(About one of the chapters of V. Suvorov's book "The Liberator")
It has long been known that Mr. V. B. Rezun, who works in the field of anti-Russian propaganda, is a great master of cooking a poisonous soup made of truth, half-truths and outright lies under the guise of historical research. You will not deny him this brain-culinary skill. Some Russian venerable publishing houses such as AST, Veche, EKSMO are actively helping him, apparently receiving their share of the green broth.
And unfortunately, in our country there are a lot of people whose brains he very successfully poisons.
Let's try to give them an antidote, although, poisoned by Rezun, they usually, like drug addicts, do not perceive objective reality in an undistorted form. But serious experts have already exposed Rezunov's lies more than once or twice. They exposed them with documents and facts in their hands.
Among the numerous creations of Mr. Rezun there is one called "The Liberator". Here we will dwell on this book, more precisely, on one of the chapters. Namely on the chapter "Operation Bridge".
For those who are unfamiliar with this book, I specifically give this chapter in full and without cuts:
From the book of V. Suvorov
"Liberator"
Chapter "Operation" Bridge"
1967 year
- Comrades, - began the Minister of Defense, - in the new year, 1967, the Soviet Army will have to solve a number of extremely difficult and responsible tasks and mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution with their fulfillment. The first and most difficult task is the final solution of the Middle East problem. This task falls entirely upon the Soviet Army. The fiftieth year of the existence of the Soviet state will be the last year of Israel's existence. We are ready to fulfill this honorable task, we are held back only by the presence of UN troops between the Arab and Israeli forces.
After the settlement of the Middle East problem, all forces will be thrown into the settlement of European problems. This is not only a task for diplomats. The Soviet Army has to solve many problems here too.
The Soviet Army, in accordance with the decision of the Politburo, "will show its grin." By this we mean a number of activities. Holding an unprecedented air parade in Domodedovo. Immediately after the victory in the Middle East, grandiose fleet maneuvers will be carried out in the Black, Mediterranean, Barents, North, Norwegian and Baltic Seas. After that, we will conduct a colossal Dnepr exercise and conclude our demonstrations on November 7 at a grand parade on Red Square. Against the background of these demonstrations and victories in the Middle East, we, under any pretext, will demand that the Arab countries stop all oil supplies to Europe and America for a week or two.
I think, - the minister smiled, - Europe after all this will be more accommodating in signing the documents that we will propose.
- Will there be demonstrations in space? - asked the first deputy commander-in-chief of the ground forces.
The Defense Minister frowned. “Unfortunately, no. During the period of voluntarism, gross miscalculations were made in this area. Now we have to pay for them. In the next 10, and maybe even 15 years, we will not be able to do anything fundamentally new in space, there will only be a repetition of the old with minor improvements.
- What will be done with regard to Vietnam? - asked the commander of the Far Eastern Military District. - We will be able to successfully solve European problems only at a time when the Americans are head over heels bogged down in Vietnam. I think we shouldn't be in a hurry to win Vietnam.
The audience perked up with clear approval.
- And ending with general questions, - continued Marshal Grechko, - I would ask all of you to think about the following. During all our demonstrations of power, in addition to the number of troops and their training, it would be nice to demonstrate something previously unheard of, stunning and amazing. If any of you, comrade generals, have any original idea, I ask you to immediately contact me or the Chief of the General Staff. I ask you in advance not to propose increasing the number of tanks, guns and aircraft, there will be so many of them that you cannot even imagine - we will collect everything that is and show it. We should not, of course, offer to show the latest technology, everything that is possible - we will show everything: the BMP, the T-64, the MiG-23, and the MiG-25, and perhaps all experimental machines; it is, of course, dangerous, but it must be shown. I repeat that we need an original idea of something unusual.
All present interpreted the last words of the Minister of Defense as a promise of a high reward for an original idea. And so it was. And the military thought started working. Just what can you think of, besides quantity and quality?
And yet the original idea was found. It belonged to Colonel General Ogarkov, a former engineer of the sapper troops.
Ogarkov proposed not only to demonstrate the might of the army, but also to show that all this might firmly rests on the granite foundation of an equally powerful rear and military industry. He, of course, was not going to disclose the entire supply system, it was not necessary. To convince guests of his wealth, the owner of the house does not have to show all his treasures, it is enough to show one genuine painting by Rembrandt.
Ogarkov also wanted to show only one element, but quite convincing. According to his plan, it was necessary in a record time, in one hour, for example, to build a railway bridge across the Dnieper and to send railway trains loaded with military equipment and columns of tanks along it. Such a bridge would not only symbolize the power of the rear, but also clearly demonstrate to Europe that no Rhine will save it.
Ogarkov's idea was greeted with enthusiasm at the Ministry of Defense and at the General Staff. This was exactly what was required. Of course, the Soviet Army did not have such a bridge, and there was very little time left before the start of the exercises.
This, however, did not bother anyone - most importantly, the desired idea was found. Colonel General Ogarkov was endowed with absolute powers, no less than the General Designer before the launch of the first cosmonaut. Ogarkov himself is not only a brilliant erudite and an experienced bridge engineer, he is also an unprecedentedly demanding and strong-willed commander, like only Zhukov before him. This, of course, made the task easier. All research institutions of the engineering and railway troops, as well as all industrial enterprises producing army engineering equipment, were transferred under his direct supervision. At these factories, all production was stopped in anticipation of the moment when the order would come in to produce something unprecedented.
Meanwhile, while the designers were making the first sketches and sketches of the future bridge, which was to be used only once, the selection of the youngest, healthiest and strongest officers, as well as the most competent and experienced engineers, began in the railway and engineering troops.
In addition, competitions were held among graduate cadets, almost already officers, of the railway and engineering schools of the Soviet Army. Thousands of the best officers and graduate cadets were dressed in soldiers' uniforms and gathered from all over the Union to Kiev.
The 1st Guards Railway Bridge Building Division was formed here. Until it was clear what the bridge would be like, the division began an unprecedentedly hard training - whatever the bridge was, and everyone who would assemble it should work like acrobats under a circus dome.
In the meantime, the idea of a super speed rail bridge assembly continued to develop and deepen. It was proposed, immediately after the completion of the assembly, to pass the track-laying device and several echelons with rails through it and at the same high-speed pace to lay a section of the railway line on the right bank, and only after that to start the echelons with troops and military equipment across the bridge.
This idea was also accepted and approved. Meanwhile, all the design bureaus, which independently developed the bridge, stated that it was impossible to build a floating bridge even with a carrying capacity of 1,500 tons in such a short time.
Ogarkov boiled over. His reputation and future were at stake. He responded quickly and accurately. First, he turned to the Central Committee and obtained assurances that the designer, who nevertheless managed to create such a bridge, would be awarded the Lenin Prize.
Secondly, he gathered all the designers for a meeting and, having informed them of the Central Committee's decision, offered to discuss all the details again. At this meeting, the possibility of ferrying the track layer and trains with rails was rejected. It was also decided not to transport the convoys of tanks at the same time as the railway echelons. In addition, it was decided to ferry all the cars only empty, and next to the train not to let a column of tanks, but a column of trucks, also empty.
There was only one problem: how to transport a locomotive weighing 300 tons. Naturally, the idea arose to reduce the weight of the locomotive as much as possible. Two locomotives, the main and the backup, were urgently redesigned. All steel parts were replaced with aluminum ones. Steam boilers and furnaces were replaced. The steam locomotive tenders were completely empty, no coal, no water, only a very small barrel of extremely high-calorie fuel, perhaps aviation gasoline or kerosene.
And time flew by like never before. The bridge project was completed right at the factory. Most of the officers of the 1st Guards Railway were sent there to the factories to get acquainted with its design directly during manufacture.
The factories, which had not been operating for several months before the project, were transferred to the military regime. 24 hours of work out of 24. All the workers received huge sums of money, and they all were promised, if they succeed in time, unprecedented bonuses personally from the Minister of Defense.
The first elements of the bridge entered the division in the meantime, and training began. Each week more bridge elements arrived, and with each practice assembly it got longer and longer. Theoretical calculations showed that it had to withstand an empty train.
Of course, no one knew how it would be in practice. The most dangerous thing was that with a strong deflection of the bridge under the locomotive, the train could overturn into the water. Crews of locomotives and car drivers, disguised officers of the automobile forces, who were to move across the bridge at the same time as the echelon, began hastily to learn how to use the life-saving appliances that are used by tankers when driving underwater.
It was impossible to give them practical training in crossing the bridge - several elements of the bridge were still missing to connect the two banks.. On the day when the last two pontoons arrived in the division, the most powerful military maneuvers in the history of mankind began under the code name "Dnieper".
The railway floating bridge across the Dnieper was built in record time, and when the last piles were driven on the right bank, a locomotive smoothly entered the bridge from the left bank and slowly pulled a long train. Simultaneously with the echelon, a column of military vehicles entered the bridge.
Party and government leaders and numerous foreign guests who watched the construction of the giant bridge simply did not expect that it was being built for railroad communication, and when the locomotive stepped onto the bridge, they applauded in unison on the government platform.
As the locomotive moved further and further away from the coast, the deflection of the bridge beneath it increased alarmingly. Heavy slow waves went from the deflection of the bridge to the two banks of the river and, reflected from the banks, returned to the bridge, smoothly pumping it from side to side. Three figures of frightened machinists instantly appeared on the roof of the locomotive.
Until then, none of the foreign guests paid attention to the strange fact that there was no smoke above the locomotive chimney, but the appearance of the drivers on the roof was immediately noticed by everyone and was greeted with condescending smiles. Subsequently, these frightened drivers were skillfully removed from all the photographs and films about the famous crossing, but at that moment the authority had to be saved. The most risky trick could turn into a comedy. Meanwhile, the locomotive, slowly swaying with the drivers on the roof, continued its difficult journey.
- Who's that on the roof? - Marshal Grechko hissed through clenched teeth. Soviet marshals and generals fell silent. Colonel-General Ogarkov stepped forward and rapped out loudly: - Comrade Marshal of the Soviet Union! We have comprehensively taken into account the experience of the recent Arab-Israeli war, where aviation played a decisive role. We are taking measures to protect rear communications from enemy air raids. In case of war on each locomotive, we plan to have, in addition to drivers, three additional people with automatic Strela-2 anti-aircraft grenade launchers. The grenade launcher has not yet entered service with the troops, but we have already started training calculations. Now the drivers are inside the cabin of the locomotive, and the anti-aircraft crew is from above: watching the air.
The foreign guests were struck by the promptness of the Soviet General Staff and the lightning-fast reaction to all changes in the practice of warfare. And the Minister of Defense was struck by Ogarkov's ability to lie so quickly, convincingly, beautifully and in time without batting an eye.
Immediately after the Dnepr exercises, the famous bridge was sent to be melted down, and the bridge-building division was disbanded as unnecessary. All participants in the creation and construction of the bridge were generously rewarded. And Colonel-General Ogarkov was instructed to continue to lead such operations.
This is how the Main Directorate of Strategic Concealment was born. The first head of this powerful organization, Colonel-General Ogarkov, received the fourth star a few months later and became an army general.
The GUSM subordinated itself first to the military, and then to the state censorship, and then to most of the organizations and institutions that produce false information. Further, the tentacles of the GUSM reached out to all the organs of the army: how do you hide the real state of affairs from the enemy? And then Ogarkov's paw reached out to the military industry. And our industry is practically all military. If you want to build a plant, first prove that you managed to hide its real purpose from the foe. So the ministers reached out to Nikolai Vasilyevich for a signature. And the power of the GUSM was growing. Is there anything in our life that we shouldn't hide? Is there an area in our life in which the enemy should not be fooled? There are no such areas. How much vodka has been released, how many suicides in the country, how many people in prisons - all these are state secrets, and in every issue you need to hide, trick, rearrange everything topsy-turvy. And Nikolai Vasilyevich is the chief controller of these problems. He does not give life to others and works by the sweat of his brow. It is necessary to deceive the Americans in strategic negotiations, Nikolai Vasilyevich sends his first deputy - Colonel General Trusov. And how it came to signing - he himself entered the delegation. He worked well, deceived the gullible American president. Nikolai Vasilievich - praise and honor: the rank of marshal and the post of chief of the General Staff. Heather Nikolai Vasilievich. It will go far … if the rivals do not devour.
Have you read it? Attentively?
Who, after reading these accusatory lines. the heart will not inflame with anger towards all these fraudsters in stripes, towards their evil, sophisticated desire to destroy the entire free world, towards the general's show. And in general to a totalitarian socialist regime.
But nothing alarmed you in this chapter? Well, at least the fact that Rezun writes about this meeting, and about the subsequent stormy activities of General Ogarkov, as if he was with him all the time? He sat and carefully took notes on everything said by the Minister of Defense and other generals.
No?
Let's read it more closely.
Well, let's forgive Mr. Rezun a blunder regarding Ogarkov's rank. At the time described in the book, Ogarkov was the commander of the Volga Military District with the rank of lieutenant general. He will receive the rank of colonel-general (and not army general) only on October 25, 1967). Let's attribute this simply to the author's inattention. And this is unimportant.
As well as the fact that Ogarkov in 1968 will not be appointed the head of the mythical "Main Directorate of Strategic Camouflage", but only the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, which can hardly be called a promotion.
Whether it is to be the number one figure in Kuibyshev, or the number three figure in Moscow. And in general, and any senior officer will confirm this, that the commander of the district is a figure as significant as the chief of the General Staff, if not the minister of defense. And in some ways and higher.
But regarding the pontoon railway bridge across the Dnieper, which, according to Rezun, Ogarkov proposed to build within an hour during the 1967 exercises …
Here is Rezun lying big.
Lies artistically, inspiringly and very convincingly. At the level of filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov with his "The Barber of Siberia" (though he does not try to appropriate the role of a historian, but openly says that he creates purely artistic works on a historical canvas).
But Rezunov's novel makes an impression on those who are completely unfamiliar with bridges, with their construction, do not know what the carrying capacity of a bridge is and other terms that any engineer can easily use.
But Rezun is lying, lying is completely ignorant. And if you write the truth, even without being a specialist in the field of bridge construction, then it is simply impossible to give out the pearls of illiteracy.
Any bridge builder, having come to the words "… a floating bridge even with a carrying capacity of 1,500 tons …" will raise an eyebrow in amazement. Railway bridges of such a carrying capacity, even on rigid supports, do not exist in the world at all. And there is no need for this. It is enough to look at SNiPs for the construction of bridges. Having loaded the search engines Google and Rambler, I did not find bridges of such carrying capacity at all.
If the train weighs 1,500 tons, this does not mean that the bridge at each of its points must withstand 1,500 tons. The weight of the train is distributed over several hundred meters. The bridge is required to withstand the load on the bridge span and two or three adjacent supports. Those. a very small part of the total weight of the composition. And this is from one to several platforms. For example, if the span is equal in length to two platforms, then the span itself and two supports must support the weight of these two platforms and the load on them. And nothing more. The weight of other platforms will also support adjacent spans and supports.
Well, or an even simpler explanation. Here lies a chain 100 meters long on the ground. And it weighs 1 ton. Can you lift part of it anywhere? Yes, without difficulty! There are only 10 kilograms per meter of chain. So is the train. It is not a rigid beam weighing 1,500 tons, but a kind of chain.
Just as 100 people will easily hold a 100-meter, thousand-kilogram chain suspended, so the bridge will hold the composition of any mass.
You know, this is even the level of a school physics course. You don't even need to be a bridge builder to understand this. You just need to be a thinking person.
And where did Rezun get the weight of the locomotive 300 tons? None of the Soviet diesel locomotives weighed more than 131 tons. Electric locomotive? Yes, these will be heavier. The heaviest and most widespread VL-10 is 184 tons. But not three hundred tons !. Where did Rezun find such heavy locomotives? Locomotives? But the heaviest P 38 weighed 214 tons. All other domestic mainline steam locomotives from 100 to 180 tons.
And somehow, by the year 67, steam locomotives in the country had already disappeared from the railway. In this regard, the USSR (and not only in the field of rockets and ballet) was ahead of developed and enlightened Europe. Mostly diesel and electric locomotives were used.
O. Izmerov in his website parovoz.com/semafor/2004-06d-print.pdf writes that in 1967 92, 4 percent of all railway transportation was carried out by diesel and electric locomotives, and the production of steam locomotives was discontinued 10 years ago. Where did Rezun manage to find a steam locomotive to cross the bridge? Obviously in my fantasy. Or looking at "the world's most advanced European railways", where there were still many steam locomotives running.
And Rezun obviously does not know that from the locomotive pipe, most of all, not smoke, but spent steam, is emitted. In any case, steam is much more noticeable than smoke. If a steam locomotive pulls the train, then it simply cannot but spew beautiful white steam from the pipe. Only smoke from a locomotive pipe without steam can go only in one case - if its machine is not working and the locomotive is standing or rolling by inertia.
Maybe I am mistaken, and the exhaust steam from the cylinders of the steam engine is not thrown into the chimney, but somehow otherwise? But then Wikipedia is lying. Here is what is said in the article "The device of a steam locomotive" (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wik)
".. The cone device releases exhaust steam into the chimney, creating a draft in the furnace. In some steam locomotives, the size of the opening of the cone device could change, correspondingly changing the draft. powered by a steam turbine ….."
Well, or here is a whole site called "The device of a steam locomotive", which says: "To create the traction necessary for intensive combustion, the steam that drives the car, after passing through the cylinders, is also discharged into the chimney …", is it also deceiving us?
And the ejection of steam from the pipe during the operation of the steam locomotive does not depend on what the water in the boiler is heated by - coal, wood, peat or kerosene. And the absence of water in a steam locomotive's tender is as absurd as the absence of kerosene in the tanks of a liner taking off. There will be no water, and the steam engine will not work either.
Obviously, our beacon of military history and technology has only seen steam locomotives, but does not know their design and principle of operation.
And "Strela-2" was never listed as a grenade launcher. This MANPADS (portable anti-aircraft missile system).
And why drive piles for the bridge, and even on the shore, if the bridge is a pontoon?
No Guards bridge-building divisions have ever existed in the Soviet Army. Even temporarily. Guards ranks to formations, yes, I know that ignorance, were assigned only during the war in 1941-45.
And no other army in the world required so many personnel for any bridges.
Your humble servant studied at the Kaliningrad Higher Military Engineering School in 1967 (2nd year, 1st battalion of Lieutenant Colonel Kolomatsky, 2nd company of Major Suturin, 2nd platoon of Lieutenant Martynov). There were only two military engineering schools in the country - in Kaliningrad and in Tyumen. Moreover, Kamyanets-Podolsk had just opened (only the first course was recruited there in 1967). I can swear by oath that not a single cadet of the Kaliningrad School took part in the Dnepr exercises. The departure of an entire course for the rest of the cadets could not have gone unnoticed.
And in both military engineering schools there were only 240 graduate cadets in Kaliningrad and 300 in Tyumen. There is not enough for a good battalion. Railway schools? Well, there was such a school in Leningrad. One thing. Where did Rezun manage to recruit several thousand cadets-graduates of engineering and railway schools?
Well, okay, all this can be attributed to my petty pickiness and the desire to catch Rezun on inaccuracies. Although … one little lie, another … So the big one is built. Malicious.
But regarding the pontoon railway bridge itself, Rezun lies in the most shameless and obscene manner, surpassing Baron Munchausen himself in "truthfulness".
So did the story described by Rezun take place or not? Judge for yourself.
Below I give a brief description of the floating railway bridge that took part in the Dnepr exercise in 1967. He and no other.
So.
Pontoon park PPS (aka NZHM-56) began to be developed in 1946 (and not in 1967, as Rezun claims) in Nizhny Novgorod at a shipyard by a team of designers: A. A. Dryakhlov, N. A. Kudryavtseva, M. P. Laptev, V. I. Sheludyakov, G. D. Korchin, E. M. Durasov, I. A. Dychko, G. F. Piskunov, L. M. Naydenov, G. P. Kuzin, M. Dolgova, Z. A. Smirnova, L. A. Petrova, E. L. Shevchenko, P. Andrianova.
Project manager, chief designer of the plant M. N. Burdastov, lead designer of the project M. I. Shchukin.
Military engineers V. I. Asev, B. C. Osipov, A. V. Karpov and I. V. Borisov.
The park was intended to equip bridge and ferry crossings of standard (60 tons) and large (200 tons) carrying capacity across wide water barriers. He ensured the crossing of all military equipment and railroad cargo.
According to its fundamental decision, the PPS park did not differ from all previously existing floating bridges and was made in the form of a bridge on separate floating supports (pontoons) with improved contours in the bow and stern ends.
The floating supports were six-section collapsible pontoons, each of which consisted of a bow, four middle and aft sections. The aft section housed a ZIL-120SR engine (75 hp) with a corresponding transmission.
When assembling, the sections were interconnected by quick-coupled couplings. The connection between the stern and the middle section was made by articulated, which made it possible to maintain a constant deepening of the propeller.
The pontoons were connected to each other by a superstructure in the form of trusses assembled from separate sections with quick-coupled joints.
On top of the trusses, decking boards or a rail structure were laid and fixed.
The material part of the fleet was transported in ZIL-157 (later ZIL-131) vehicles equipped with special platforms, which were mounted on a chassis in pontoon units by troops.
The kit included: bow, middle and stern sections of pontoons, truss sections, crossbeams, deck boards and rail beams. All this was transported on pontoon, overhead, assembly, entry, ferry and rail vehicles. The kit also included: a speedboat, tugboats, truck cranes, accessories and spare parts.
To assemble a pontoon bridge from a complete set of the park, it was necessary to calculate pontooners - about 700 people.
From the author. 700 people, this is actually a battalion, but taking into account the driver's staff, various support units (remrota, logistics company, reconnaissance platoon, headquarters, etc.), it turns out a regiment. Pontoon bridge regiment. But not a division, as Rezun lies. The division is 12-16 thousand people.
The PPS fleet was transported by land on specially equipped vehicles ZiS-151 (later ZiL-157), unloaded from cars and assembled by pontoons and drivers into ferries and floating bridges (including railway ones) using mechanical winches of cars, steel cable systems and roller tables.
The park was tested in the first half of the fifties on the Oka River near the city of Murom.
For those who are especially distrustful, I list the numbers of patents that protected the PPS park:
1. №143 / 6986/8735 - "Pontoon park PPS", authors: M. I. Shchukin, M. N. Burdastov, E. Ya. Slonim, B. S. Levitin, B. C. Osipov, V. I. Asev, S. A. Ilyasevich, A. L. Pakhomov, V. I. Sheludyakov, V. I. Kharitonov;
2. No. 151/7990 - "Self-propelled pontoons of the PPS fleet of a complete corrugated structure", authors: M. I. Shchukin, A. G. Shishkov;
3.№152 / 8643 - "Remote control of the propeller-driven group of object 140", authors: M. I. Shchukin, M. N. Burdastov;
4.№147 / 8642 - "Anchor and mooring device of the bow section of object 140", author M. I. Shchukin;
5. No. 149/7941 - "Adaptation to car winches to ensure the independence of the operation of cables", author M. I. Shchukin;
6.№36 / 8641 - "Installation of an annular nozzle on the propeller", author M. I. Shchukin.
From the author. I don't know, maybe Rezun is so brilliant technically that he can design a completely new tank or pontoon park from scratch in a week, but in general, pontoon bridges have been designed for several years. The famous PMP park began to be designed in 1947, and they began to enter the army only in 1962. The PPS Park in 1946, and was adopted in 1957.
So, ten years later, by 1967, it was far from new, and the General Staff knew this bridge very well. Consequently, Ogarkov's sensational proposal described in the book is nothing more than Rezun's fantasies.
By the way, even before the war, the Red Army was armed with the SP-19 railway pontoon bridge, which by 1946 was considered obsolete and was given an assignment to develop a new model.
I don’t know how many PPS regiments were in the Soviet Army. I know for sure about the shelves in the city of Reni on the Danube and in Krasnaya Rechka on the outskirts of the city of Khabarovsk on the Amur. I had a chance to visit the last regiment a couple of times. I saw the work of this park during an exercise on the Zeya River near the Sredne-Belaya station in August 1973. True, they did not build a bridge there, but provided an evacuation service with the help of their ferries.
And finally, the tactical and technical characteristics of the PPS fleet.
1. The carrying capacity of floating bridges is 50 tons or 200 tons.
2. The length of the bridge from the full set of the park
- 50-ton 790 meters, - 200-ton 465 meters, 3. From the set of the fleet you can assemble the following ferries:
60-ton - 16 ferries, 200 tonnes - 6 ferries.
4. The width of the roadway of the bridge is 6 meters.
5. Bridge pickup time:
for tracked and wheeled vehicles - 4.5 -5 hours.
for trains - 7-7.5 hours.
6. The maximum permissible speed of the current is 3 m / s.
7. Maximum wave height 1.5 meters.
8. Number of vehicles for transporting the fleet (ZiS-151) - 480
P. S. Of course, with the advent of the PMP park, the brilliance of the PPP has faded. By the way, he also had the designation NZHM-56. And over time, railway pontoon bridges were developed on the basis of the PMP park. One of the latest MLZH-VT.
P. P. S. But what I found on the site parovoz.com/semafor/2004-06d-print.pdf
Fokine writes: FLOATING BRIDGES FOR THE CONTRACT OF WARSAW
If you look closely at the map of Poland, then in the area of the large junction station Demblin, located at the intersection of the lines Warsaw-Lublin and Lukov-Radom, there are two bridges over the Vistula and Vepsh rivers. Bridges, especially across the Vistula, were large strategic objects during the Warsaw Pact, and relations with the West were not always warm at that time.
To duplicate the bridge and quickly restore communication in the event of its destruction, an interesting object was built in the area of the city of Pulawy, located between Demblin and Lublin. The topographic map of this area clearly shows that a railway line departs from the Lukov-Radom line between the stations of Demblin and Pienki in a southeast direction and opposite Pulaw turns to the Vistula, abutting against it. On the opposite side of the river, the line continues and joins the Warsaw-Lublin line at Puławy.
The thought suggests itself that there was once a bridge here. But the bridge … was not there! The lines were brought from both sides to the Vistula, and went down to the very bank. And across the Vistula, if necessary, a pontoon bridge was built; the pontoons lay in the immediate vicinity of the river. At least once, during the exercise, such a bridge was built, and a train with loaded gondola cars passed through it. Directly on the bank of the river, there are two pillars that were used to fasten the bridge. (This is how pontoon bridges should be built, Mr. Suvorov! See pp. 32-34. - Ed.) Times have changed, the Warsaw Pact is no longer there, Poland is in NATO, the bridge pontoons were taken away, and the approaches to the Vistula remained, although partially disassembled.
D. Fokin (Moscow)
Literature
1. Site "Little Web" (smallweb.ru/library/viktor_suvorov/viktor_suvorov-osvoboditel.htm)
2. SNiP.05.03-84.
3. Site "Courage" (otvaga2004.narod.ru/index.htm)
4. Pontoon park special PPS. Book 1. The material part of the park. Military publishing house of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
Moscow. 1959
5. Magazine "Supernova Reality". No. 2-2007
6. Site parovoz.com/semafor/2004-06d-print.pdf
7. Site "Wikipedia". The article "The device of a steam locomotive" (ru.wikipedia.org/wiki)
8. Site "The device of a steam locomotive". (www.train-deport.by.ru/bibliotec/parovoz/ustroystvo1.htm).
9. Magazine "Technics and weapons" No. 7-2001.
