant gases of a warhead, the tracer ignites and burns during the flight of the projectile, leaving behind a luminous or smoke trail, which, as it were, traces the path of the projectile in the air.

Tracers are most often used when firing small-caliber guns at aircraft and tanks. (159)

Undershoots and non-breaks, - the gunners rejoiced.

At that moment, the breeze carried a cloying aroma: it was reminiscent of the sweetish smell of stale fruit.

Another 30 seconds. Still the same battery line. The sweet smell becomes unbearably cloying. And with the next turn - it becomes difficult to breathe, watery eyes, it becomes stuffy ... A bright cloud, like fog, reached for the battery. Now it's clear to everyone.

Gases! - a command is given, and everyone grabs their gas masks ... ”This is how a participant in the First World War recalls the first shelling of his battery with chemical shells. (160)

According to the device, the chemical projectile did not differ from a grenade (Fig. 115). But instead of an explosive, it was filled with a poisonous substance (abbreviated as OV). The poisonous substance was usually placed in the projectile in liquid form; part of the projectile chamber was left unfilled in case of expansion of the substance with increasing temperature. The shell was made hermetic. He was supplied with an instantaneous fuse so that it would explode without going deep into the ground, and the poisonous substance would freely spread in the air.

When falling, the chemical projectile did not scatter into fragments and did not hit them like an ordinary grenade: the fuse with a detonator had only enough power to tear off the head of the projectile and break, deploy its body.

If the poisonous substance was unstable, then when the projectile burst, it was almost completely mixed with the air, forming a cloud that moved with the wind.

If the projectile was equipped with a persistent poisonous substance, then it was most often sprayed in the form of drops. These drops evaporated gradually - often over several days.

One projectile with an unstable poisonous substance created a cloud from 20 to 1000 cubic meters, depending on the caliber (from 75 to 155 millimeters), and one projectile with a persistent poisonous substance infected an area from 20 to 200 square meters.

The explosion of one chemical projectile could not bring much harm: the poisoned area was small; if the projectile contained unstable OM, it quickly dissipated. Usually the fire of several batteries was needed to create and maintain a sufficiently dense cloud of OM.

Projectiles were also made of mixed action: in addition to the explosive, a small amount of solid poison was added to the projectile.

{161}

substances - and a fragmentation-chemical projectile was obtained. He hit with shrapnel almost the same as an ordinary grenade, but at the same time did not allow him to work without gas masks.

The effect of chemical projectiles was quite diverse: they used suffocating, lachrymal, sneezing, poisonous toxic substances; blistering substances were also used: a drop of such a substance would fall on the skin, and after a few hours an abscess would form on it, and then an ulcer. A mixture of these substances was also used.

The use of poisonous substances in war is prohibited by international conventions; but the Germany of Emperor Wilhelm was no more respectful of international treaties than was Hitler's Germany, and in 1915 the Germans were the first to use poisonous substances; and after that other warring countries began to apply them.

In 1935, fascist Italy used chemical shells against the Abyssinians. The Nazi army was preparing to use poisonous substances in the Second World War, but this was not done for fear that then its opponents would use poisonous substances against itself. Again in 1951, the US imperialist troops used chemical shells against the Korean People's Army.

If the poisonous substance in a chemical projectile is replaced by a smoke-forming substance, such as phosphorus, then when the projectile bursts, thick smoke is formed, which makes it difficult to observe the actions of the troops and shoot accurately. Observation posts, machine guns, guns will be, as they say, "blinded" by this thick, impenetrable smoke. (162)

Such shells are called smoke shells (Fig. 116). They were also used in World War II. Smoke projectiles are not poisonous.

SHRAPNEL

For a long time - back in the 16th century - artillerymen thought about this question:

What is the point of hitting an enemy soldier with a large, heavy cannonball when a small bullet is enough to disable a man?

And in those cases when it was necessary not to destroy the walls, but to defeat the enemy infantry, the artillerymen began to load the guns not with cores, but with a large number of small stones.

But loading a gun with a bunch of stones is inconvenient: the stones are crushed in the barrel; in flight, they quickly lose speed. Therefore, soon - at the beginning of the 17th century - they began to replace stones with spherical metal bullets.

To make it more convenient to load the gun with a large number of bullets, they were previously placed in oblong bags, and subsequently they began to use round (cylindrical) boxes for this purpose.

Such a projectile was called buckshot. The buckshot shell breaks at the moment of the shot. Bullets fly out of the cannon in a wide sheaf. They are good at hitting living targets - advancing infantry or cavalry, literally sweeping it off the face of the earth.

Buckshot has survived to this day: it is used when firing from small-caliber guns to repel an enemy attack, for self-defense (Fig. 117).

But buckshot has a significant drawback: its spherical bullets quickly lose speed, and therefore buckshot only works at 150–500 meters from the gun (depending on the caliber of the bullets and the strength of the charge).

Therefore, for a long time - already in the 17th century - artillerymen began to fill a grenade with bullets and gunpowder and in this way send bullets further than 500 meters. Such a projectile - a grapeshot grenade - was first described by the Russian artilleryman Onisim Mikhailov in his book "The Charter of Military, Cannon and Other Matters Relating to Military Science", published in 1621. This did not stop the British from crediting the invention of the grapeshot grenade to the English Captain Shrapnel, who allegedly invented the projectile in 1803. From the British, this name passed to other countries. And until now, a projectile filled with bullets is called shrapnel, although the projectile was invented in Russia a century and a half before the birth of the English captain Shrapnel.

A grapeshot grenade exploded like any grenade, and showered the enemy, in addition to fragments, with bullets. (163)

A wooden tube with a powder composition was inserted into the point of this projectile, as well as into a grenade.

If, when firing, it turned out that the tube burned for too long, a part of it was cut off for the next shots. And they soon noticed that the projectile strikes best when it bursts in flight, in the air, and showers people with bullets from above.

But few bullets were placed in a ball projectile, only 40-50 pieces. Yes, of them a good half was wasted, flying up (Fig. 118). These bullets, having lost speed, then fell to the ground without causing harm to the enemy.

carries bullets exactly to the place where she was "ordered" to explode (Fig. 119). It is like a small flying gun: it shoots when the shooter needs it, and showers bullets at the target.

In an oblong shrapnel, much more bullets are placed than in a spherical one, for example, in a 76 mm one - about 260 spherical bullets made of an alloy of lead and antimony.

A thick sheaf of these bullets, with a successful break, showers an area about 150-200 meters deep and 20-30 meters wide - almost a third of a hectare.

This means that the bullets of one successfully exploding shrapnel will cover in depth a section of a large road along which a whole company - 150-200 people - goes to the colony (165). In width, the bullets will cover the entire road with its shoulders.

The mechanism that allows you to control the shrapnel is its remote tube, which was invented by the Russian designer engineer S.K. Komarov. You will read further about the device and operation of the handset.

The action of shrapnel was studied in detail and described by the famous Russian artillery scientist V. M. Trofimov.

However, shrapnel is already a shell of the past: it was almost never used during the Second World War, and here's why. All officers and soldiers are now equipped with steel helmets. A round shrapnel bullet will not normally penetrate this helmet. In a trench or behind a tree, it is not difficult to hide from shrapnel bullets (Fig. 120). And it turns out that the strengths

shrapnel is almost never used in modern combat. And the manufacture of shrapnel is difficult, its cost is high, it uses a large amount of scarce metals - lead, antimony. In addition, the moral impact of shrapnel on the enemy is small, its gap is relatively quiet; when falling to the ground, shrapnel almost does not inflict defeat on the enemy.

In our time, close "relatives" of shrapnel are used: incendiary and lighting shells. They are related by the fact that they explode in the air after as much time after the shot as the shooter needs, accurate to a tenth of a second, and the principle of the device and operation of all these shells can be considered the same. (166)

INCENSIBLE SHELL

A heated battle had been going on for several hours. From the frequent explosions of our shells, thick black smoke stood like a solid wall above the village occupied by the Nazis. Both the vegetable gardens and the street of the village abandoned by the population were pitted with craters from grenade explosions. Many houses were destroyed. But the enemy garrison still stubbornly held out in the rest. And as soon as our artillery transferred its fire into the depths of the village, clearing the way for its infantry, the surviving enemy machine guns immediately began to crackle again.

But over the village dense tangles of reddish smoke appeared in the air, and the roofs of the village houses suddenly began to smoke. And in a few minutes, almost the entire village was burning brightly, like a huge fire.

The bent figures of the Nazis appeared on the village street and in the gardens: they fled, leaving the village, so as not to burn alive in burning houses.

Hooray! - swept through our infantry chain, and she went on the attack. Enemy machine guns were silent.

{167}

The fact is that our battery did not fire shrapnel, but special incendiary projectiles.

In terms of design, an incendiary projectile is similar to shrapnel: it has the same body, the same remote tube, baffle, and expelling charge. But instead of bullets, it contains incendiary elements - iron boxes with thermite and igniter composition open from above (Fig. 121).

Thermite is a mixture of powdered aluminum and iron oxide. Lighting up, thermite gives a very high temperature - about 3000 degrees.

This is how an incendiary projectile works. A fast-burning powder cord - stopin - transfers fire from a remote tube to incendiary elements and an expelling charge (smoke powder). There is an explosion. Incendiary elements fly out of the glass like shrapnel bullets. Getting into the wooden walls or roofs of buildings, the elements go deep into them by about 10 centimeters and cause a fire. (168)

LIGHTING SHELL

The device of the lighting projectile also resembles the device of shrapnel (Fig. 122).

In a glass similar to shrapnel, instead of bullets, a cylinder with an illuminating composition is placed - the so-called illuminating star, tied with thin steel cables to a silk parachute.

Stopin transfers the fire from the remote tube to a small expelling charge, which pushes out the parachute with the lighting star and ignites it. The difference from shrapnel or an incendiary projectile is that bullets and incendiary elements fly out of the projectile when it breaks forward, and a parachute with a star flies back. This is necessary in order to reduce the speed of the fall of the illuminating star before the parachute opens, and thereby slow down its fall: after all, bullets or incendiary elements fly forward and down; the star flies out through the bottom of the projectile in the direction opposite to the direction of the projectile flight, that is, back and

{169}

up. And this allows the star to shine longer. In order to throw the star not forward, but backward, it is necessary to place an expelling charge of black powder not at the bottom of the projectile, but in its head part, and screw the bottom to the body on a very thin so-called gas thread. So that the parachute is not damaged when the projectile breaks, the steel partition - the diaphragm - rests on two split half-cylinders, and already these half-cylinders, resting against the bottom of the projectile, push it out as soon as the expelling charge explodes (see Fig. 122). Slowly descending on a parachute, the star well illuminates an area with a diameter of up to a kilometer for about a full minute.

BLAZING GRENADE

Today, a high-explosive grenade is used to attack infantry in the trenches. This is the name of a grenade, which, at the request of the shooter, can explode in the air. It differs from an ordinary grenade only in that instead of a percussion fuse, it
a so-called remote fuse is screwed in, which allows you to break a grenade, like shrapnel, at any point in its flight.

Fragments of a grenade exploding in the air will even reach that enemy soldier who is hidden in a trench (Fig. 123). This is the main advantage of a high-explosive grenade over shrapnel. How it acts in dots, you will understand by looking at fig. 124.

HOW THE PROJECT COUNTS THE SECOND

The mechanism that allows the projectile to be controlled in such a way that it explodes in the air at such a distance as the shooter needs is called a remote tube (Fig. 125) or a remote fuse (Fig. 126). A remote tube is used for shrapnel, lighting and incendiary projectiles, and a remote fuse is used for a high-explosive grenade.

The remote tube has a device similar to the one you have already seen in the impact fuze, namely, a firing pin with a primer and a sting. But here they seem to have changed places: the drummer is not behind, but in front of the sting; to stumble on a sting, you need a primer (170)

{171}

to move together with the drummer no longer forward, but backward. This movement of the drummer back and occurs at the time of the shot. The drummer is a heavy metal cup; when fired, when the projectile moves forward sharply, the drummer tends to stay in place by inertia, settles, and the primer attached to the bottom of the drummer pricks on the sting.

Ignition of the primer in the remote tube occurs, therefore, very early - even before the projectile leaves the gun.

But the beam of fire is not immediately transmitted to the expelling charge, it only ignites a special powder composition pressed into the annular groove of the upper remote part of the tube (that is, in its upper ring) (Fig. 127).

Having run along this groove, the flame reaches the gunpowder in the same groove of the middle, and then the lower remote ring. From there, through the ignition hole and the transfer channel, the flame enters the firecracker (or powder chamber). An explosion in a firecracker knocks out a brass circle, which closes the bottom of the tube, and the fire is transmitted further, into the central tube of the projectile, filled with powder cylinders. Having quickly run through it, the fire sets fire to the expelling charge, and as a result of the explosion of the expelling charge, the projectile bursts.

As you can see, the flame has to go quite a long way before it finally causes the projectile to burst. But this was done intentionally: while the flame moves along the channels and grooves of the rings, the projectile reaches the place previously designated by the shooter.

We just have to lengthen the path of the flame a little, and the projectile will explode later. On the contrary, if we shorten the path of the flame, shorten the burning time, the projectile will burst earlier.

All this is achieved by a suitable remote tube device.

The remote rings of the tube are rotated with a special key and set to any division. (172)

The whole secret lies in the fact that when we turn the rings, setting them to one division or another, we thereby move the through channel of the lower ring.

In order to understand how important this is, one must clearly imagine the path of the flame in the remote tube (see Fig. 127).

This path is made up of six parts. The first part - the flame runs along the groove of the upper ring of the tube. The second part - the flame runs through a short through channel from the upper ring to the middle one. The third part is the groove of the middle ring; the fourth - a through channel from the middle ring to the bottom; the fifth - the path along the groove of the lower ring and the sixth - the rest of the way to the expelling charge.

Of all these segments of the path, the longest in time are the upper, middle and lower annular grooves. When the flame tube is set to full burn time, it is necessary to run the upper groove to the very end, only then can it descend through the channel into the middle groove. And again you need to run through the entire middle, and then the lower groove from the beginning to the end, in order to then set off on a further journey.

But here we turn the ring so that the through channel now connects the middle of the grooves. This will immediately greatly shorten the path of the flame - now he does not need to run through each groove from beginning to end: it is enough to run half the top, then half the middle and half the bottom. The path of the flame in time will be halved.

By moving the rings, it is possible, therefore, to change the burning time of the tube.

You can not only set the tube for one or another burning time, but also get, if desired, an almost instantaneous rupture of the projectile. (173)

{174}

If you install the lower ring with the letter “K” against the risks on the plate, then the through channel will connect the very beginning of the upper groove to the very end of the lower groove, the fire will quickly be transferred from the tube head, from the primer, into the projectile. The projectile will explode 10–20 meters from the gun and shower bullets on an area up to 500 meters in front of the gun (Fig. 128).

This is the so-called installation "On buckshot". This is how shrapnel is installed when it is necessary to repel an attack by infantry or cavalry on guns. Shrapnel acts in this case like a buckshot.

If, against the risk, put the letters "Ud" on the lower ring, the fire from the upper ring will not be transmitted at all to the lower one: it will be prevented by a jumper, against which there will be a through channel of the lower ring.

The remote part of the tube in this case cannot cause the projectile to burst. But the tube also has an impact mechanism, similar to the fuse mechanism (Fig. 129).

If the projectile break is not caused by a remote device, it will be caused by another device - a percussion device: the shrapnel will explode, like a grenade, when it hits the ground. That is why the remote tube is called a double action tube.

Approximately the same arrangement and operation of the remote fuse. Its difference from the remote tube is mainly that it is equipped with a detonator, which causes the detonation of the explosive charge of the grenade.

However, an “obedient”, generally speaking, remote tube still has its “whims”: the powder composition burns differently at different atmospheric pressures, and at high altitude, where the pressure is very small, it does not burn at all; in addition, the tube is very sensitive to moisture.

To protect against dampness, the tube is covered with a cap, which is removed only before firing. But this does not always help: sometimes the remote tube still fails.

That is why samples of a remote tube were created, in which, for counting time, a kind of clockwork was inserted, working with an accuracy of a tenth of a second.

Shooting projectiles with such "stopwatches" is beneficial in that the operation of the clock mechanism is almost independent of atmospheric conditions. On the other hand, such stopwatch tubes are very difficult to manufacture, and they are very expensive.

{175}

Ig.8.1.40.W.

Marking in German ammunition.

VIII. Abbreviations used for

The marking on the sleeves is applied on the body and on the bottom cut. On the body of the cartridge cases of cartridge loading, black or red paint reproduces the same data that is available on the caps of the combat charge. They indicate the system to which this shot is intended, the weight of the warhead, the brand of gunpowder, the place and year of its manufacture, the gunpowder batch number, the day, month and year of the shot assembly, and, finally, the sign of the person responsible for the assembly of the shot.

Yes, markings: 7.5 cm KwK; 370 g.; Nz. R.P.; (135.5.5/2); Rdf. 1939/4;

means:

7.5 cm KwK-shot to the 75-mm tank gun;

370g. - the weight of the combat charge;

Nz. R.P.- pyroxylin tubular powder;

(135.5,5/2) - length, outer diameter and diameter of the tube channel;

Rdf. 1939/4-place, year of manufacture of gunpowder and its batch number;

Ig.8.1.40.- place, day, month and year of shot assembly;

W- sign of the person responsible for the assembly.

On the bottom section of the shells of cartridge-loading shots, and in some cases on the casings of the shells, markings are made in the form of letters and numbers, which are a symbol of the type of projectile or a change in charges.

	The head fuse MG-N is designed to equip 45-, 76- and 85-mm fragmentation and high-explosive fragmentation grenades for artillery systems of tank and self-propelled artillery instead of the KTM-1 fuse. The MG-N fuse has an instantaneous impact mechanism and a long-range fuse.
	The head fuse KTM-1 is used to break the projectiles when they meet with an obstacle. The KTM-2 and KTM-3 fuses differ from the KTM-1 fuse only in the size of the thread for the projectile point. The KTMZ-1 fuse (KTM-1 with a moderator) has the same device and thread sizes with the KTM-1 fuse and differs from the latter only in the innoia of a powder moderator placed above the detonator cap. The KTMZ-1 fuse is equipped with 76-mm high-explosive fragmentation steel grenades designed for firing at ricochet actions. Weight - 363g.
	V-429, RGM-2 and V-429E fuses are percussion head fuses, safety type (with isolation of the detonator cap from the detonator), with long-range erection. The fuses have the same device, differing from each other only in individual details that ensure the correct operation of the fuses when firing from various artillery systems.
	A detonator cap with a moderator is used only in the KTMZ-1 fuse.

The B-429 fuse is equipped with fragmentation, high-explosive fragmentation and high-explosive shells for guns of 85 mm caliber and more. The RGM-2 fuse is equipped with fragmentation, high-explosive fragmentation and smoke shells for 76-mm mountain guns, 122-mm and 152-mm howitzers, gun-howitzers and howitzers-guns. The V-429E fuse is used to complete shots with high-explosive fragmentation shells for smoothbore guns.

The marking on the sleeves is applied on the body and on the bottom cut. On the body of the cartridge cases of cartridge loading, black or red paint reproduces the same data that is available on the caps of the combat charge. They indicate the system to which this shot is intended, the weight of the warhead, the brand of gunpowder, the place and year of its manufacture, the gunpowder lot number, the day, month and year of the shot assembly, and, finally, the sign of the person responsible for the assembly of the shot.
Yes, markings: 7.5 cm KwK
370 g.
Nz. R.P. (135.5.5/2)
Rdf. 1939/4
Ig.8.1.40.W.

means 7.5 cm KwK - shot for a 75 mm tank gun; 370 g. - the weight of the combat charge; Nz. R. P. - pyroxylin tube powder; (135.5.5/2) - length, outer diameter and diameter of the tube channel; Rdf. 1939/4 - place, year of manufacture of gunpowder and its batch number, Ig.8.1.40. - place, day, month and year of shot assembly; W - sign of the person responsible for the assembly.

IX. Fuse for artillery ammunition.
	Head fuse MG-N Designed to equip 45-, 76- and 85-mm fragmentation and high-explosive fragmentation grenades for artillery systems of tank and self-propelled artillery instead of the KTM-1 fuse. The MG-N fuse has an instantaneous impact mechanism and a long-range fuse.
	Head fuse KTM-1 Serves to break shells when they meet with an obstacle. The KTM-2 and KTM-3 fuses differ from the KTM-1 fuse only in the size of the thread for the projectile point. The KTMZ-1 fuse (KTM-1 with a moderator) has the same device and thread sizes with the KTM-1 fuse and differs from the latter only in the presence of a powder moderator placed above the detonator cap. The KTMZ-1 fuse is equipped with 76-mm high-explosive fragmentation steel grenades designed for firing at ricochet actions. Weight - 363g.
	V-429, RGM-2 and V-429E fuses They are percussion head fuses, safety type (with isolation of the detonator cap from the detonator), with long-range erection. The fuses have the same device, differing from each other only in individual details that ensure the correct operation of the fuses when firing from various artillery systems.
	Detonator cap With moderator, used only in the KTMZ-1 fuse.
The B-429 fuse is equipped with fragmentation, high-explosive fragmentation and high-explosive shells for guns of 85 mm caliber and more. The RGM-2 fuse is equipped with fragmentation, high-explosive fragmentation and smoke shells for 76-mm mountain guns, 122-mm and 152-mm howitzers, gun-howitzers and howitzers-guns. The V-429E fuse is used to complete shots with high-explosive fragmentation shells for smoothbore guns.
	The bottom fuse MD-10 Inertial action non-fuse type is intended for the final loading of 57- and 76-mm armor-piercing tracer shells. Fuse weight -195 g.

X. Fuses

	Combined action fuse ZZ42 Used in improvised mines and booby traps, as well as an anti-recovery element. On its basis, the fuse of the West German army DM27 (Springmittel-zunder DM27) was made.
	Fuze ZZ-35 Used in makeshift mines and booby traps, as well as an anti-recovery element.
The Z.Z.35 fuse is mainly used for miep traps. The main parts: a body, a sleeve, inside of which there is a drummer with a mainspring, a thrust spring, locking balls, an igniter cap and a safety pin, based on it, the fuse of the West German army DM57 was made.
	ANZ-29 grater fuse-igniter Consists of a body with a standard thread for fastening at the installation site, a head, a tension cord with a grater, an igniter and a clamping sleeve for attaching a igniter cord. ANZ-29 igniters were usually contained in boxes of 20.
	Press-action fuse D.Z.35 The fuse is triggered by pressure on the pressure part. The latter, overcoming the resistance of the thrust spring, descends together with the pressure sleeve until the locking balls are in the wide part of the liner and the released drummer, under the action of the cocked mainspring, pierces the igniter primer.
	In the post-war years, an exact copy of the D.Z.35 fuse under the brand name DM26 (SpingmittelzunderDM26) was used in the West German army. It is used mainly in improvised anti-personnel mines and booby traps.

XI. Chemical weapons Smoke chemical weapons were mainly intended to create smoke screens and restrict visibility during the movement and redeployment of military units. Gaseous combustion products of chem. substances in conditions of free air access mainly contain soot and carbon dioxide (CO2)
	Smoke mine for 82-mm Soviet mortar arr.
	Smoke mine Nd.III Jg. arr. 34 to 81 mm heavy mortar. Sample 34.
	Smoke mine Nd.III.J. from cast iron to a 105-mm chemical mortar. arr 35.
	Smoke mine Nd.StIII.H N. steel to 105-mm chemical mortar. Arr 35 Steel case.
	D-462 R-4 solid-body smoke projectile for a 76 mm gun.
	Smoke projectile Nd.III.Jd 81408 for 75 mm field gun.
	Smoke chemical grenade Nb.Hgr.42
	Smoke bomb
Smoke chemical grenades and bombs, like all smoke chemical weapons, were intended to create smoke screens. But in some cases, in conditions of limited air access (quarries, casemates, dungeons, caves, basements, etc.), chemical smoke grenades and bombs could be used as a chemical poisonous weapon with poisonous carbon monoxide (CO). The second big trend among the varieties of chemical weapons is a weapon for the destruction of enemy manpower. During the war years, the Nazis used chemical weapons of destruction on several fronts. Separate samples are found during prospecting, especially on the territory of the Crimean peninsula.
	Smoke chemical grenade Nb.Hgr.39 Stock system. Weight - about 350 gr.
	Smoke chemical grenade Nb.Hgr.41 Gaseous combustion products of chemical substances in conditions of free air access mainly contain soot and carbon dioxide (CO), with limited air access, the formation of toxic carbon monoxide (CO) is possible.

Explosives, tubes, mechanisms designed to initiate detonation (explosion) of ammunition charges (projectiles, mines, bombs, etc.) when they meet a target, in the target area or at the required point of the flight trajectory.

According to the principle of determining the moment of operation, explosives are subdivided into shock explosives (they are triggered by the impact of an ammunition into an obstacle, rice. one , 3 ); remote V. (or tubes) - pyrotechnic ( rice. 2 ), mechanical and electrical (triggered on a trajectory after a given period of time after a shot, a rocket launch, a bomb drop); non-contact V. - radar, infrared, optical, capacitive, acoustic, barometric, vibration (work without contact with the target at an optimal distance from it); executive V. (triggered upon receipt of an encoded external signal from the base).

What is common in the V. device is: the presence of a detonation circuit (a set of elements that provide excitation of the detonation of a bursting charge); actuators (drummers with a sting, electrical contacts, graters, pistons, etc.) that cause ignition or explosion of igniter caps or detonator caps; safety mechanisms (springs, membranes, caps, windmills, engines, balls, checks, etc.) that ensure the safety of V. in official handling, when fired and on the trajectory. The excitation of the detonation of explosives is carried out mechanically (the igniter capsule or the detonator capsule is triggered by the kinetic energy of the striker or the work of the friction force when the grater is pulled out - the so-called friction explosives, rice. 1-4 ); with the help of electricity (an electric igniter or electric detonator is triggered by an electrical impulse); chemically (the reagent poured out of the broken ampoule ignites the combustible composition).

According to the time of deceleration from the moment of meeting with the target (obstacle) to the explosion, instantaneous and delayed shocks are distinguished. In artillery and aviation weapons, instantaneous action is achieved by screwing together the safety cap before firing ( rice. one and 2 ) or screwing it in flight with a windmill ( rice. 3 ). In V. engineering mines, instantaneous action is provided with the help of pressure, tension, break-tension and unloading devices ( rice. 4 ). Delayed action of explosives is carried out by including a moderator in the detonation circuit (in artillery drums), by installing a clock mechanism or a chemical reagent (in engineered mines and aircraft bombs). Artillery guns have a setting for high-explosive (inertial) action ( rice. one ), which ensures the explosion of the projectile after a significant deepening into the barrier. Percussion projectiles with a constant slowdown (self-liquidator) make it possible to explode a projectile if it misses its target. V. according to the place of their connection with ammunition are divided into head (in fragmentation, high-explosive, high-explosive fragmentation, cumulative and other shells, mines, bombs), bottom (in armor-piercing, concrete-piercing, high-explosive shells and bombs), head-bottom (in cumulative shells and mines), lateral (in aircraft bombs). Some ammunition has several V. to ensure non-failure operation. V., in which the detonator cap is separated from the detonator, are called V. of the safety type; V., in which the igniter capsule is separated from the detonator capsule, - semi-safety type. The presence of insulation increases the safety of V. in the event of premature operation of the igniter capsule or detonator capsule. The improvement of ammunition is in the direction of increasing the efficiency, reliability, and safety of ammunition.

Lit.: Tretyakov G. M. Artillery ammunition, M., 1947 (bibl.); Gorlov A.P., Incendiary means, their use and the fight against them, 2nd ed., M. - L., 1943; Manual for the Air Force range service, M., 1956.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia M.: "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1969-1978