Uzi submachine gun
Israeli submachine gun "Uzi" is today a recognized brand in the world market of small arms. Weapons known to a wide circle of inhabitants, not even fond of the area, and exactly on the recognition can compete with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and the American M16 rifle and its derivatives. In many respects it is connected not only with the typical appearance of submachine gun, but with the frequent appearance in different films and computer games.
Submachine gun "Uzi" under chuck 9x19 mm Luger has been named in honor of its developer - Uziel Gal. The weapon was created back in 1948 year and put into service in 1954, since this model is produced concern Israel Military Industries, having gone through a lot of changes and upgrades, but retaining recognizable worldwide layout - the incident on the trunk lock and store, located in the handle weapons.
Today, it is the Israeli Uzi is a reference sample such arrangement, but even before his appearance in a number of countries, among which was the Soviet Union, They were collected similar models of small arms. In the USSR, they were sub-machine guns Shuklina, Rukavishnikova and Pushkin, which were created during the Great Patriotic War.
Prerequisites for the emergence of submachine guns appeared in the First World War, when there was a very acute issue of increasing the firepower of infantry units. The decision was one - the saturation of the troops with automatic weapons. The first way to solve the problem was the development of automatic rifles. But really working samples of such weapons appeared only in the second half of the 1930s, before that they just could not come to replace the magazine rifle, at best, in adopting only partially, while fully automatic rifles began a massive arms only in the 1940s,.
At the same time the need for troops will not disappear in a light automatic weapons. Therefore, designers have turned to creating automatic weapons under the pistol cartridge. The first of these models have been designed in the years of the First World War, and at the same time gained a foothold for their name - sub-machine guns.
In this case, sub-machine guns were never considered as a substitute for rifles, it was a complementary weapon, built in small infantry weapons system. Mainly, because of low power and small pistol bullet shooting range.
Sub-machine guns increased the fire power of infantry at close range combat, They were indispensable in the assault operations, Excellent scouts, Marines, and went on arms different crew of military equipment, as it has smaller dimensions compared with rifles.
The story of «Uzi»
By the beginning of World War II submachine gun finally formed as a portable automatic weapons infantryman, which allows continuous machine gun fire pistol cartridges. Effective range was low and did not exceed 200 m, but for the melee that was more than enough.
During the Second World War, various models of submachine guns were used en masse warring countries, at the same time, work continued on the creation of new models of such weapons. It was during the war in the Soviet Union were working to create models of submachine guns, reminiscent of his famous arrangement today, "Uzi" worldwide.
It may be noted, that at the dawn of the formation of its own armed forces Israel had problems with different types of weapons, including small arms. there were plenty of models around the production of weapons in the arsenal of the Israeli army, including numerous sub-machine guns of the German, English, American and Soviet-made.
At some stage, a staff weapon for all the armed forces taken submachine gun MP40. However, this weapon was technically complex and costly, so at the end of the 1940s, Israel began work on developing your own sample submachine gun, which would not concede MP40 performance, but it was a simpler, technologically advanced and adapted to the conditions of local production and the existing machine park.
As a result of an Israeli engineer Uziel Gal presented the military's own vision of such weapons. In its layout and appearance of a novelty in many respects was a repetition of the Czech pistol gun Sa. 23, which was developed by the designer I. Holecek in 1948 year and in 1949 he was put into production.
Czech model was designed primarily for the paratroopers and feature advanced at the time the scheme. It is unknown, whether Gal familiar with the Czechoslovak development and especially Soviet prototypes, which were tested for the five years before the Czech submachine gun.
Czechoslovak submachine gun Sa. 25, models Sa. 23 characterized by the presence of the folding shoulder rest
Soviet sub-machine guns
Also in 1942 in the USSR began testing submachine gun design Shuklina, has a similar arrangement. Unfortunately, We did not reach us images of the model of small arms, but survived description and report GAU testing. The discovery of these models for the general public is largely due to the activities of a researcher in the field of small arms and historian Andrey Ulanov.
Creating a new sub-machine gun, Shuklin guided by the following ideas: he hoped to create a pattern of small arms, which would differ portability and convenience at a constant wear, It would have been easy and replaced personal defense weapon, as is used revolvers and pistols, but preserving all the basic qualities of the existing submachine guns.
His purpose Soviet weapons designer embodied in the form of a model with a free gate, at the same time to ensure that the declared qualities and ease of portability and proximity to the weapon used bolt pistols Shuklin, who advanced on the barrel, it also reduced the maximum stroke shutter (to 40 mm). Using this scheme, Designer got quite massive shutter - 0,6 kg, but the overall length of the weapon was only 345 mm, and the length of the barrel - 260 mm.
Up to now we have not reached any general view of the submachine gun, no drawings models. But existing description can be stated, that the submachine gun in addition to the incident on the shutter shaft also had a shop, which is inserted into the handle arms. The model was, certainly, exciting, but not for 1942 of the year, when the situation at the front was extremely tense, and GAC was simply not up to the pilot projects and improvements to production.
In the recall GAU on submachine gun Shuklina following deficiencies identified have been listed:
- Complex manufacturing technology, bolt and barrel because of its configuration demanded by the workers a large number of turning and milling (special) works;
- difficulties in obtaining the required accuracy of battlefield weapons at a low weight;
- high sensitivity represented by sub-machine gun to pollution, since the ingress of sand and dust between the barrel and the gate delay caused by firing, this is confirmed and the sample sub-machine gun design Rukavishnikova.
In view of the identified deficiencies in the GAC considered inexpedient the further development of the model presented.
Submachine gun Rukavishnikova
Retracted butt plate may serve as an additional handle for holding weapons
In the same 1942 GAU, in the test sample submachine gun design Rukavishnikova. Apparently, model has survived to our time, and is now in St. Petersburg in the collections of the famous Military History Museum of Artillery, Engineering and Signal Corps.
Submachine gun Rukavishnikova He stood out for its rounded shape of the receiver and moves forward shoulder rest. As in Shuklina model, store is also inserted into the handle, which makes the model look like ordinary pistols. handle hold, intended for the second hand, and forend model Rukavishnikova absent.
The fate of the sample was the same, like submachine gun Shuklina. The Commission considered in the production of sophisticated weapons, It noted the low manufacturability models. There was also a submachine gun sensitivity to contamination, which led to delays in shooting.
Already in 1945 in the USSR returned to promising ideas still come from 1942 of the year. The result of a rethinking of previous work was a new submachine gun design Pushkin. The GAC report in respect of the model celebrated a short shutter (45 mm) and inserted into the handle store. Sam submachine gun stood by the presence of a ventilated barrel jacket and muzzle brake. The butt is formed in the shape of shoulder rest, I was folding.
New SMG Pushkin It was more compact and lightweight, than serially produced PPP Soviet industry. However, the gain in weight at the pistol gun Sudaeva was not so straightforward. As Andrey Ulanov, largely this gain has been achieved by reducing the weight of the shutter, who has lost 165 grams compared to the gate of the famous PPP.
When downsize gate SMG Pushkina stood out for its rate of - up 1040 Venue / min vs. 650 the model Sudaeva. Here, the high rate in conjunction with a light gate were bad combination. measurements showed, that he came to the rearmost position at once to four times faster, than a submachine gun Sudaeva, wherein the speed of movement of the slide was 7,9 m / s.
About some reliability, vitality and longevity of the system with similar performance is difficult to say. Doubts have emerged testers immediately and only confirmed when fire testing. K submachine gun had no complaints when shooting single shots, but automatic fire immediately, open all the problems of weapons.
Ultraboundary rate of fire is not allowed to do more 2-3 shots, there were delays, was fixed bias and a pass cartridges. Revealed another problem, Shutter not withstand such loads and starts to destroy, small cracks were observed on it before the test, after cracks were only more. In the aggregate performance, it was decided to suspend work on the project, in the GAC report noted, that getting a workable weapon models and provide the necessary gate of vitality in this arrangement is unlikely.
Submachine gun Pushkin
Although the Soviet sub-machine guns and Shuklina Rukavishnikova not been GAU tests and received negative conclusions, one can not ignore the fact of the appearance of such models of small arms and the selected layout designers.
To bring sub-machine guns in wartime conditions was challenging, but the layout itself was absolutely correct, that was later confirmed by life itself. The incident on the barrel bolt, score, is located in the control handle, folding butt - all this after the war translated into Czech submachine gun Sa. 23 and its derivatives, And a little later than in the currently known representative of this layout scheme - Israeli "Uzi".
/Sergey Yuferev, topwar.ru/
