Today start an article about the next transformation of combat vehicles, we have decided not to describe the prerequisites for their creation, not with the technical design details, even with our vision of the image of the designers thoughts. All this is interesting. But we begin today with the description of one of World War II episode.
«2 May 1945 year on the outskirts of Berlin fought hard fight guards 359 anti-aircraft artillery regiment of the 4th Guards Tank Army. A large group of Germans, trying to get out of the city surrounded by the west, wedged in the battle formations of Soviet troops and attacked the battery of Lieutenant Surkov. Ensued melee.
To help the gunners arrived platoon M17 units, who immediately attacked the enemy. Heavy fire quad heavy machine guns literally swept the German circuit. As a result, the enemy lost 138 soldiers and officers killed and wounded. 76 German soldiers surrendered».
Those readers, who are really interested in technology World, already knew, that it now goes about one specific, but of a whole family of cars, which fit so well in the combat units, imagine that today the action without motorized units of such machines is impossible.
the history of «Half-Track» we have described in detail on the example of M2 prime mover and armored M3. The rest of the machines in this family, as we pointed out in previous articles, differed from each other significantly.
any innovation, whether arms, military equipment or a new kind of parts or units, always generates a bunch of related problems. everyone understands, the new need, but they, who thinks a step ahead, understands, it drags along a new set of problems. Maybe because it is so much conservative thinking in the army.
The US Army with the advent of conveyors, tractor, amphibians, light tanks, tankettes, ATVs have become more mobile. The troops began to move fast enough on the front lines, fast enough to change position. This is a huge plus in terms of tactics.
But this is a huge minus. The troops were in a paradoxical situation. The rapid movement of troops deprived antitank protection, and often the general artillery support and air defense. The infantry was defenseless against enemy aircraft.
The only true solution in this case would be a decision on the establishment of the ACS and the gun mount on the basis of the same armored vehicles, which uses a motorized infantry. This unification enables not only be TCP and defense in the ranks of the moving units, but also the ability to quickly repair damaged vehicles.
This is the path and went American designers. In particular, first attempt means for creating anti-infantry was… artillery tachanka! Americans «Willis» set 37mm anti-tank gun.
Military appreciated the idea. But adopted a creation not accepted. a little too small «Willis» artillery. But in general, artillery still «planted» for cars and transporters. The history of these interesting machines, but not the topic of this article. Our theme - defense.
first car, designed to repel attacks by enemy aviation, was the car on the basis of M2 tractor. Tractor equipped aircraft Bendix turret with two heavy machine guns Browning. The machine under the symbol M1 was quite battle-worthy, but its effectiveness still was not high.
Dvuhstvolny option turrets continued to develop. Here we should pay attention to another machine - a prototype T1E1. In this ZSU used turret Martin. In fact, this is a turret turret bomber. Glass cupola with two large-caliber Browning.
true, M2 base was too small for ZSU. Therefore, installation of transplanted M3. It is this machine later became known under the designation M13MGMC (multi-lateral self-propelled gun). In the future, the same design was transferred to the M5 conveyor base. This gun mount is known under the designation M14.
USSR, these machines did not get. Production volumes were small. A need for such machines were. In particular, M14 is almost entirely left to the UK, which they used more often than not as a ZSU, and an APC. M13 served in the US Army.
the, what happened next, it is no longer interesting to us. rate in 1000 rounds per minute did not give the necessary efficiency barrage. It is understood all. Including the company's designers Maxson.
That is why in the fall 1942 , they presented an upgraded turret Maxson M45. It was the installing Quad. Rate increased to 2000 rounds per minute. ZSU-based M3 armored personnel carrier was designated M16MGMC. Installation based on the M5 - M17.
Issue M16 units was launched in May 1943 of the year. The car turned out to be so successful, that in addition to serial production ZSU, Americans went to the modernization of the M3 transporters in ZSU. 568 M3 cars were upgraded to M16.
There was even an attempt to install the turret Maxson M45 numerous M2. However, the use of this database quickly abandoned for the same reason, as in the case of the dual turret. The base of the tractor does not fit ZSU.
December 1943 the Americans started producing ZSU M17. The basis for these units was the same conveyor M5. The whole party, 1000 units, It was designed for the Soviet Union. At the beginning 1944 , the cars began to arrive in the Soviet army. The appearance of these ZSU was a good tool for motorized and tank units.
Again, ZSU M17 was built on the basis of already known semi-tracked armored M5. And had all the advantages and disadvantages of this car.
armor. All the same 6,35 mm in the body and 12,7 in frontal projection. The same four-wheel drive (and a pair of wheels, and caterpillars), winch and everything else.
And of course, all the same controls, as in the M5.
A mechanical wiper. Rotate - waving brush. two brushes, It should be two hands… clear, that in bad weather the passenger seat was not the calm in the car.
Psevdolyuk in psevdokrыshe. No, somewhere in Texas, it would have been quite a. But in our area, our in the winter - well, not the best equipment, to be honest.
Turret. I say this: if you sit down, come immediately to mind stills «Water world». And so I want to take, and something epochal their four trunks to make. like.
This is the place, where you can inflict with good speed 2000 cucumbers .
And yes, it's an interesting thing. Own motor for the turret. That's twist-twirl, raising and lowering namasheshsya, then a miracle of engineering of American thought. PETROL.
At the beginning of this article, we talked about, that new items are always some changes. Is no exception to this rule and ZSU M17.
Commanding tank units quickly appreciated the power of the machine and realized her inherent potential. Of course, under the domination of the enemy air force of the initial period of the war this could not happen. But it was already 1944 th. Command could not afford to use a gun mount on the ground.
so. New gun mount in the amount of 10-20 units received in the housing and tank mechanized. It is composed of anti-aircraft artillery regiments such buildings had to act self-propelled.
but Soviet generals came up with a new use of anti-aircraft installations. The buildings are often set up special units advanced from the number of raked soldiers and officers, who performed the task capturing enemy positions, and sometimes, even the rapid capture of settlements.
The detachment consisted of several T-34, armored vehicles M3A1 «Scout» and 3-4 MAT M17. The infantry was placed in the "Scout". At the beginning of the offensive squad received a specific task. It could be a bridge, stronghold, locality, Junction Railway Station or. Basically, objective has always been the seizure or destruction of the most important facility of the German defense.
Then it was all just. T-34 broke through the defense of using its own power armor and guns. ZSU destroy enemy infantry fire their guns, and the scouts were cleaned captured object. The rest of the body had to finish the pockets of enemy resistance and clean area.
You, probably, noticed, that in these machines there is no ZSU M15. In fact, this plant produced. She just did not use heavy machine guns and not delivered to the Soviet Union.
M15 is a gun mount with M3 base, 37-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun Gun M1 and two heavy machine guns Browning. we did not supply such machines.
A copy of the ZSU ZSU named M17 M16 you can see in the exhibition of military equipment Museum of UMMC in Verkhnyaya Pyshma.
As part of the Lend-Lease to the USSR was delivered 1006 M17 anti-aircraft installations.
Performance characteristics:
body Length, mm: 6500
Width, mm: 1980
Height, mm: 2616
base, mm: 3441
Track, mm: 1638
Clearance, mm: 285
booking:
Type armor rolled steel, surface hardened
housing forehead (top), mm: 12,7
Forehead, board, housing feed, mm: 6,35
weaponry:
- four gun 12.7mm M2HB
Angles BH, city: 360
Angles GN, city: −10…+90
engine's type: row, 6-Carburetor liquid cooling cylinder
Engine power, l. from: 147
Road speed, kmh: 72
Cruising on the highway, km: 320
Gradeability, city: 37
to overcome the wall, m: 0,3
fording, m: 0,8
/Alexander Staver, Roman Skomorokhov, topwar.ru/
