Much has been said about the German Big Bertha, one of the most destructive weapons of the First World War. Less well known is the Austrian 12-inch model - "Miracle Emma", or "Austrian Bertha".
But this high-quality newest weapon was one of the most powerful in its class, actively used by both the Austro-Hungarian and German armies during the First World War of 1914-1918. In particular, Austrian 305-millimeter paper crushed the Belgian fortresses, actively worked on the Ivangorod, Kovno and Verdun fortresses, effectively operated on the Italian front, fought in Serbia, in the Dardanelles and Palestine.
Like Germany, Austria-Hungary, in connection with the lessons of the previous (especially the Russo-Japanese 1904-1905) wars, attached great importance to heavy artillery. It was believed that the role of heavy artillery would be very great, not only in the fight against fortresses, but also in field warfare. Moreover, in the latter, field defenses, barriers and other targets appeared, against which a field cannon grenade could be powerless. Accordingly, in the states mentioned, a lot of effort and money was spent in order to have quantitatively powerful heavy artillery and to provide it with the means of rapid movement. And, to the best of its economic and production capabilities, Austria-Hungary tried to follow this concept.
The top of the artillery pyramid was the Miracle Emma, as the 12-inch howitzer was later named. Let's look at the tactical and technical data of a 305-mm mortar of the 1911 model, modified in 1916. With a projectile weight of 290 kg and its initial velocity of 407 meters per second, the gun had a range of 11 km, and the degree of horizontal and vertical fire, plus or minus 60 and 40-75, respectively (for comparison, the 420-mm German "Bertha" has 10 and 30-70). The weight of the gun in the firing position is 20,900 kg, which is half that of the German 420-mm "Berta" (42,600 kg).
But first things first, especially since this wonderful weapon had several modifications.
From M-11 to M-16
Although an important incentive to start work on large-caliber mortars for the Austro-Hungarian command was the presence of Russian fortresses - "keys" to the very likely Eastern Front (Osovets, Novogeorgievsk, Ivangorod), the gun was "obliged" to its origin … to the then partner in the Triple Alliance - Italy. The latter, immediately after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, began work on the modernization of its fortresses - especially in terms of rebooking and enhancing the fire resistance of armored towers and other defensive elements.
At the beginning of the XX century. The General Staff of the Army of the Double Monarchy was concerned about the intensive construction of Italian border fortifications. In an effort to have in the future a weighty fire argument in the event of very likely complications in relations with Italy, the leadership of the General Staff instructs the Military-Technical Commission to develop tactical and technical requirements for a new mortar capable of crushing promising defensive structures of the Italians. The requirements were developed in 1907, and in accordance with them, the mortar was supposed to have a caliber of 305 mm, a projectile mass of up to 300 kg, a range of fire up to 8000 m, as well as the ability to operate at a 2-km altitude (the latter was supposed to be during mountain the war was a surprise for Italians). There were also increased requirements for the mobility of this gun - regardless of its caliber. And this was not surprising: Austria-Hungary, preparing for a war on 2 (or even 3) fronts, wanted to get a weapon capable of relatively quickly covering hundreds of kilometers - moving from Galicia to the mountains of Italy, and back. Both the limited budgetary capacity and the rapid growth of the empire's motor-building and automotive industries worked for this functionality.
An order for the development of a gun at the beginning of 1908 was issued to Skoda-Werke AG, a monopolist in the production of heavy artillery systems for the Austro-Hungarian army.
In 1910, a prototype was presented for testing. At the beginning of 1912, the War Ministry decides to allocate funds for the manufacture of 24 305-mm mortars, designated 30.5 cm MÖrser M. 11. And by the beginning of the First World War, Skoda-Werke AG handed over to representatives of the Austro-Hungarian army the last mortar from the series ordered in 1912. During the war, 44 more mortars of this system were released.
The mortar had a 10-gauge steel barrel. The length of the rifled part of the barrel was 6, 7 caliber. 68 constant-steepness grooves were made in the bore. The barrel bore was locked with the latest prismatic wedge breech. Barrel weight reached 5930 kg.
The barrel was installed in a cage-type cradle, fixed on a cast machine. As recoil devices, two hydraulic recoil brakes mounted above the barrel were used, as well as a pneumatic knurler located under the barrel. The lifting mechanism of the machine made it possible to direct the gun in a vertical plane in the range of angles from 0 ° to + 75 °. In a horizontal position, the gun was loaded, and in this position the barrel rested on a special stop fixed on the machine bed. Shooting was carried out at elevation angles from + 40 ° to + 75 °.
The aiming of the gun in the horizontal plane was carried out by turning the machine on the pursuit, fixed with bolts on the steel platform of the base. The worm turning mechanism made it possible to direct the gun in the ± 60 ° sector. On the breech side, guides for trays with shells and powder charges were fixed on the machine.
The mass of the mortar in a combat position was 18730 kg. Modified in 1916 mortars (M. 11/16), which had increased strength of the machine and the platform of the base, weighed 20,900 kg in firing position.
Initially, only M 11/9 high-explosive shells weighing 385.3 kg, containing 38.3 kg of explosives, were fired to the mortar. The shooting was carried out using four variable charges. When firing with a full charge, the projectile had an initial velocity of 370 m / s, and the firing range was 9600 m. During the war, in order to increase the firing range to 11000 m, the so-called "light" high-explosive projectile weighing 290.8 kg, containing 34.8 kg, was introduced explosives. Its initial speed was 407 m / s. The shell left craters 8.8 m deep in the ground, pierced a 3-meter brick wall and 22-cm concrete masonry.
An extremely powerful weapon against manpower was a 300-kg shrapnel shell containing 16.4 kg of explosives and 2,200 shrapnel bullets. The firing range is also 11,000 m. 2-3 such shells were enough to disrupt the attack of an entire regiment.
When designing the mortar, the transport of the gun was planned to be carried out only with the use of mechanical traction - the M 12 wheeled tractors from Daimler. The mortar was disassembled into three parts, which formed 3 carts: a barrel carriage, a carriage-carriage and a cart with a base platform. The cooperation between Skoda and Austro Daimler has become an important guarantee of success in the mechanization of Emma's Miracle.
At first, it was believed that one wheeled tractor would be enough to tow all 3 carriages. Then they came to the conclusion that it would be more correct if the tractor tows 2 carts, and as more and more tractors enter the mortar batteries, they adopted the final scheme - 1 tractor tows 1 carriage.
The most important element of the fire control system was the tethered balloon units attached to the mortar batteries.
M.11 were used by the Austro-Hungarian army on the Russian and Italian fronts (). Usually they were armed with separate mortar batteries of special power - motorized or "motor batteries". Each battery had 2 guns and 6 tractors. Batteries could be included in the composition of artillery battalions and regiments (as in the German army) - primarily fortress artillery (the fortress of Krakow was the flagship). During the war, "motor batteries" are separated from the artillery units - this made it possible to quickly transfer them to the aid of the German allies (for example, the Krakow fortress sent 2 of its 4 batteries to Belgium, having received, in turn, 2 batteries from Vienna) or grouped as a powerful fire resource in the hands of the High Command. The confusion of the initial period of the war led to the fact that, for example, the Balkan Front in August 1914 did not receive a single "motor battery".
There are also known cases of the use of "nomadic" tools. For example, during a battle in the valley of the river. Isonzo in 1917 one mortar at night was pushed to the neutral zone and 15 shots destroyed the railway station, where the Italian troops were landing. After the successful completion of the task, the mortar was transferred to the stowed position and, even before dawn, was returned to the location. However, such operations did not always end well.
The performance characteristics of the M. 11 were as follows: barrel length - 10 calibers; the greatest elevation angle is +75 degrees; declination angle - 0 degrees; horizontal firing angle - 120 degrees; weight in firing position - 18730 kg; weight in the stowed position - 27950 kg; high-explosive projectile weight - 385, 3 kg; the initial velocity of the projectile - 370 m / s; the greatest firing range - 9600 m.
The use of the M. 11 in combat conditions quickly revealed their main drawbacks - a short firing range, insufficient strength of the machine tool and base platform, and a small firing sector. Therefore, along with the modernization of the M 11 mortars to the M 11/16 level, Skoda-Werke AG began to develop a new 305-mm mortar, which was adopted by the Austro-Hungarian army in 1916 and received the designation M 16.
First of all, to increase the firing range, the designers extended the barrel to 12 calibers and changed the mass of variable powder charges upward. When using the same shells that M. 11 fired, this made it possible to increase the initial velocity of the shells to 380 - 450 m / s, and the firing range - to 11100 - 12300 m.
The carriage with recoil devices was redesigned. Instead of a cage-type cradle, a trough-shaped cradle was used, and a system of recoil devices was placed under the barrel. This system included two hydraulic recoil brakes and a pneumatic knurler. The improved lifting mechanism made it possible to direct the gun in a vertical plane in the range of angles from -5 ° to + 75 °, firing was carried out at elevation angles of more than + 40 °.
A new mobile base platform was designed. A ball strap was installed on it, on which the machine tool was mounted. Thus, a circular fire was ensured.
Changes made to the design of the mortar led to an increase in its mass to 22824 kg.
In the stowed position, it was also divided into 3 parts, which formed a barrel wagon (11240 kg), a carriage-carriage (11830 kg) and a cart with a base platform (11870 kg). Each of these wagons was towed on the march by an M. 12 "personal" tractor with an engine capacity of up to 100 hp. with.
Before the end of the First World War, Skoda-Werke AG managed to produce 29 M-16 mortars.
Tactical and technical characteristics of M. 16: barrel length - 12 calibers; the greatest elevation angle is +75 degrees; declination angle - - 5 degrees; horizontal firing angle - 360 degrees; weight in firing position - 22824 kg; weight in the stowed position - 39940 kg; high-explosive projectile weight - 385, 3 kg; the initial velocity of the projectile - 380 m / s; the greatest firing range - 11100 m.
Motorized large bore result
What conclusions can be drawn?
1) Concern "Skoda", the brainchild of which was the 12-inch, one of the leaders in the creation and production of super-powerful guns, released one of the best models of great power guns for its time. The Emma's Miracle projectile was able to overcome the most powerful defenses. 2) Mortar, despite its caliber, belonged to mobile artillery systems. When developing this weapon, special attention was paid precisely to the issue of transporting this howitzer. As we noted above, the 305-mm howitzer was divided into 3 main parts - and the possibility of transporting its gun carriage and barrel over long distances by the Austro Daimler tractor was originally included in the project. By the way, tractors were used for these purposes for the first time. 3) Mechanized traction has significantly increased the functionality of the batteries of the "Austrian Bert". The soldiers of the gun crew sitting on each tractor-tractor also performed a useful function - primarily by controlling the brakes. Assembly winches, shells, tools and even a special mobile workshop, fire control devices, documentation, food and other property were transported by additional tractors.
The gun was one of the first, originally designed as a mobile artillery unit. And not a single army in the world at that time had a mobile weapon of such great power. Austria-Hungary not only found itself among the powers best equipped to fight against fortified areas and enemy fortresses, it became an innovator in the organization of super-heavy motorized artillery.
