Today, when the development of science and technology has reached such a level that an effective armored car can be made from an ordinary truck, and a mobile artillery or rocket launcher from an ordinary pickup (even the term "pickup war" has appeared) it is interesting to see, but what about the fantasy of designers who created similar combat vehicles, this was the case before. Well, for example, who was the first to think of placing artillery pieces in the bodies of off-road vehicles and thereby turn them into effective artillery installations?
"Luffley" 15ТСС with a camouflage of branches.
From a retrospective point of view, the closest to this direction in the interval between the two world wars were … the French, which was the result of an active policy of motorization, which was pursued by the French army. However, work in this area was carried out in all the then economically developed countries, where a wide variety of cars were created and immediately put into service. Well, the most interesting designs were created in France, the USSR and Germany.
Luffley W 15T as an infantry transporter.
Interestingly, immediately after the end of the First World War, the French focused their main attention on wheeled-tracked and three-axle (with the 6x4 formula) cars for mass production, but in subsequent years, the main attention was directed to the design of four-wheel drive vehicles (4x4 and 6x6 formulas) … By this time, new joints for cardan drives and several new types of independent suspensions had been mastered in production. The "technological breakthrough" in this area gave the designers the illusion of a truly unlimited perspective for the automotive industry, and they began to create ever more ingenious and unusual designs.
SPG prototype on Luffley chassis.
Especially in this direction, as already noted, German and French engineers were zealous. But if German firms carried out orders from the state, then French companies developed promising army all-terrain vehicles on their own, and the army men chose what they liked from the ready-made. One such firm, Luffley, on the Asnerres suburb of Paris, also participated in the development of new machines, not in the least embarrassed by the weakness of its manufacturing base. Meanwhile, the company was so small that it did not even have its own production of engines and was forced to buy them from Peugeot and Hotchkiss. But she has no ambitions from this
decreased!
SPG prototype on Luffley chassis in characteristic camouflage.
Since 1935, it has been organizing the production of several two- and three-axle military vehicles, unified with each other in design and in basic units. And of course, all these cars had a proprietary appearance, inherent only in the products of this company. For example, the wheels were of large diameter (230x40 tires), with a "proprietary" tread pattern and were installed on them with significant camber. The engine hood was long and protruded far forward. The cockpit had only a tent cover. To increase cross-country ability on the ground, the car received two more pairs of small wheels: one on the bumper under the headlights, and on the frame under the driver's cab itself.
All cars of the Luffley family were powered by four-cylinder Hotchkiss engines (Model 486, 52 hp). The cars were equipped with a four-speed gearbox, a two-speed range, a mechanical brake drive, and a separate drive for each wheel from a separate propeller shaft (!), And an independent wheel suspension on coil springs. On three-axle models, semi-elliptical springs were also placed at the back.
From 1935 to 1938, the Luffley and Hotchkiss firms jointly produced 100 two-axle and 411 three-axle vehicles V15T (4x4) and S15T (6x6) for the French army. But it seemed to military experts that the three-axle S15T was too tall and therefore noticeable. Therefore, before the outbreak of World War II, the Ground Forces ordered a modification of the W15T from the Hotchkiss company, with a lower body for use as a light artillery tractor. This car had a base of 1845x1000 mm and dimensions of 4500x1850 mm (while the height of the base model was 2450 mm), and weighed 3 tons.
The W15T was supposed to carry a 47 mm anti-tank gun and its crew. At the same time, the driver of the car was on the right, the commander was on the left, and four soldiers were placed in the back - the calculation of the gun, sitting opposite each other, to the right and left of the seats, in which there were boxes for ammunition and equipment.
Installation of a 25 mm anti-tank gun in the back.
With the outbreak of war, the army demanded an increase in the production of these machines to 1,120 copies. Firm "Hotchkiss", which could not cope with such a load, gave part of the order - 500 W15T - to the firm "Citroen". Until the end of hostilities in France, she was able to produce only about 100 vehicles in the configuration "Tractor for a 25-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun" and that's it.
The Hotchkiss factories built 80 machines. But the military wanted to give the 47-mm cannon even more mobility, and for this they put it on the chassis of this car! A prototype "Luffley" 15ТСС of a very strange design was built, in which an armored wheelhouse without a roof was mounted in place of the body, and a 47-mm anti-tank gun SA35 mod. 1937, barrel directed backwards. This layout was explained by the tactics of use, because anti-tank guns do not so much attack as they defend themselves from enemy tanks and, having inflicted losses on them, quickly retreat. At the same time, the weight of this wheeled self-propelled gun turned out to be more than six tons.
The "tank hunter" project was approved, but at the request of the military, it was significantly reworked and simplified. The gun was placed on a swivel base, shifted from the auto axis to the right, which allowed it to have a horizontal firing radius of 70 degrees. The armored jacket was replaced with the standard armor shield for the 47-mm gun and additional armored shields on the left and right, the armored doors were removed, and the walls were lowered to the level of mud guards. But instead of the windshield, there was now an armor plate with two narrow, horizontally located, viewing slots. Above the driver's and commander's seats, a roof made of steel sheet welded onto a frame made of an L-shaped channel was also installed. In addition, the installation received a 7.5 mm FM-24 machine gun. In general, the car had some kind of "unfinished" appearance, more of an adhered improvisation of some illegal gang, made in the garage, than a serial army car. The vehicle itself was taller than a 47mm gun and was more difficult to camouflage in position. And the lack of armor turned it into an easy prey for armored vehicles, because sometimes one bullet was enough to damage its radiator!
On May 24, 1940, the first 10 batteries of the new 15ТСС self-propelled anti-tank installations were finally formed. Each of the units consisted of five "tank hunters", a V15R headquarters all-terrain vehicle, an S25T tractor and two Unic TU1 half-track vehicles for ammunition delivery. All in all, by June 17, 1940, the French army had at its disposal 14 batteries of self-propelled guns of the Luffley company.
With the beginning of the war, batteries of self-propelled guns "Luffley" were transferred to the area of Abbeville, in order with their help to close the gap on the front, which was formed after the successful battle of the Germans for this city. In these battles, most of the machines were lost, and the rest fought on the Loire, where they tried to hold back the flow of German tanks rushing to the south of France. Some of them, of course, fell into the hands of the Germans. But since there is no data on their use in the Wehrmacht, it is obvious that they were not considered valuable in combat terms. True, in the reports of the officers who fought in these vehicles, you can read that they managed to knock out German tanks from a distance of 2000 m, but … they could not stop the German tanks!
But … the clever idea of the French designers to create an "artillery cart" on the basis of an all-wheel drive car was not in vain. The British, apparently, having familiarized themselves with the French project, already during the war years created more powerful "tank hunters" also on an automobile chassis. Moreover, the British anti-tank self-propelled guns "Deacon" proved to be excellent in the course of hostilities in North Africa.
Rice. A. Shepsa
