Weapons from museums. While studying at the Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers, I lived in a student hostel on the Petrogradskaya side, next to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Since I had been drawing tanks and airplanes since childhood, I could not pass by the Museum of Engineering Troops and Artillery. A camera for a student at that time was an unaffordable luxury. So I bought an album and on weekends I went to the museum, since it was a five-minute walk from the hostel, and I drew everything I could. Cannons, guns, swords and banners. Cavalrymen with paintings on the walls of the museum. Until now, I am happy to leaf through these old yellowed albums. Some parts of the weapon are not always visible in the photo. And in books you will not see the whole range of small arms of the 17th-19th centuries. Until the 90s of the last century, one could rarely read about weapons in popular literature.
Historical literature has paid more attention to the description of events than to the technical parameters of weapons of that period.
After reading V. Pikul's novel "Pen and Sword", I enthusiastically began to dig information on the history of the Seven Years War, fortunately, as a conscientious reader, I was admitted to the holy of holies of the city library in my native Velikiye Luki. And the institute's library had a good collection of historical literature, including scientific literature.
Alas, except for the description and schemes of the battles, little was found.
In addition, the study took up most of the time. I was, as today's youth say, a “botanist”. That is, he plowed himself. Specialty "industrial and civil construction" and even specialization in the department "Architecture" - these are drawings, drawings and again drawings. Moreover, computers were then the size of a chest of drawers and were capable of performing only elementary calculations. True, calculators have already appeared. Domestic "Electronics" had decent dimensions. And imported "Casio" and "Citizen" were too heavy for the student. We never dreamed of drawing on a computer.
However, trips to the Artillery Museum made it possible to formulate knowledge about the weapons of that era in sufficient detail. Both Russian and Prussian armies. Fortunately, both domestic and captured weapons were in abundance in the museum.
There are many cannons of the pre-Petrine era in the halls and in the open areas of the museum, but it was not very interesting to draw barrels without gun carriages. Cannons from the times of Narva and Poltava: alas, the drawings have not survived. Somewhere I "sowed" them when moving. But the graphics have been preserved for the Seven Years' War.
And although my main specialization in publishing is illustrations in magazines and books, the epistolary genre is not alien to me either.
One day, picking up my archive, I found drawings of the guns of the Seven Years' War. Including Shuvalov howitzers. Why not talk about them? Moreover, they became the forerunners of weapons that received the name "unicorns" in the Russian army and served faithfully for over 100 years.
The same V. Pikul wrote (sorry, not literally), they say, take a hole, frame it with bronze - and you will get a gun. In fact, not everything is so simple.
Creating a regular army, Peter I paid great attention to the development of artillery. The new Russian army inherited from the streltsy troops a large number of guns that did not meet the requirements of the time. These were guns and mortars, which differed significantly in caliber and design. Field artillery was practically absent. Peter I made an attempt to unify the system of artillery weapons. During his reign, the number of gun calibers significantly decreased and the design of gun carriages and machine tools was simplified. New cannons with shortened barrels - howitzers - appeared. These guns could fire not only flat, but also hinged fire. However, the idea of improving the combat characteristics of the new guns did not leave the Russian gun-makers. If the shooting with cannonballs depended only on the length of the barrel and the charge of gunpowder, then shooting with buckshot required different approaches. Indeed, when fired with buckshot, the bullets fly away from the barrel edge in all directions. Some of them fly above the target, and some burrow into the ground, not reaching the target. In order for most of the buckshot to fly out in the horizontal direction, it was necessary to sort of "push" the gun barrel to the sides. The first experimental 3-pounder cannon was cast from cast iron by the Tula gunsmiths in 1722. She had a rectangular barrel and could shoot both cannonballs and buckshot. The trunk included three cores, that is, the width of the trunk was equal to three heights. The new gun passed the tests, but was not adopted for service. Its combat characteristics turned out to be very low. Due to the breakthrough of powder gases into the gaps between the cannonballs and in the corners of the barrel, the firing range was insignificant, most of the buckshot also did not reach the target. The survivability of the gun barrel was also low: cracks formed in the corners of the rectangle due to uneven loading. It became dangerous to shoot from such a gun.
Thirty years later, thanks to the improvement of the technology of making guns, Russian gunsmiths created a new howitzer. The idea of creation belongs to the General Feldzheikhmeister Count PI Shuvalov. And it was brought to life by the gunsmiths Major Musin-Pushkin and the master Stepanov. The gun had an oval barrel and a conical charging chamber. This made it possible, on the one hand, to ensure the spread of the bulk of buckshot bullets in the horizontal plane. On the other hand, the barrel survivability increased to an acceptable level. Howitzers were intended primarily to destroy enemy infantry and cavalry on the battlefield. From the middle of 1754, new howitzers began to enter the field artillery regiments. At first, the barrels of new guns on the march were covered with covers so that the enemy would not know about their design.
Baptism of fire "secret" howitzers (as they began to be called) received in the battles of the Seven Years War, in battles with the army of Frederick II. In the battle of Gross-Jägersdorf, it is the secret howitzers that play the main role in the victory. This is how the famous writer Valentin Pikul describes these events:
Prussian cuirassiers in armor rushed towards the Cossacks, heavily blowing up the ground with their hooves. With an iron jamb they cut into the rosy glow of battle, from the smoke glittered - clearly and dimly - long dull broadswords …
Cossack lava, overtaken by the enemy, swung back in panic. The sharp-faced steppe horses stretched out in flight, flaring their nostrils - in blood, in smoke. No one at Lewald's headquarters guessed that this was not a flight of the Cossacks at all - no, it was a risky maneuver …
Russian infantry made way for the Cossacks. She seemed to be opening the wide gates now, into which the Cossack lava immediately slipped. Now these "gates" must be hastily slammed so that - following the Cossacks - the enemies do not burst into the center of the camp. The infantry opened frantic fire, but did not manage to close the "gate" … I did not have time and could not!
The solid Prussian cavalry, shining with armor, “flowed squarely, in the best order, like a kind of fast river” right inside the Russian square. The front was broken through, broken through, broken through … The cuirassiers were chopping down all who came to hand in a row.
But then the Russian artillery rolled up, and von Lewald, putting the chicken aside, hurried out onto the lawn again. Alas, he had already seen nothing. From the many pounds of gunpowder burned out in battle, the smoke thickened over the Gross-Jägersdorf field - into a cloud! It became impossible to breathe. The faces of the people turned gray, as if they had been sprinkled with ashes. From the thick of the battle, Lewald heard only a thick growl, as if there, in this cloud of smoke, were gnawing at invisible terrible animals (it was the "Shuvalov's" howitzers who were firing!)
“I don’t see anything,” Lewald stomped impatiently with his boots. “Who will explain to me what happened there?
And this is what happened …
The attack of the Cossacks was fraudulent, they deliberately brought cuirassiers directly under the Russian canister. The howitzers bounced off so well that the whole Prussian squadron (just the middle one in the column) immediately fell to the ground. Now "some fast river" suddenly found itself torn apart in its stormy, fearless current. The cuirassiers, who "had already jumped into our frunt, fell like a mouse into a trap, and they were all forced to perish in the most merciless manner."
Valentin Pikul, of course, bent about the “drove up”. Alas, the design of the carriages of field guns did not allow them to be quickly moved around the battlefield.
Most likely, the position of the howitzers was prepared in advance, and the Cossacks simply brought Prussian cuirassiers under the barrels of the guns. And then - a matter of technology.
However, the desire to be able to quickly move artillery guns across the field in less than 50 years will lead to the appearance of horse artillery in European armies.
However, the "secret" howitzers did not last long in service with the field artillery of the Russian army. Still, the survivability of the barrel was lower than that of conventional guns, and firing cannonballs from them turned out to be almost impossible. And most importantly, new systems of artillery pieces - "unicorns" - appeared in the Russian army. Based on howitzers, they had a longer barrel and a conical loading chamber. Ballistic performance proved to be outstanding for its time. Unicorns have been in service with the Russian army for over a hundred years. But that is another story.
