Weapons of the First World War. Weapons of the First World War - history in photographs - livejournal Giants from Austria-Hungary

By 1914, most armies assumed that the coming war would be fleeting. Accordingly, the nature of the future war was qualified as maneuverable, and the artillery of the warring armies, first of all, had to have such a quality as tactical mobility. In maneuverable combat, the main target of artillery is the enemy’s manpower, while there are no serious fortified positions. That's why the core field artillery was presented light field 75-77 mm caliber guns. And the main ammunition is shrapnel. It was believed that the field cannon, with its significant, both among the French and, especially among the Russians, initial projectile speed, would fulfill all the tasks assigned to artillery in field battles.

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

In the conditions of a fleeting maneuver war, the French 75-mm cannon of the 1897 model in its own tactical and technical characteristics took first place. Although the initial speed of its projectile was inferior to the Russian three-inch, this was compensated by a more advantageous projectile, which spent its speed more economically in flight. In addition, the gun had greater stability (that is, unkillable aiming) after firing, and, consequently, a higher rate of fire. The design of the French gun carriage allowed it to automatically fire from the side horizontally, which from a distance of 2.5-3 thousand meters made it possible to fire at a 400-500-meter front within a minute.

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

Russian 76 mm field gun in position

In the struggle to destroy manpower, the French and Russian field guns had no equal.
As a result, the 32-battalion Russian army corps was equipped with 108 guns - including 96 76-mm (three-inch) field guns and 12 light 122-mm (48-line) howitzers. There was no heavy artillery in the corps. True, before the war there was a tendency towards the creation of heavy field artillery, but heavy field three-battery divisions (2 batteries of 152-mm (six-inch) howitzers and one 107-mm (42-linear) guns) existed as if as an exception and organic connection with did not have buildings.
The situation was little better in France, which had 120 75-mm field guns for a 24-battalion army corps. There was no heavy artillery attached to divisions and corps and was located only with armies - total number only 308 guns (120 mm long and short guns, 155 mm howitzers and the newest 105 mm long Schneider gun of the 1913 model).

Russian 122-mm field howitzer model 1910 in position

The organization of artillery in Russia and France was, first of all, a consequence of underestimating the power of rifle and machine-gun fire, as well as the enemy’s fortification reinforcement. The regulations of these powers at the beginning of the war did not require artillery to prepare, but only to support an infantry attack.

Britain entered the First World War also possessing very few heavy guns. In service with the British army were: since 1907. - 15-lb (76.2 mm) field guns BLC; 4.5 in (114 mm) QF howitzer, adopted in 1910; 60-lb (127 mm) Mk1 gun 1905 model; 6-dm (152-mm) howitzer BL model 1896. New heavy guns began to arrive to British troops as the war progressed.

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

German field 77 mm gun in position

From this ratio it is clear that the Germans saw the main means for achieving tactical success even in field maneuver battles in the power of their artillery (almost a third of all available guns were howitzers). In addition, the Germans reasonably took into account the increased initial speed projectile (in this regard, their 77-mm cannon was inferior to the French and Russian cannons) and adopted as the caliber for a light field howitzer not 122-120 mm, like their opponents, but 105 mm - that is, optimal (in combination of relative power and mobility) caliber If the 77-mm German, 75-mm French, 76-mm Russian light field guns roughly corresponded to each other (as well as the 105-107-mm heavy field guns of the enemy), then the analogues of the German 105-mm divisional howitzer were Russian and french army did not have.

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

German 150 mm howitzer

By the beginning of the war, Russia had about 6.9 thousand light guns and howitzers and 240 heavy guns(that is, the ratio of heavy to light artillery– 1 to 29); France possessed almost 8 thousand light and 308 heavy guns (ratio 1 to 24); Germany had 6.5 thousand light guns and howitzers and almost 2 thousand heavy guns (ratio 1 to 3.75).

These figures clearly illustrate both the views on the use of artillery in 1914 and the resources with which each great power entered the world war. World War I was the first large-scale war in which most combat casualties were caused by artillery. According to experts, three out of five died from exploding shells. It is obvious that the German armed forces were closest to the requirements of the First World War even before it began.

Sources:
Oleynikov A. "Artillery 1914."

1914: "Fat Bertha" and her younger sister.

In August 1914, in order to implement the long-planned blitzkrieg to crush France - the “Schlieffen Plan”, German army followed in short time defeat Belgium. However, a serious threat to the advance of German troops was posed by the Belgian defense system of 12 main forts built along the perimeter of Liege, which the Belgian press proudly called “impregnable”. This turned out to be a mistake; the German army had a master key prepared in advance that would open the gates to France.
1. Beginning of the assault.

Liege was surrounded by the Germans and huge, hitherto unseen guns appeared on its outskirts, one of the witnesses - local residents compared these monsters to “overfed slugs.” By the evening of August 12, one of them was brought to combat readiness and aimed at Fort Pontisse. The German artillerymen, covering their eyes, ears and mouths with special bandages, fell to the ground, preparing to fire, which was fired from a distance of three hundred meters using an electric trigger. At 18:30, Liege shook with a roar; an 820-kilogram shell, describing an arc, rose to a height of 1200 meters and a minute later reached the fort, above which a conical cloud of dust, smoke and debris rose*.

2. Darling, I will name a cannon after you!
Gun "Big Bertha" ( DickenBertha) very touchingly named after the granddaughter of Alfred Krupp, the German “cannon king”. Apparently, the girl had a difficult character.

Two prototypes of the famous gun: one of the first samples of “Big Bertha” and Bertha Krupp herself ( Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach).
3. German 42.0 cm mortar, type M.
The first prototype of the gun was developed in 1904 at the Krupp factories; by 1914, 4 copies were built. The barrel caliber was 42 centimeters, the weight of the shells reached 820 kilograms, and the firing range was 15 kilometers. The Bertha's rate of fire matched its size; it was 1 shot per 8 minutes. To transport the gun over long distances, it was disassembled into 5 parts - at that time such road transport simply did not exist to transport a 58-ton monster.

During transportation, a small road train was obtained, these were special tractor vehicles: the first vehicle carried the lifting mechanism, the second transported the base platform, the third carried the cradle (mechanism for vertical guidance) and the opener (fastening the machine to the ground), the fourth carried the machine (its rear wheels served the wheels of the gun itself), the fifth is the barrel of the mortar. A total of 9 such guns were built; four mortars were used in the assault on the Russian fortress of Osovets in February 1915; later the Berthas took part in the famous Battle of Verdun in the winter of 1916.

Three types of projectiles were used, all of which had enormous destructive power. When the high-explosive shell exploded, it formed a crater 4.25 meters deep and 10.5 meters in diameter. The fragmentation fragment scattered into 15 thousand pieces of deadly metal, which retained lethal force at a distance of up to two kilometers. The armor-piercing shells of the “fortress killer” pierced two-meter-high ceilings made of steel and concrete. Krupp's Cyclops, in addition to its mobility, had another serious drawback - accuracy, or rather, the lack thereof: when shelling Fort Wilheim, 556 shots accounted for only 30 hits, that is, only 5.5%.
4. 30.5 cm heavy mortar M11/16 “Skoda”..
By this time, two 30.5-centimeter Skoda guns had already been delivered to Liege, which began shelling other forts. Despite its smaller size compared to the Krupp giants, this mortar proved to be a much more effective weapon.

The mortar was quite modern weapon for that time, the order was carried out by the company " Skoda» at the plant in Pilsen. The breech had a horizontal wedge breech, with several safety devices against accidental discharge. Above the barrel there were two cylinders - the recoil brake; below the barrel there were three other cylinders - the knurl, which returned the barrel to its original position after recoil. The barrel and cradle were placed on a carriage, which had a lifting mechanism of two toothed arcs.



The gun also had an ironic nickname - “ SchlankeEmma", that is, "slender Emma." Austria-Hungary lost 8 guns to Germany - it still had 16 built examples, and by 1918 the number of mortars reached 72. It was very similar to its “sister” in design, but did not have wheels, and it weighed less - 20.830 kg. The mortar shell penetrated two meters of concrete, the indirect effect of the hit was that gases and smoke from the detonation filled the dungeons and corridors, forcing the defenders to abandon their posts and even climb to the surface. The crater from the explosion was approximately 5 - 8 meters in diameter, fragments from the explosion could penetrate solid cover within 100 meters and hit with fragments within 400 meters.

Transportation of the 30.5 cm M11 heavy mortar to a position on the Italian front.

A 15-ton tractor was required for transportation Skoda-Daimler and three trolleys with metal wheels: a 10-ton platform bed, an 8.5-ton barrel and a 10-ton platform, machine and cradle support.

« Skoda" - not just a car. The projectile and the 30.5 cm M11 mortar itself in the Belgrade Military Museum, Belgrade Military Museum, Serbia

5. Shelling of forts.
Fort Pontiss withstood forty-five shots during the 24-hour bombardment and was so destroyed that it was easily captured by German infantry on August 13th. On the same day, two more forts fell, and on August 14, the rest, located in the east and north of the city, their guns were destroyed, and the path to the north of von Kluck’s 1st Army from Liege was clear.

Ruins of Fort Loncin) after the shelling"Big Bertha"

The siege weapons were then moved to the western forts. The Germans, having partially dismantled one of the 420-mm guns, took it to Fort Loncin through the entire city. Celestin Demblond, deputy from Liege, was at that time in St. Peter's Square when he suddenly saw " artillery piece of such colossal proportions that I couldn’t even believe my eyes.” The monster, divided into two parts, was dragged by 36 horses. The pavement shook, the crowd silently, numb with horror, watched the movement of this fantastic machine, the soldiers accompanying the guns walked tensely, almost with ritual solemnity. In the Park d'Avroy, the gun was assembled and aimed at the fort. There was a terrifying roar, the crowd was thrown back, the earth shook as if during an earthquake, and all the glass in the houses in the neighboring blocks flew out.

Armored cap of a Belgian fort with traces of a shell.

By August 15, the Germans captured eleven of the twelve forts; only Fort Loncin held out; on August 16, a Big Bertha shell hit its ammunition depot and blew up the fort from the inside. Liege fell.

For thisThe "Big Bertha" War ended in November 1918.

6. Dora and Gustav. Was it worth making things so complicated?
It was brewing new war, in 1936, the Krupp concern received an order to create heavy-duty guns to destroy the French Maginot Line and Belgian border forts such as Eben-Emael. The order was completed only in 1941, two real artillery masterpieces were built, called “Dora” and “ Fat Gustav", the order cost III Reich 10 million Reichmarks. True, they were not useful for storming the Belgian forts.
When building Fort Eben-Emael, the Belgians took into account the sad experience of the First World War and designed it so that it would not fall under the blows of super-heavy artillery, as had already happened during the German offensive of 1914. They hid their gun casemates at a depth of forty meters, making them invulnerable to both 420 mm siege guns and dive aircraft.
To re-invade Belgium in 1940, the Germans would have had to storm a powerful defense center; According to all calculations, the Wehrmacht would have needed at least two weeks for this; they had to pull together a strong ground force, powerful artillery and bombers to the fort; losses during the assault were estimated at two divisions.
On May 10, 1940, a detachment of only 85 German paratroopers on cargo gliders DSF 230 was landed directly on the roof of an impregnable Belgian fort. Part of the group missed landing and came under fire, but the rest blew up the armored gun caps specially designed for the operation. shaped charges and threw grenades at the defenders of the fort, who had taken refuge in its lower levels. A targeted strike by the Luftwaffe in the village of Laneken destroyed the headquarters responsible for blowing up the bridges across the Albert Canal, and the garrison of Fort Eben-Emael capitulated.
No super weapons were needed.
________________________________________ __
* -B. Takman, “August Guns”, 1972, M
Sources:
Bertha Krupp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Krupp
Skoda 305 mm Model 1911: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skoda_305_mm_Model_1911
Capture of Fort Eben-Emal: http://makarih-203.livejournal.com/243574.html
30.5 cm heavy mortar M11/16:

First World War gave birth to super-heavy guns, one shell of which weighed a ton, and the firing range reached 15 kilometers. The weight of these giants reached 100 tons.

Shortage

Everyone knows the famous army joke about “crocodiles that fly, but low.” However, military men in the past were not always erudite and perspicacious. For example, General Dragomirov generally believed that the First World War would last four months. But the French military completely accepted the concept of “one gun and one shell,” intending to use it to defeat Germany in the coming European war.

Russia, walking in line military policy France also paid tribute to this doctrine. But when the war soon turned into a positional war, the troops dug into trenches, protected by many rows of barbed wire, it became clear that the Entente allies were sorely lacking heavy guns capable of operating in these conditions.

No, the troops had a certain number of relative large-caliber guns: Austria-Hungary and Germany had 100-mm and 105-mm howitzers, England and Russia had 114-mm and 122-mm howitzers. Finally, all the warring countries used 150/152 or 155 mm howitzers and mortars, but even their power was clearly insufficient. “Our dugout in three rolls,” covered on top with sandbags, protected against any light howitzer shells, and concrete was used against heavier ones.

However, Russia did not even have enough of them, and she had to purchase 114-mm, 152-mm and 203-mm and 234-mm howitzers from England. In addition to them, the heavier guns of the Russian army were the 280-mm mortar (developed by the French company Schneider, as well as the entire line of 122-152-mm howitzers and cannons) and the 305-mm howitzer 1915 from the Obukhov plant, produced during the war in Only 50 units available!

"Big Bertha"

But the Germans, preparing for offensive battles in Europe, very carefully approached the experience of the Anglo-Boer and Russo-Japanese War and created in advance not just heavy, but super heavy weapon- A 420-mm mortar called “Big Bertha” (named after the then owner of the Krupp concern), a real “witches’ hammer.”

The projectile of this super-gun weighed 810 kg, and it fired at a distance of as much as 14 km. The explosion of a high-explosive shell produced a crater 4.25 meters deep and 10.5 meters in diameter. The fragmentation scattered into 15 thousand pieces of deadly metal, which retained lethal force at a distance of up to two kilometers. However, the defenders of the same, for example, Belgian fortresses considered the most terrible armor-piercing shells, from which even two-meter ceilings made of steel and concrete could not save.

During the First World War, the Germans successfully used Berthas to bombard well-fortified French and Belgian forts and the Verdun fortress. It was noted that in order to break the will to resist and force the fort’s garrison of a thousand people to surrender, all that was required was two such mortars, a day of time and 360 shells. No wonder our allies on the Western Front called the 420-mm mortar “fort killer.”

In the modern Russian television series “Death of the Empire”, during the siege of the Kovno fortress, the Germans fire at it from the “Big Bertha”. At least that's what the screen says about it. In fact, “Big Bertha” was “played” by the Soviet 305-mm artillery installation TM-3-12 on a railway, radically different from the Bertha in all respects.

A total of nine of these guns were built, they took part in the capture of Liege in August 1914, and in the Battle of Verdun in the winter of 1916. Four guns were delivered to the Osovets fortress on February 3, 1915, so scenes of its use on the Russian-German front should have been filmed in winter, not summer!

Giants from Austria-Hungary

But on the Eastern Front, Russian troops more often had to deal with another 420-mm monster gun - not a German one, but an Austro-Hungarian howitzer of the same caliber M14, created in 1916. Moreover, yielding German gun in the firing range (12,700 m), it surpassed him in the weight of the projectile, which weighed one ton!

Fortunately, this monster was much less transportable than the wheeled German howitzer. That one, albeit slowly, could be towed. Every time a position was changed, the Austro-Hungarian one had to be disassembled and transported using 32 trucks and trailers, and its assembly required from 12 to 40 hours.

It should be noted that in addition to the terrible destructive effect, these guns also had a relatively high rate of fire. So, “Bertha” fired one shell every eight minutes, and the Austro-Hungarian one fired 6-8 shells per hour!

Less powerful was another Austro-Hungarian howitzer, the Barbara, with a 380-mm caliber, firing 12 rounds per hour and sending its 740-kilogram shells over a distance of 15 km! However, both this gun and the 305-mm and 240-mm mortars were stationary installations that were transported in parts and installed in special positions, which required time and a lot of labor to equip. In addition, the 240-mm mortar fired only at 6500 m, that is, it was in the destruction zone of even our Russian 76.2-mm field gun! Nevertheless, all these weapons fought and fired, but we clearly did not have enough weapons to respond to them.

Entente response

How did the Entente allies respond to all this? Well, Russia had little choice: basically these were the already mentioned 305-mm howitzers, with a projectile weighing 376 kg and a range of 13448 m, firing one shot every three minutes.

But the British released a whole series of such stationary guns of ever-increasing caliber, starting with 234 mm and up to 15-inch - 381 mm siege howitzers. The latter were actively pursued by Winston Churchill himself, who achieved their release in 1916. Although the British turned out to be not very impressive with this gun, they produced only twelve of them.

It threw a projectile weighing 635 kg over a distance of only 9.87 km, while the installation itself weighed 94 tons. Moreover, it was pure weight, without ballast. The fact is that in order to give this gun greater stability (and all other guns of this type), they had a steel box under the barrel, which had to be filled with 20.3 tons of ballast, that is, simply put, filled with earth and stones.

Therefore, the 234-mm Mk I and Mk II mounts became the most popular in the British army (a total of 512 guns of both types were produced). At the same time, they fired a 290-kilogram projectile at 12,740 m. But... they also needed this same 20-ton box of earth, and just imagine the amount of earthwork that was required to install just a few of these guns in positions! By the way, you can see it “live” today in London at the Imperial War Museum, just like the 203-mm English howitzer displayed in the courtyard Artillery Museum in St. Petersburg!

The French responded to the German challenge by creating a 400-mm howitzer M 1915/16 on a railway transporter. The gun was developed by the Saint-Chamon company and already at the first combat use October 21–23, 1916 showed her high efficiency. The howitzer could fire both "light" high explosive shells weighing 641–652 kg, containing about 180 kg explosives respectively, and heavy ones from 890 to 900 kg. At the same time, the firing range reached 16 km. Before the end of the First World War, eight 400 mm such installations were made, two more installations were assembled after the war.